Archeological museum

The archeological museum has a lot of really neat exhibits, but my favorite by far is the chimera. It's an ancient Etruscan bronze depicting the legendary creature that was part lion, part goat, and part snake. Badass. Other exhibits include lots of other Etruscan bronzes, old pottery, and an Egyptian collection (complete with mummies!). Totally worth stopping by for just the chimera, in my opinion.

San Miniato

A fun little excursion is a hike to San Miniato. The large Romaneque church sits on top of a hill across the river from the city center, providing a beautiful panoramic of the city. Partway up the hill is Piazza Michelangelo, which offers a lovely lookout point. The church itself is very pretty, but my favorite part to visit is the graveyard. There are all sorts of elaborate monuments, tombstones, and mausoleums. Plus, it's a lovely walk up.

Medici chapel

The Medici chapel is attached to the church of San Lorenzo, next to the large outdoor market. The chapel is really impressive, with lots of beautiful inlaid stone designs (pietra dura) decorating the walls. The chapel is also the home of Michelangelo's Dawn, Dusk, Night, and Day statues on the tombs of two Medici family members.

Accademia

The Accademia houses Michelangelo's original David. There's a replica of the statue in Piazza Signoria where the statue used to stand. There are a number of other marble sculptures, including Michelangelo's uncompleted Schiavi, but David is clearly the main attraction.

I Fratellini

I Fratellini is a little sandwich shop in the middle of the city. They're cheap and delicious, definitely worth stopping by.


View Fratellini in a larger map

Duomo

The Duomo is the symbol of Florence, and for good reason. It's construction marked the start of the Renaissance and it's just so cool. It's free to get in, although to be honest the interior is not as cool as other cathedrals, such as the ones in Pisa or Sienna. You should definitely climb to the top, though. There's a small fee to go up. It's absolutely gorgeous up there. There are 414 stairs, but it's all worth it.

Santa Croce

Santa Croce is one of the largest churches in town and my favorite steps to drink on. It sits on a large piazza that occasionally hosts fairs or markets. Inside you'll find the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo, among others. Overall it's a pretty impressive structure.

Sant'Ambrogio

Sant'Ambrogio is a giant market, some of it open-air, some indoors. You can buy all sorts of fruits and veggies, fresh fish, or even a hunk of meat shaved off a whole pig.

San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo is where you go when you need to get your shop on. Leather purse? New shoes? Tacky souvenirs? You can find them all here. There's an endless array of vendors here where you can get pretty much anything you want. Word of advice: when shopping for a leather jacket, only go into the stores with doors. They always have better service and selection than the stalls or stores that are wide open. You can also buy food in the main building.

Bargello

The Bargello is one of my favorite museums in Florence. I think I ended up going close to a dozen times. The building itself was once the home of a city official that was later converted into a prison and finally a museum. There's lots of statuary, most notably Donatello's bronze David (above). Personally, I think I might like this David better than Michelangelo's, but that's just me. There are a couple of Michelangelo sculptures in the museum as well, plus other important artists.

Another cool display is the two plates from the gates of paradise competition. After the Duomo's baptistry was completed, there was a competition for who would design the doors. The doors are made up of a series of gold-plated panels depicting biblical scenes. There are two remaining plates from the contest, one from Ghiberti (who won) and the other from Brunelleschi who, after losing the contest, went to Rome to study architecture and later came back to construct the Duomo.

The museum also hosts a range of other interesting artifacts, such as pottery, fine ivory sculptures, small bronzes, and a weapons display.

Gelato

There's lots of great gelato in Florence. I recommend getting off the main tourist thoroughfares to get gelato because otherwise the prices will be super jacked up (this goes for pretty much anything, though: cafes, restaurants, stores).

There are a couple of places I particularly enjoyed:

View Gelaterie in a larger map

The one on the far right, on Via dei Neri, is right down the street from the rosticceria. The upper one, Festival, was closest to the Smith center and has a good range of flavors. My formula for telling whether a gelateria was overpriced was to look at the price of the smallest serving. If it's under 2 euros, the place is decently priced. If it's 2 euros or more you're paying too much. There are places that will try to charge 8 euros for a cone, so watch out.

Uffizi

The Uffizi is the main museum in Florence and the best representation of Renaissance art in Italy. You'll probably want to allot a good hunk of time here. This is where you'll find paintings from all the great masters: Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Botticelli, Raffaello, etc. Also, you should definitely but tickets in advance. The lines can be terrible, but you can skip them when you make a reservation online at this website.

Boboli gardens

The Boboli gardens is the largest green space you'll find in the city. It's behind Palazzo Pitti, the palace where the Medici family lived. There are lots of pretty statues and pathways. It's a really relaxing place to walk around and take a break from museums.

Rosticceria

View Rosticceria in a larger map

This is the fantastic little rosticceria where you can get a whole roasted chicken and potatoes for 5 euros. They have a variety of other food to choose from (I recommend the cipollini, little onions). It is also very conveniently located behind the Uffizi.