Pro Tip: The Ponte Vecchio is the pedestrian bridge that connects the east and west side of Florence.  If you are seeing the city well, you’ll be crossing that bridge a number of times during your visit.  It has many stores on both sides of the bridge, all of them selling jewelry.  There is a section in the middle without shops so you can stop to take a photo of this iconic landmark.

Pro Tip:  Take your sandwich to go and walk to the Palazzo Vecchio where you can sit in the Piazza della Signoria on the steps and people watch.  You can check out the replica Michelangelo’s Statue of David and see if you can find the “Florentine Lilly” plaque along with the motto “Civibus Virtute et Fortuna” (To the citizens by virtue and fortune).  The plaque is embedded in the pavement and marks the spot where three Italian friars were executed by burning  in 1498.   One of the friar’s was Girolamo Savonarola best known for his efforts to cleanse the city of what he deemed to be sinful or immoral items. Known as the “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Savonarola and his followers collected and publicly burned a wide array of objects considered luxurious, frivolous, or contrary to Christian values.  You can also find a little bit of graffiti purportedly carved by Michelangelo himself, on the wall of the Palazzo behind the statue of Hercules.

Pro Tip:  With so many exceptional restaurants in Florence, and in Italy in general, people often ask me how we made our decision about where to eat.  We take into consideration a number of things.  For us and how we travel, one guideline is that we want the most authentic meal with local, fresh ingredients.  With that in mind, we would be very unlikely to eat at a restaurant that is in front of a major attraction.  Yes, there are plenty of restaurants ringing the duomo, but we prefer to find places off the beaten path a bit.  We do use TV shows and mainly Trip Advisor for reviews, but we always take those with a grain of salt!  Lastly, we pretty much would pass on a restaurant where they offer you an English menu.  And we definitely would pass on one of those restaurants with the laminated with photos in four languages deals.

There are many, many options in Florence for places to sleep.  We stayed in an apartment the whole time we were there but passed this hotel often and thought it would be the perfect location.  It gets many great reviews on Trip Advisor too.  When looking for a location in Florence, our pro tip is to find one that is as central as possible.  If you have enough days there, you’ll want to see both sides of the river as well as east of the duomo and north to the Santa Maria Novella train station.  Being by the river, close to the Uffizi is as good as it gets!

The Uffizi Museum is big enough to spend five days exploring, but if you only have one great day there, it is still worth the price of admission.  Wander the halls to among the amazing art, the ancient statues and more.  The museum houses one of the largest collection of art owned by the Medici family, which tells you how much influence they had among the renaissance thinkers.  The building, built in the 16th century used to be the offices of the Florentine Magistrates before giving way to become a showcase of Medici art.  This photo is of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” which can be found in the Uffizi Gallery,