One Day in Florence, Italy

Our two week Italian Adventure began in Florence. The travel gods were smiling on us, we landed early and made it through immigration and got our bags easily. We made our way to Roma Termini for our train to Florence. It is easy to get from the airport to Roma Termini via an express train. When we got to the train station we were hours early for our train, so we decided to head to Florence earlier vs. sitting in the train station. It did mean purchasing new tickets because ours weren’t exchangeable. It was so worth it and we realized after our time in Florence that we didn’t have enough time there.

We arrived at our hotel and our room was ready! We highly recommend Hotel Spadai. It is in the perfect location! Close to shopping, Dumo, and great restaurants. Here is a picture that the hotel posted on their on Facebook page of their aperitif everyday. Don’t know why I didn’t take any photos. LOL! Every recommendation that the hotel gave of places to eat and things to do, was perfect.

Food in Florence

Osteria dell Oca

After getting settled in our room, we headed out to explore and have our first meal in Italy! We found a cute place and had yummy food. Osteria dell Oca was perfect for our first meal and to figure out our plan for the afternoon. We enjoyed our first bottle of Prosecco and learned the ones that are best have DOCG on them.

Enoteca Alessi

We love exploring places with no plans. That was when we found Enoteca Alessi. It was an amazing afternoon and we highly recommend visiting if in Florence. We tried their flight of white wine and loved the prosecco. We learned that we are not a fan of all Italian white wines. This is where we found what we liked and didn’t. Also, we fell in love with Italian olive oil. While we were there, two Americans came in and started raving about their balsamic vinegar. So, we did an unexpected balsamic tasting. It was amazing and I had no idea the differences. Thank you Antonella for a great time!

Le Fonticine

With a recommendation from the hotel we we went to Le Fonticine. We had an amazing lunch after our shopping. We were the only tourists (from what we could tell) in the restaurant. When we sat down it was empty, but filled up as we were leaving. That was theme of the trip, since Americans eat early. You will notice a theme on this trip, eggplant parmaigena! You know it will be good when you order it and are told it will take 30 minutes to prepare. It was yummy!

Trattoria 4 Leoni

Dinner outside in November! It was a little chilly, but the waiter brought us cozy blankets when we sat down. Trattoria 4 Leoni was across the river and in the Piazza della Passera area of Florence. We will need to explore this area when we go back!

Sights in Florence

The Duomo in Florence was the one thing that I wanted to visit. It is an amazing Cathedral. It was formally called Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is Gothic style and beautiful at all times of the day. One the first night after dinner we found a bar to enjoy a glass of wine and the beauty of the Duomo. Since we were there in November, the line to enter wasn’t long and moved quickly.

Walking around an exploring a city is one of our favorite things to do. Here are some of the photos from our wanderings!

Shopping in Florence

Shopping in Florence was one of the things we were looking forward too. The area is known for their leather and craftsmanship. We walked the area with the vendors, but we didn’t want to buy what everyone was buying. All the vendors had the same items. We found a great store Donatello Firenze and ended up going there twice for gifts. We did a majority of our shopping on the first day, which we laugh at because we had to carry it for the next two weeks during our Italian Adventure.

To view more of these photos head to my photography gallery. All photos are the property of Travel with Laughter and written permission to us must be given to use.