Florence | Family Europe Holiday | Itinerary
Firenze
After a long drive we finally arrived in Florence. One of my favourite places in Italy. We checked into our apartment at Palazzo Mannaioni Suites. Which was spacious and had a few cooking facilities ( enough to make a good breakfast) .
When we arrived we headed in to the town to explore. We have been to Florence quite a lot and have seen all the typical tourist attractions a couple of times now so we were looking forward to taking it slow placed and just enjoying the town.
We headed to the Lindt cafe because it was one of the number one things Summer wanted to do. We enjoyed mini ice chocolate frappes and sampled some of the flavoured chocolate.
Next on our list was heading to the famous All’Antico Vinaio which is a panini store. It has risen in popularity through social media and so I was keen to try out their famous sandwiches. They are really affordable and absolutely massive. There is tones of flavours to choose from. We really loved it! We then headed to in my opinion the best gelato in all of Italy. Gelateria del Neri. You know it’s good when there is a long line.
note if you a planning a trip to Florence another great panini shop is “Pinos Paninis” they are meant to be amazing too. There is also Boar paninis which we had on our first trip to Florence and these are so delicious.
Day 2
On day 2 we set out to explore the leather markets of Florence. One of my favourite things to do in Florence is shop for leather products. You can find leather stores all over Florence but we head to The San Lorenzo Market. Here you can shop, barter and hunt down some beautiful leather products and the street has so many vendors and options. It is also next to the Mercato Centrale food market which if you head to the top level has a really amazing and affordable food court. Perfect for a lunch break! After we were all shopped out we needed an aperol break.
That afternoon we went for a walk to Palazzo Michelangelo. On the way up we walked through the beautiful rose garden. This is a great spot for people watching in the Summer and taking a few happy snaps.
Palazzo Michelangelo is a must see when you come to Florence. The view over looks all of Florence and its stunning brown and cream town. On our way back to our hotel we browsed through the Ponte Vecchio a small bridge filled with little stores of high end jewellers and gold merchants.
Another fun stop in Florence is checking out the Buchetta del Vino - Wine windows. All through Florence you can find these sweet little windows where you can purchase wine. They have been running wine windows in Florence for hundreds of years. It was a way for locals to sell wine without opening a store and to avoid paying taxes. They were also used during pandemics to avoid shop keepers getting sick. Now days tourists in the afternoons you will see many people purchasing classes of wine and aperol through this tiny window and enjoying their drinks on the sidewalks.
Day 3.
We woke up early to have a sunrise family session with Olga a Florence based photographer. It is a tradition that we have family photos every time we head to Florence. We had such a great morning capturing lots of memories. Later that day we headed to the Leonardo De Vinci museum where we spent a few hours playing with mock versions of his inventions. The kids really loved this and so did we actually. It was lovely to do something a bit different. It was a great kid friendly activity.
For lunch we indulged in another panini.
Day 4.
We headed to the oldest pharmacy in the world. The Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy. This was somewhere we hadn’t been on any of our previous trips but I would highly recommend it to anyone heading to Florence. It was absolutely beautiful and a wonderful place to grab gifts for loved ones back home. The pharmacy is huge and the ceilings are beautiful painted, you can see all the old tools they used to use back in the day. Jesse brought me a beautiful bottle of Vanilla Perfume here and it is my absolute favourite and I am dreading the bottle coming to an end.
Day 5.
We headed out in the car to visit a few of our favourite Tuscan towns on this day. We started off in Siena. If you have been to Italy before you would know of GROM a popular gelato chain so we had to stop by when we walked passed a store. It started to rain and thunderstorm during our time in Siena followed by lots of hail. So while we waited for it all to pass we ate - of course.
After exploring a few towns we headed back to Florence and spent the afternoon cocktail in hand at Gilli while the girls enjoyed a ride on the Florence Carousel.
Our last night is Florence called for a traditional Florentine Steak. Shop around a bit for these lots of restaurants do these but they are quite expensive. We absolutely loved our from Ristorante Mamma Gina. highly recommend.
Day 6
On my last morning in Florence I captured a beautiful couple who were getting married in Florence later that year. They had travelled from the U.S and I loved taking their engagement photos around all the beautiful landmarks of Florence.
Next up we are off to Lucca and Cinque Terre.
