2 Days in Florence, Italy - Best Travel Itinerary for 48 Hours in Florence

Today I want to share my travel itinerary for spending 2 days in Florence, Italy with you. This city in Tuscany is known for its stunning Renaissance art and architecture, and there’s a lot more to love about it besides.

2 Days in Florence

I haven’t traveled to Florence since I was 12 years old. Back then I was only interested in two things: gelato and shopping.

I refused to enter the Duomo. I didn’t want to see the Uffizi. All I wanted to do was eat stracciatella and buy clothes at Benetton.

In the years since then, my tastes have changed a bit. A love of food has supplanted my love of shopping, and my distinct lack of interest in Renaissance art disappeared when I took an art history class while studying abroad in Prague.

Armed with my new interests, I traveled to Tuscany with a completely different agenda for my 2 days in Florence than that of my first trip.

How to Get to Florence

I took the train from Bologna to Florence. It was a 40-minute high-speed journey with scenery that mostly featured dark tunnels.

It got me and my two friends to Tuscany quickly, though, and given how anxious I was to get to Florence, I was glad of it.

Where to Stay in Florence

When we arrived at the Santa Maria Novella train station in the city center, we walked to our accommodation in Florence. It was perfect for our stay in the city, and its location near the Duomo and the Uffizi was ideal.

Things to Do in 2 Days in Florence

After checking into our accommodation, we started our 2 days in Florence by walking down the street to a restaurant called L’Antico Noe.

We’d read good things about its rustic interior and food, and we enjoyed a feast of fresh pasta dishes and a bottle of Tuscan red as we soaked up the atmosphere.

Leaving the restaurant, we continued our 2 days in Florence by making a quick stop at a gelateria called Vivoli. There we picked up some dessert and a glass of Prosecco on our way to the Uffizi.

Yes, this time I was not only excited to see the world’s most famous collection of Renaissance art, but I’d even booked tickets well in advance to avoid the massive lines.

We spent all afternoon at the museum, admiring everything from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to famous works by Michelangelo, Giotto, da Vinci, and Raphael.

When our legs were tired, we sat in the sun on the roof terrace, which overlooked Brunelleschi’s iconic Duomo dome in the distance.

After walking all over the Uffizi, our 2 days in Florence continued as we strolled through the Piazza della Signoria and treated ourselves to some wine at an outdoor table at a cafe near our accommodation.

From there we went to dinner at Ristorante La Giostra, a restaurant down the street that came highly recommended by friends who’d studied abroad in Florence.

La Giostra was packed when we arrived. Every diner in the restaurant was American, which made me a bit nervous.

I grew increasingly worried when the waiter recommended the most expensive item on the menu when I asked for a recommendation (the dish also contained white truffles, which were out of season).

But when the food arrived and I took a bite of my pasta (not the truffle one), I knew exactly why my friends had suggested the place. Everything was delicious.

After dinner we slept off our food comas and woke up the next morning ready to see—er, eat—more of Florence.

To that end, we started the second of our 2 days in Florence by crossing the Arno river to get to a restaurant called Trattoria 4 Leoni. Set in a quiet piazza off a narrow street, it felt like a hidden gem.

It wasn’t. Like La Giostra, it was packed inside, and for good reason. The food was excellent and the elegant decor in the dining room was a refreshing break from the usual Tuscan interiors.

After lunch, we continued our 2 days in Florence by walking across the Ponte Vecchio. Completed in 1345, it’s the oldest and most famous bridge in Florence. On either side, shops selling gold and silver jewelry beckoned.

Once on the other side of the Arno river, we stopped at a famous gelateria called Festival del Gelato. It offered more flavors than I’d ever seen before.

After choosing from the vast selection, we walked up to the Duomo, the famous cathedral I refused to enter as a 12-year-old (there was gelato calling!). Into the doors we went, and off my to-do list I crossed the inside of the church.

To be honest, the interior of the Duomo was a bit of a let-down compared to the dazzling exterior, but don’t tell my childhood self she was somewhat justified in choosing ice cream over it.

Outside the church were the famous golden doors of the Battistero di San Giovanni. Designed by Ghiberti in the early 1400s, they were one of the few non-gelato, non-Benetton things I remember from my first trip to Florence.

From the doors we continued our 2 days in Florence by walking to the Basilica di Santa Croce, another of Florence’s famous places of worship.

Having read E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, I was excited to see the building that played such a pivotal role in the novel.

We entered for free thanks to it being Culture Week in Florence. What we found was a much more impressive interior than that of the Duomo.

We walked around the Basilica di Santa Croce, admiring the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini, and Ghiberti, and standing in awe of Brunelleschi’s famous Cappella dei Pazzi.

Emerging from Santa Croce, we found ourselves in a wide piazza under a gloriously sunny sky. With only a few hours left in Italy, we decided to seek out the best rooftop bar in Florence.

And we found it. After some quick research, we discovered La Terrazza at the Continentale.

Located just around the corner from the Ponte Vecchio, the hip hotel had one of the best rooftop bars I’ve ever been to. Forget a room with a view; this was a deck with a panorama.

As Prosecco gave way to Campari, we admired the dome of the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Florentine rooftops below. It was the perfect ending to our 2 days in Florence, and it made us want to stay forever.