My husband and I decided to spend Christmas 2017 in a different environment and take a trip to Florence, Italy. We were planning on visiting Matt’s Italian relatives there and reuniting with my mom who flew in from Germany and my cousin from Moscow. It was for sure the right decision, the trip didn’t disappoint, we spent ten days full of good food, art, fashion, family, and wine, a lot of wine. I have been to Italy before and had good memories of the charm and beauty of this county. However, I had never visited Florence and our trip made me fall in love with this pearl of Tuscany.

How We Got There

We flew with a Lufthansa airplane via Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Where we had a nine-hour layover – enough time to make a quick visit to the city center and meet up with friends and family. From my perspective, the Christmas Market is the most interesting thing to visit in Frankfurt during the holidays. You can try mulled wine, Frankfurter (German traditional sausage), and buy souvenirs from the local vendors. After doing exactly that, we headed to Daheim im Lorsbacher Thal in Sachsenhausen (an old town district of Frankfurt) for lunch. The restaurant is well known and has traditionally prepared goose on the menu. After filling our bellies with heavy food, we made our way back to the airport to board the plane to Florence.

Accommodation

In Florence, our Airbnb apartment was a half an hour taxi drive from the airport and just perfect. Every major sight in Florence was within walking distance, the rooms spacious, clean and the host very responsive. To help you compare prices when looking for places to stay in Florence we paid roughly $59 USD a night.

Sights

The next day we woke up to beautiful sunshine and Italian chatter from the streets. From now on, every day was a little adventure.

We visited the most popular art galleries in the world such as the Uffizi Gallery, and Academia Gallery where we saw Michelangelo’s famous statue of David and learned about the Medici collections of the Renaissance art. I recommend pre-ordering tickets online to skip the huge lines. The line to the Duomo Cathedral is equally long and instead of pre-ordering tickets we postponed our visit until Christmas Eve to participate in the evening Mass at 5:00pm. The Mass was lovely regardless of whether we understood its content. It was the magical atmosphere and the beautiful sound of the organ that took our breath away.

City Trips

We dedicated two days of our stay in Florence traveling to Rome and Bologna. There are fast trains now that take you to Rome in an hour and to Bologna in 30 minutes. Tickets can be easily purchased at the main train station in Florence. We took the train to Rome at 9:00 am and back around 7:00 pm. This was enough time to visit the most important sights like the Vatican, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We got around the city on a hop on/off sightseeing buses. Of course, it was a little bit stressful and we were glad to be back in our cute Florence after this long day. But I don’t regret the effort, Rome is one of the most beautiful cities on earth and an absolute must when you visit Italy. The trip to Bologna was less eventful and mostly dedicated to meeting up with my family from Ukraine who was there at the time.

Shopping

My heart was beating harder when the shopping day came closer. Florence has a huge leather market and you see stands and little boutiques selling leather goods throughout the city. But don’t buy at the first stand – wait, observe, compare and then buy. Also, the first price the vendor tells you is way too high and you can bargain your way down at least 20-30%. I was eying a shearling leather jacket and had to go through several shops and slept on it before buying the perfect piece for EUR 350. I’m also warning you that it can be tough to find a trendy piece at the leather market, you have to be patient and have a good eye. I wanted to mimic the Acne Studios shearling jacket and was only able to find this style by considering a men’s jackets.

Another relevant location for shopping are the outlet malls outside the city. We were considering two of them: The Mall and The Barberino. We decided to hit the former which includes Gucci, Prada, D&G, Jimmy Choo and many more luxury designer shops. Normally, you can expect last season items for about 40-50% cheaper than the original price. If you don’t forget to claim your sales taxes back, in one of the tax offices located on the property, you can deduct another 11-12%. The buses to the malls leave almost every hour from the main train or bus station. An hour bus ride and you can spend the whole day indulging yourself with designer items. I left the mall with a Prada saffiano leather shoulder bag tote for which I paid EUR 560 and Gucci Leather Interlocking G Sachalin Riding Boots for EUR 500.

Return

When we boarded our flight back home to Seattle we had another pleasant surprise that made our return more bearable. We were seated in the Premium Economy area which had much more leg room and better service. And so we were relaxing in our big seats reminiscing about our adventures in Bella Italia. I can’t wait to return!