Field Report No. 02 · Family trip
Florence Tuscany, Italy
The David, the Duomo, Botticelli, and then the food. Hit the art early, eat late, and don't rush it.
Field Report
No. 02
Family trip
Florence Tuscany, Italy
Worth the flight.
- Coordinates
- 43.7696° N, 11.2558° E
- Traveled
- June
- Kid-readiness
- High, if you hit the hits and bail. Ninety minutes in the Uffizi, gelato on the bridge, room to run in the piazzas.
- Where we stayed
- Two trips, two central spots: Hotel Indigo Florence and Palazzo Ridolfi. Florence's centro is tiny, so from either one you're ten minutes on foot to the Duomo and the river.
- The non-negotiable
- Sunset on the Osteria delle Tre Panche rooftop, Ponte Vecchio right below, the whole menu truffle. Book the terrace, not the covered room.
- What we'd skip
- The leather-jacket stalls by San Lorenzo. Go to the real Mercato Centrale instead. And the climb lines for views you've already earned from the ground.
- Best season
- June. The afternoon heat is brutal, so build in a cool-off at the Giunti Odeon bookstore.
- Points & hacking
- Fly into Florence (FLR). We got Hotel Indigo free on IHG free-night certificates from opening the card. Tuscany day trips like Fiesole and Chianti are a 20–45 minute drive.
43.7696° N, 11.2558° E
Florence was our way into Italy, three years ago. A big piazza, kids playing soccer in it, an espresso and a limoncello after lunch, and pasta like you’ve never had. That’s when it clicked: the walking, the piazzas, the hospitality. Food doesn’t get better than Tuscany, and Florence is the gatekeeper.
Do the art in the morning when it’s cool and the lines are short. The David, the Uffizi (ninety minutes, not four), and the Duomo dome if you booked the climb weeks ahead. Then the city is yours.
The best gelato we’ve had anywhere, full stop.
Start with the rigatoni at Trattoria dei 13 Gobbi, served inside a hollowed parmigiano wheel, scraped and twirled at your table. Trattoria Mario is the lunch institution (cash only, go before noon), but the schiacciata at Gustapanino, eaten on the steps of Piazza Santo Spirito while the kids ran the square, we liked even more.
Dessert is Vivoli, where the affogato comes through the buchetta, the old wine window cut into the wall. And La Strega Nocciola for the gelato.
We threw JJ a birthday dinner at Al Fresco. Wood-fired pizza in the Four Seasons’ eleven-acre Renaissance garden, koi pond and a playground behind the hedge. Worth the drive: Castello di Verrazzano out in Chianti for the full Tuscan lunch and four wine pours, a meal and not a tasting.
Where we stayed, both trips: Palazzo Ridolfi the first time, a ten-minute walk to Piazza della Signoria on the edge of the Oltrarno, the side of the river that still feels like a neighborhood. We loved it, and they took the rental car and the whole ZTL headache off our hands at the door. The second trip was Hotel Indigo Florence, free on the IHG certificates from opening the credit card, and they upgraded us to connecting rooms. Small rooms, cool building, walkable to everything; at free, the right call.
Eat late, walk far, and don’t try to see all of it.
