Flying visit to Florence
We stayed at the Pitti Palace hotel which is a traditional 4 four star hotel situated over the water on the entrance to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. After check in, we headed to our room and were pleasantly surprised to have been given a superior triple (room 215) which meant we had a double room with a single room attached and a bathroom between us - perfect for us three adults. It had a kettle and minibar (water 2 euros) so excellent value. It also had a small balcony, not much of a view (just to the street) but was nice to sit outside and take in the atmosphere.
In the evening, we headed to a local restaurant that we had pre-booked as we were arriving late and walked past a few others that were busy for a Sunday night! After a lovely meal, in an unusual restaurant that doubled as a cookery school and shop, we went off to bed so we went ready for our first day. Up early for breakfast on the 6th floor - what a view from there! We decided to take breakfast out on the terrace which was covered but gave a great view of the city. Breakfast consisted of a good selection of cold meats, cheeses, veg, fruit, breads, cereals, yoghurts, pastries and cakes, as well as eggs and bacon. Coffee and tea machines with fruit juices. They also had a fresh large honeycomb with local honey ready for you to spread on your bread, which was very popular.
Set up for the day we headed over the bridge to the city and took in the views. It was a 10min walk to the Duomo that was heaving with tourists. We wandered around took pictures of everything and explored the Piazza Della Signoria taking in the replica of the statue of David as well as a whole section of statues they did not know what to do with so put them there. The inside of the Palazzo Vecchio with some lovely drawings on the wall of other cities around the world - bit like the holiday snaps from years ago!
We then took the hotel's suggested walking tours that they had given us at check in on a little map. There were a choice of five different routings which were great as they took us down streets which we probably would not have explored, so we saw lots of the lesser known buildings and churches as well. The artwork in them was outstanding. We ended up in the Mercato Centrals building which is an inside two storey market place with an abundance of stalls selling everything and anything you can eat for you to purchase. The second storey has restaurants cooking all this food, the choice was amazing, you would definitely find something there to eat for sure!
That evening we had some drinks on the 6th floor terrace as the breakfast room converts into a popular dinner restaurant but we had booked a restaurant 10mins from our hotel with a view of the Arno river and spent a lovely evening listening to live Jazz whilst we ate food like it was going out of fashion. We finished our evening having a evening stroll around in the quiet taking in the views without anyone around. We made the right decision to stay this side of the city as there are less tourists more restaurants and bars where the locals hang out.
The following day we had pre-reserved tickets for the Uffizi Gallery. The queues were long but moved quickly but I recommend you book your time slot before leaving the UK. We spent a couple of hours wandering around there in the afternoon. We headed up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, bit of a trudge up there but the views were worth it before heading off for dinner in a square we had found around 15mins from our hotel down some little streets that was full of locals out for the evening meeting their friends, walking their dogs etc so away from the tourist trap restaurants. The pizzas were great and we enjoyed just chilling - I love to people to watch so was very happy. Late gelatos were calling so the other two went off to find some before we headed to bed.
Our return flight was booked for 14.00hrs the next day so there was just time after breakfast to have a quick couple of hours for a last wander around before our hotel organized us a taxi back to the airport for our flight home.
It was a lovely break - I would recommend a 2-3 nights stay. If you would like to go, please get in touch!