Travel With Me: Pisa, Florence & Rome

Welcome to another travel post! 

I have recently returned from a two week trip in Europe which consisted of a week in Italy and a second week relaxing by the beach in Greece. I wanted to talk about the first week in Italy where we visited Pisa, Florence and Rome in the space of 8 days. I wanted to share this part of the trip in particular as I felt that we spent the right amount of time in each city. I will include information about our travelling arrangements between the cities, favourite landmarks & of course, food and drink places.

Pisa - 1.5 days

When we did our research on Pisa, we read that the average time needed to explore the area is 0.5 days so we knew that there may not be much to do there. We travelled to Pisa on a Saturday and as we had an afternoon flight, we travelled from Norwich to Stansted on the train which I always find quite easy and also pretty cheap as we all know, airport parking isn't exactly a bargain. We arrived in Pisa at around 5pm and were at our Airbnb by around 6pm. We went for dinner at a restaurant very local to apartment but didn't do much exploring until the next day. 

The following day we went for breakfast, we stayed near a main shopping street so I enjoyed strolling through there in the morning. This street led to the main square Piazza dei Miracoli which is home to the main attraction in Pisa, The Leaning Tower of Pisa. There were also three other beautiful buildings there which were the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry and the Camposanto Monumentale. The square was full of tourists as expected but nevertheless, there were still plenty of opportunities for pictures etc and it didn't feel too overcrowded. We had the opportunity to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa for €18 each - you could also visit some of the other monuments for an additional price. We decided to climb the tower in the evening as we didn't fancy climbing 296 steps in 30 degree heat. The top of the tower has great views of Pisa so I would definitely recommend that for this reason. We also had a wonder around the Pisa Cathedral which was free to enter.

Apart from the Piazza and some cute little coffee shops there wasn't much else to do in Pisa and I wouldn't say you needed any more than a day to explore it.

Florence - 2 days

We took the train to Florence on Monday morning - this was from Pisa station and cost around the region of €12-€15 each. The train journey lasted around an hour. We weren't really sure what to expect of Florence but we really enjoyed our visit and we spent the most part of Monday and all of Tuesday there. We stayed at another AirBnB which was in a really central location and only a few minutes walk from the main church in Florence, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore which was located in Piazza del Duomo. This was a really pretty square, full of cute, inexpensive coffee shops and places for lunch and dinner. Florence had lots of piazzas like this which were full of life and it is one of the main things I liked about it. There are also plenty of shops to visit in Florence from Gucci to H&M, take your pick. As there were quite a few points of interest in Florence, I will just talk about the highlights for me.

Florence Cathedral - Catterdrale di Santa Maria del Fiore 

We visited the Cathedral on our second day in Florence, for some reason on this day it didn't open until 2pm however, I do think it's usually open from 9am and the entry is free. The church itself has a strict dress code with shoulders and legs so if you're planning on visiting make sure your knees and shoulders are covered. We queued for around half an hour to get inside and if I'm honest, we were quiet disappointed as we were both expecting it to be quite impressive due to the outside architecture. The decor was quite standard, there wasn't much that made it stand out on the inside and we didn't end up spending more than 15 minutes inside.

Panoramic views from Piazzale Michelangelo 

Piazzale Michelangelo was a great view point which gave you stunning views of the city of Florence. I'm not going to lie it is a bit of a climb and certainly a challenge in the heat but once you're at the top, the views are totally worth it.

Ponte Vecchio - The Old Bridge

I really enjoyed this bridge as I had never quite seen one like it. From the outside it looks you can see that the bridge is made up of what appears to be little houses. These are in fact jewellery boutiques and when you walk on the bridge you can have a look inside. I've got to admit, I'm very jealous of the views they get from their office as this looks out onto the stunning Arno river. This is definitely worth a visit when in Florence.

Food & Drink 

As we all know, Italy is famous for its pasta and pizza so I couldn't not research the best pizza places to visit. We visited a place called SimBioSi (thanks to Instagram) which specialise in organic brick oven pizza's. We really enjoyed our meal here especially because it had a very homely feel to the place with the kitchen in full view of the restaurant. I had a pesto and aubergine pizza which was delicious.

Anyone that knows me knows that I appreciate a good cocktail and it's even more appreciated on a rooftop. We found a great rooftop bar in Florence on top of Hotel Continental - this was just off Ponte Vecchio. From here you can see all of the views of Florence whilst enjoying a lovely (but rather expensive) drink. Our cocktails came with a complimentary plate of nibbles which is always a nice touch.

Views from Piazzale Michelangelo 

Rooftop Bar views from Hotel Continentale & Dinner at SimbioSi

Rome - 3.5 days

We travelled to Rome by train on Wednesday morning. The train cost around €40 per person and the journey was around 1h 30 mins. I believe there is a slower train that may be cheaper but does take a few more hours. We stayed in Hotel Delle Province in Rome which was slightly out of the centre but close to Bologna metro station which was only a 10 minute journey to the Colosseum. We did get a little bit stung with the city tax as it ended up costing us €48 for a 4* hotel. Again, there were lots of things that we enjoyed doing in Rome but I will outline the highlights.

The Colosseum & Trevi Fountain 

The Coloseum a must-see for all tourists and was actually very interesting to have a look around and learn about the gladiator fights and other things that the amphitheatre has been used for. Additionally, there are lots of other things to do around this area, like visiting the Roman Forum. If you're planning on visiting the Colosseum pre-book your tickets online. We did this the night before and ended up savings ourselves two hours of queuing.

The Trevi Fountain is another must see in Rome - it was beautiful as expected but very, very busy. We visited both during the day and in the evening and it always surrounded by crowds of people. There are lots of shops in the surrounding area, making it an interesting place to visit.

Panoramic Views

We visiting a number of panoramic view points whilst in Rome, all of which we were very impressed with. The first point was Orange Gardens - the view was pretty impressive here but what we liked most about it was that it was a great opportunity to chill out and relax. There is a large grass area which was great for having a mid-afternoon lay down. Villa Borghese is a park that's on a hill and overlooks Rome. We loved this park as not only did it have beautiful view points, we were also able to hire out a bike for an hour and that allowed us to explore the park. It's location was also pretty central leading on to one of the main shopping areas. Gianicolo is another great place to catch the views of the city - I found it very peaceful as it wasn't packed with people and as always, there were breathtaking views at the top.

Vatican City
We spent a day in Vatican City as most people do when they visit Rome. We queued up for around an hour to visit St Peter's Bascilla - the entry was free so don't get tempted by people trying to sell you tours to skip the line. The church was really impressive, it's massive and the architecture is stunning. We also climbed to the top of the Dome of the Cathedral, we did have to pay for this but it was inexpensive. The climb is very steep and tiring but the views of Vatican and Rome are beautiful. As you're not actually able to enter Vatican City (apart from the museum area) this was a great opportunity to get an idea of what life is like there.

 Views and bike fun in Villa Borghese

Orange Gardens

Gianicolo Views

Vatican City 

Overall, we had a great trip around Italy and would really like to do something similar in the future. After the busy nature of the cities we were very happy to spend a week in Athens relaxing by the sea.

Thank you for reading,

Anastasiya X