Gillian Knows Best Experience Florence

Slow down and avoid the crowds with these 8+ activities in Florence

Unless you are very new here you probably know how I feel about Florence.

But, I will always say yes to an invitation to visit. A few weeks ago Walks and Devour asked me to come and spend some time with them in the renaissance city.

Like Rome, Florence is crowded. I made you a list of super interesting things to do where you can slow down and spend some quality time with Florentines learning how to draw or cook or drink the best Tuscan wines. I also have resources for Florence trip planning or dreaming too.

Walks/Devour Florence tours

Florence is the perfect mid-point between Rome and Venice. It is just over 2 hours from Venice. In 24 hours I got to watch the closing of the door of the Duomo, eat bistecca Fiorentina, coccoli, and gelato, drink Chianti and watch the sunset from a bridge over the Arno. These are the tours that I took.¹

Alone in the Duomo

Bad news first. You are going to have to climb those narrow and steep 463 steps. Now the good news. After you reach the top (and have a quick look over the rooftops and hills of Florence) you go down a level and get to walk around the entire outside edge of Brunelleschi's improbable and spectacular dome along the Duomo terraces. With only the people in your group. Then you make your way back down (with plenty of time to see the largest painted fresco in the world painted by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari up close) to ground level inside the Duomo. Where you have the entire place to yourselves. At the end you follow the clavigero, key master, to the enormous carved wooden doors and watch him close up for the night.

Oltrarno at Sunset

We met our guide Lorenzo just in time to see a spectacular sunset from a bridge over the Arno. Then he led us through Piazza Santo Spirito and the streets of Oltarno pointing out how to spot an authentic wine door. We stopped at a cozy enoteca and drank glasses of peppery Chianti Classico and ate wedges of sharp pecorino. The final stop was a friendly trattoria where we ate pasta and a perfectly rare Bistecca Fiorentina. You definitely will not leave hungry. I was happy for the long walk home back across the river.

Tastes and Traditions of Florence

This is a great tour to start your trip to Florence with. We started with decadent buttery pastries and coffee (with a view of the colorful Lisa Corti shop.) and then moved onto the Sant'Ambrogio market where we had some fresh fruit before we moved onto wine and bread and salami. There were stops for more wine and fresh from the fryer coccoli, skip the line gelato and my favorite Florentine breakfast sandwich. One really terrific thing about this tour is at most of the stops you get to sit down and eat. If you don’t enjoy lots of standing this is the tour for you.

Draw or paint (with Tuscan wine)

Vincenzo Lodato is an Italian-American-Florentine. He offers painting and drawing workshops that range from a serious life drawing course to fun painting with wine or pastries afternoons.

The Tuscan food expert

judy witts francini

is the person I go to for anything Tuscan food related. She has lived in the region for decades, is married to a Tuscan and has even worked at the famous Dario xx butcher shop. She offers video classes and her website Divina Cucina has all kinds of recipes and guides. She offers the occasional market or weeklong tour but this year she is taking a quasi-sabbatical to write her memoir.

Gelato in Florence

Coral Sisk splits her time between the US and Florence with a little Bologna thrown there in as well. You can take a traditional food tour or a stroll completely dedicated to gelato. Coral can also organize trips to vineyards in the Tuscan countryside.

I haven’t done these two tours but they both sound like something I would love to do.

Marble paper workshop

The art of paper marbling has been practiced in Florence since the 1600s. You can learn some of the closely guarded techniques that create those colorful swoops and swirls with Francesca Vannini. She offers workshops in her studio in Santa Croce.

Make your own perfume

I try to always have a few bars of soap stashed away as emergency gifts from the famous perfume shop near the train station. While I researching things to do in Florence I found this perfume making workshop at L’Antica Erboristeria e Spezieria San Simone.

Florentine armchair travel

Can’t travel to Florence right now?

Add

The Florence Insider

to your reading list. Start with this art crime tale.

Private guide Alexandra Lawrence offers online classes covering topics like a guided reading of Dante’s masterpiece The Divine Comedy and Defining La Dolce Vita. Her newsletter

Illuminare

has a monthly book club with online discussions.

Florence trip planning

Did you know that my pal Elyssa who runs the incredibly useful website Romewise has recently expanded to Florence with Florencewise? She helps you will details like where to find the best rooftop bars and a great 3 day itinerary.

1. I was an invited guest by Walks and Devour. I don’t say yes to very many invitations and I will only tell you about things that I really really like.