4-Day Florence Itinerary on a Budget - Day 3 & 4

Florence Day 3: 4th June 2018 Mon

Duomo di Firenze

We queued at 10.15 am to get into Duomo di Firenze. In the morning there was some place where there were shade. The queue was also supper long.

Do note that you can not wear sleeveless outfit. There will people walking down the queue to sell scarf.

Finally, at 11.35 am, we entered the place. The interior was nothing much though the exterior facade looks very grand.

It's 12pm, time to eat lunch! We walked to Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market. (The famous Il Porcellino was opposite direction of the place so we decided to skip it).

Passed through many stalls 

 12.15 pm we reached the San Lorenzo Food Market.

Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market 

The food here was a bit more expensive and nothing really catch our eyes. So we decided to check out another place.

Trattoria Mario Firenze

 We were led down to another room at the back. By 12.40 pm, we were seated.

Ordered pork chop (8.5 euro), and really only a piece of meat arrived...

Around 1.05 pm, the pork chop was served. It was not juicy but also not dry. But I prefer Singapore pork chop where we still have some sauce and fries to go along with it.

We took the train to Pisa. By 3.30 pm, we reached Pisa train station.

There was more than one route to the Tower. A bigger main road and a smaller route.

We checked out the Gelato store in Pisa. The Gelato in Pisa is cheaper than in Florence. So, we bought it!

Nice!

Walking to the tower...

We reached the Pisa Tower at 4.22 pm and took tons of picture till 5.13 pm. You will indeed see many people pretending to push the tower.

  

You need to pay 0.8 euro to use the toilet near Pisa Tower. It was located near the broken angel (not behind it).

There were restaurants on the way to Pisa train station but we decided to go back to airbnb and cook dinner.

Pisa is cooling in the late afternoon.

We left Pisa at 6.01 pm and reach Florence at 7.25 pm. The train stopped at different stops. There might have direct train back to Florence where you don't need to stop at any stops. Do your research!

Street art at train rails

Florence: Day 4 5th June 2018 Tue

We checked out.

The train to Venice was late. 

We were supposed to leave at 10.46 am but there was a 15 minutes delay. Only at 11.17 am then we sit on train. By 11.19 am the train finally moved. We reached Venice around 1.30 pm.

Stay tuned to know how we spent our time at Venice.

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Summary

1. Duomo di Firenze
2. Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market
3. Pisa - Pisa Tower

4-Day Florence Itinerary on a Budget - Day 1 & 2

Florence Day 1: 2nd June 2018 Sat

Florence was picturesque

We passed by Piazza di Santa Croce as the place we planning to eat dinner only open to order at a later time.

Piazza di Santa Croce

We ate dinner at all you can eat in a pub. I don't really drink alcohol, so I don't know whether is it normal, but all the wine had a bitter taste.

We hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo. You can see the Ponte Vecchio from here with the sun setting at the background. The view was indeed beautiful.

Piazzale Michelangelo

We climbed up to Abbey of San Miniato al Monte. We saw people sitting inside the gates. The gates were locked and you can not enter from the front gate.  

Florence Day 2: 3rd June 2018 Sun

We start queuing for Uffizi Gallery at 8.40 am. The queue was from the corridor all the way back to Loggia Dei Lanzi. 

Statue at Loggia Dei Lanzi

The queue was about here. 

A marching band passed by us and after a while walked back again.

The queue was supper long so we entered the lobby of Palazzo Vecchio (there was someone queuing Uffizi Gallery for us), the museum with a replica of David outside it. This museum need to pay to enter even on the first Sunday of the month. So we just took a look of the lobby then went back out to continue queuing. 

Replica of David 

Inside of Palazzo Vecchio

You can take turns queuing, there were benches along the corridor, so you can rest your feet. 

Finally, at 10.20 am we entered Uffizi. We finished visiting at 12.30 pm.

Exhibition 128: Adam and Eve

  

The Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo Da Vinci

Exhibition 221: Medusa

We exited and queued for lunch at All' Antico Vinaio. At 1.10 pm, we sat on a nearby stairs and eat our sandwiches.

Saw this on the way

Not sure, but it may be Giotto's bell tower 

At 2.50 pm, we reached Galleria dell'accademia. Queue wasn’t long when we get there but when we went out, the queue was long. The entrance was like just a small door in the middle of the street. We spent like 1 hour there only. The museum was quite small.

We past by Leonardo da Vinci Museum. Outside the entrance, there is a Mona Lisa portrait where you can replace the face with your face. However, entrance to the museum is not free on 1st Sunday.

We saw many people queuing under the hot sun to get into the Duomo di Firenze. That's not for us. Instead we went shopping for a while.

At 5.20pm, we visited the Palazzo Pitti. There were free toilet inside. We spend about 1 hr. Entrance is free on the first Sunday. Even so, you still have to get a ticket at the ticket office. Ticket office is located on the right of the palace after you entered from the main entrance.

Saw a Chinese vase inside

There was light a fashion exhibition inside

Then we visited the Boboli Gardens behind it. We didn’t went all the way up with the sun beating down on us.

The Boboli obelisk and granite Roman basin at Boboli Garden

Large Logographic Sphere

By 6.34 pm, we headed back to Airbnb.

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Summary

Day 1

1. Piazzale Michelangelo
2. Abbey of San Miniato al Monte

Day 2

1. Uffizi Gallery
2. Loggia Dei Lanzi
3. Palazzo Vecchio
4. Galleria dell'accademia
5. Palazzo Pitti 
6. Boboli Gardens