Is this a good itinerary for Florence on our own?

[Karamel2373]

This will be our fist trip to Europe, going on RCCL's Voyager in October, and I need help with doing Florence on our own!

1. Catch 7:30am train to Florence from Livorno.

2. Arrive around 9am..get bearings, walk around and head over to Accademia to see David, etc at 10:30am (with reservations)

3. Spend 45min-1 hour and have light lunch.

4. Head over to Uffizi for a 12:15pm reservation. Planning on spending 2 hours there.

5. We will have approx. 2 hours to explore Florence before catching the 4:00pm train back to Livorno (paranoid of missing the ship!)

Question....what time does everything close down in the afternoon????

I am OPEN to adjusting this schedule...thoughts please!!

Thanks!

[sasset]

Catching a 7:30 train will be a miracle. I see that your ship isn't scheduled to arrive until 7. I would be surprised if they are ready to take passengers off until 8. I would look for an 8:30 train. Other than that your time allotments for Uffizi and Academia are about right. You just will lose some time for seeing the city.

 

Regards

[lucinjo]

Be sure to allocate time for a gelato stop. Great Gelato(italian version of icecream) in Florence!

[Sheepdog]

Locate the San Lorenzo area on your map...walk through this fabulous market on your way to the Duomo/Accademia.

Silk scarves...3 for 12E....right at the "T" intersection of the market(you'll get home and wish you'd bought more that 3 !! )

Pashminas are fabulous.The only person I got to bargain with me was a fellow at the Straw market...about in the middle.The San Lorenzo market also have them.

Hope you have time to wander and enjoy the flavour of Florence !!

Doing the train is fabulous...the taxi driver from the ship will try and talk you into a day tour of Florence...but it's part of the fun !!

Voyager is fabulous...the promenade area ,I think,is breath-taking...rooms lovely...I never heard anyone even walk by our room !!!

Enjoy,

Sharon:)

[Mike Andrews]

Your itinerary is fine but your timing may need to be adjusted to catch a later train and leave time to visit Vivoli for delicious Gelato !

[Hlitner]

I will interject a thought which is not meant as a criticism...but rather an observation. If you read these boards (or do a lot of international travel) you quickly notice that many folks go to fabulous cities such as Florence or Paris and spend most of their time visiting museums. Personally, I could spend weeks in Paris musuems and never get tired, but than I would know a lot about a few museums and very little about Paris. Its the same in Florence. The city has several world-class museums and you can easily spend several days indoors admiring great art. But Florence has a great personality that can only be captured by walking the streets, spending time admiring the great architecture of the city and its buildings, spending time in outdoor cafes enjoying local cuisine and people watching, sampling some of the best gelato on earth, etc etc. Seeing the comment about the famous gelato at Vivoli reminded me of the wonderful leather factory we find around the corner where the owner took us into his work room and showed us how they were handmaking leather coats. This is the kind of thing that does not happen when you are running from museum to museum. I have been to the Ufizzi 3 times, and honestly cannot remember one painting. But, I can remember every detail of strolling along the river one evening (we have stayed in Florence a few times) and having dinner at Il Latini ( a well known local restaurant). And yes, there is the wonderful outdoor markets which some would say is a lot more fun than looking at dark renaissance art. Oh well, enough preaching. Your itinerary sounds fine (my wife always says David is "amazing"). You might want to use a taxi or local bus to get to and from the Academia since its a pretty long walk and your time is going to be precious. Afternoon closings are not a big problem in Florence like many Italian cities... Hmmm, you are not leaving time for the Pitti Palace (I actually like this place more than the Ufizzi) so you will have an excuse to return to Florence. One more thought about museums. When I talk to friends who go to New York for a visit (I am an ex New Yorker) they will tell of going to a show, eating in Rockafeller Center (yuck), shopping, going to the Empire State Building, taking the Circle Line around Manhattan, etc. They usually don't tell me that on their first visit they went to the Natural History Museum, MOMA, Met, and Gugenheim on their visit (not a bad idea). But put that same person in Paris or Florence and they spend all their time inside visiting museums! Hmmmm.

 

Hank

[Host Karen]

Hank, your post reminded me of my boss's consternation that during our first trip to Florence, instead of visiting the Uffizi and the Accademia (sp?), DH and I instead walked around a bit, climbed to the top of the dome of the Duomo, had sandwiches and wine at (literally) a hole in the wall, and then spent 90 minutes trying new wines and snacking on cheese and bread in a wine bar across the Ponte Vecchio. Oh, and enjoyed a gelato before returning to the ship. What a great day and one of the best memories of our trip. Sometimes the best days are those without a schedule and not spent trying to do everything one is "supposed" to do when visiting a new place.

 

Karen

[Hlitner]

Only 90 minutes of wine tasting? Surely you jest :)

[Host Karen]

Well, we were on the "Florence on Your Own" excursion through Royal Caribbean, and since we had to walk back to Santa Croce Square with DH struggling to carry half a case of wine in 85 degree heat, we thought it might be prudent to arrive a few minutes before departure time. Hence, the 90 minute visit.

 

The funny part is we are planning to go back on a Millie cruise next September, and we are trying to decide whether to go back to Florence (since we obviously missed a few things) or head directly to a winery. Your thoughts, Hank? :)

 

Karen

[dustinjones]

Just my two cents - but we just got off the Jewel with the same schedule and we were just able to make the 7:30 train. And like one of the other's said - it does take a miracle. We were cleared by customs around 7:10, ran off the ship to the waiting cabs (who were none too pleased we only wanted to go the train station, they want to take people all the way to Florence) and took the 10-15 minute cab ride to the train station, quickly purchased the ticket, and jetted to the train. We had a tour with Artviva set up that started at 9:30 and looking back that was probably a crazy move, but it all worked out in the end.

 

Good luck!

[beech2006]

I was just looking at the Artviva website wondering if it would be possible to make the 9:30 tour. Was it worth the effort? How was the rest of your day?

 

We'll be taking the Jewel next week :D , and I'm just now really researching all of the possibilities for an "on your own" day in Florence, as well as Rome.

 

Any other recommendations are welcome.

 

Richard

[harrodsfan]

Agree with the above poster to take a cab to the Accademia.

Also the shops will close from 12:30 or so to around 3 or 3;30.

Suggest you shop and have a gelato and then eat after the Ufizzi.

Recommend Rick Steve's book on Florence for highlights of the Museum.

Agree with the poster that walking around is sometimes more interesting than the Ufizzi...unless you love Ren. Art. My favorite musuem is the Bargello. Don't miss the Ponte Veccio ( but very $$$$).

Drink lots of water and dress cool and comfortable(with a wrap for the churches..)

[Hlitner]

HostKaren, I am trying to picture your hubby lugging that case of wine. If it were me, I would have been lightening the load as I went,,,, and probably would have had 1 or 2 bottles remaining by the time we returned to the ship. But seriously, I do have a some thoughts about Florence. We had been to Florence on day visits (from ships) 3 or 4 times and done the usual stuff. Honestly, we did not rank it as one of our favorite places and when we were doing driving trips in Tuscany we usually stayed at a small hotel that was about 5 miles outside of San Gimignano and totally avoided driving or training into Florence. However, when planning our most recent trip (this past May) we decided to spend 2 nights in a Florence Hotel (Hotel David) as part of our 2week driving trip. We were blessed with perfect weather, and did a lot of walking into neighborhoods often bypassed on the day trips. Well, suddenly we began to fall in love with this wonderful city. We than drove down to Siena where we spent 3 nights....and we both regretted not having spent another 1 or 2 nights in Florence. On the other hand, its hard to pass-up a winery! Since its impossible to plan a single day without wishing you had done something else, the solution is to spend a few days pre or post cruise in Tuscany and/or Umbria. The bottom line to this discussion is that the more we visit Italy, the more we want to go back and visit again. Lately we have even been passing-up time in France to spend more time in Italy (horrors).

 

Hank

[sasset]

I agree with Hlitner as far as museums vs. the city. I would opt for seeing David at the Academia and forgo The Ufizzi. You will never gorget David, but the art in The Ufizzi pretty much turned to mush in my head. we were in Florence for five days and were museumed out only doing one a day.

 

Should you change your plans and leave more time for the city, try to get to Piazalle Michelangelo. It is on a hill overlooking the city. Gives you a great panorama of the Duomo, the river and all of the rooftops. We caught a bus at the train station. Several years ago it was bus #13 and it wasn't a long ride. I suppose you could catch it elsewhere in the city as well.

 

Regards

[dustinjones]

Beech2006,

 

We really enjoyed the Artviva tour. Our tour guide was an younger American student with a masters in Art History and Italian and so obviously very easy to understand and had a ton of knowledge. Tour lasted three hours. There people in our group who were running late and someone at the office just escorted them to our group in the middle of the tour, so even if you miss the 7:30 train, and catch the next one, you shouldn't be too far behind. A little warning - the office is a bit hard to find, so use the map from there website. It's about a 10-15 walk from the train station. After the tour we had lunch then had reservations for Accademia had 1:30 and reservations at Uffizi at 2:30. We arrived about 30 minutes early to see David and had no problem getting in early - same at Uffizi. Artviva does offer a Uffizi tour in the afternoon as well.

 

In Rome, as soon as we walked out of the Coloseo stop someone approached us for a tour that cost 10 euro + admission (and you get to skip the huge line). Best money we spent. We had an hour tour of the Coloseum and in the afternoon another one hour tour of Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.

 

In Messina we saw people take the "tour" of Taormina which pretty much meant they dropped tem off at the outskirts of town and you walked on your own. The only tour part was the Greek Theatre.

 

Pompeii has a ton of people outside the admission gate offering tours for 10 euro - we did the self guided audio tour and that worked ok. Looking back, I wish we would have done with of the tour groups.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Honeymoon sailors]

I will interject a thought which is not meant as a criticism...but rather an observation. If you read these boards (or do a lot of international travel) you quickly notice that many folks go to fabulous cities such as Florence or Paris and spend most of their time visiting museums. Personally, I could spend weeks in Paris musuems and never get tired, but than I would know a lot about a few museums and very little about Paris. Its the same in Florence. The city has several world-class museums and you can easily spend several days indoors admiring great art. But Florence has a great personality that can only be captured by walking the streets, spending time admiring the great architecture of the city and its buildings, spending time in outdoor cafes enjoying local cuisine and people watching, sampling some of the best gelato on earth, etc etc. Seeing the comment about the famous gelato at Vivoli reminded me of the wonderful leather factory we find around the corner where the owner took us into his work room and showed us how they were handmaking leather coats. This is the kind of thing that does not happen when you are running from museum to museum. I have been to the Ufizzi 3 times, and honestly cannot remember one painting. But, I can remember every detail of strolling along the river one evening (we have stayed in Florence a few times) and having dinner at Il Latini ( a well known local restaurant). And yes, there is the wonderful outdoor markets which some would say is a lot more fun than looking at dark renaissance art. Oh well, enough preaching. Your itinerary sounds fine (my wife always says David is "amazing"). You might want to use a taxi or local bus to get to and from the Academia since its a pretty long walk and your time is going to be precious. Afternoon closings are not a big problem in Florence like many Italian cities... Hmmm, you are not leaving time for the Pitti Palace (I actually like this place more than the Ufizzi) so you will have an excuse to return to Florence. One more thought about museums. When I talk to friends who go to New York for a visit (I am an ex New Yorker) they will tell of going to a show, eating in Rockafeller Center (yuck), shopping, going to the Empire State Building, taking the Circle Line around Manhattan, etc. They usually don't tell me that on their first visit they went to the Natural History Museum, MOMA, Met, and Gugenheim on their visit (not a bad idea). But put that same person in Paris or Florence and they spend all their time inside visiting museums! Hmmmm.

 

Hank

 

Hank, I think you are absolutely right on cue. Although I enjoy museums I will not spend a whole day museum hopping, especially if I only have one precious day in a 'special' city like Florence. This post really help plan my itinery in October. Thanks everyone