A Splurge in Florence

blabla89

Paging @climbingwife @loro929 and anyone else who's been to Florence/Tuscany recently.

We have all of our HM pretty much planned and booked, and just received a gift from my aunt and uncle to do something "fun and memorable" while we're there. I would love suggestions. What was something you did there that you absolutely loved? Something you wish you had done?

Our budget for whatever we do is around $250-300 (but totally fine to spend less). We'll spend the first two days in San Gimignano and have already booked a winery tour and spa treatments. Then we're spending 6 days in Florence. FI has already planned 5 of those days down to the minute, but we do have one free day. FI has said he doesn't want to do a day trip outside Florence but if there was something really awesome he could probably be convinced.

climbingsingle

I was totally going to suggest a winery trip, but I see you have that already covered. 

You could pick a really nice restaurant and splurge on dinner. Or you could do Tours by Locals and hire a guide to take you around and drive you around for the day. There's some cool stuff to see outside of the city center. 

I know he's not set on day trips, but one of the funnest things we did was renting a car and driving to Pisa or Lucca or Cinque Terra. 

katiekessler123

San Giamignano is such a cool town!  You will absolutely love it!  I second what Climbingwife said about Cinque Terra.  I've traveled to pretty much every big city in Italy and many of the smaller towns as well, and Cinque Terra tops it all, IMO.  In Tuscany, though, Castellina in Chianti is also one of my favorites.  If you have any interest in going there (even though I know you said day trips are out, maybe you could instead go for an extra day or two if you haven't book airfare already) this is where we stayed:    http://www.villailpoggiale.it/ 

It was seriously the most picturesque Tuscan experience you could imagine! 

amelisha

Did you think about a cooking class or something?

I know there are lovely single-day cooking classes in English for tourists in the area, and it might be kind of special to go and learn to make something traditional to the region so you can go home and think of your honeymoon whenever you make it again.

I have no idea if that's something you have any interest in at all, but I know I have an acquaintance who did that recently and she loved it. The class was in a beautiful villa and everything...and I know that the first thing I think about when I think of Tuscany is definitely the food and wine I had there, so that's why I figured it might be worth a mention.

loro929

I second (third?) the trip to Cinque Terre. Here is a link ->clicky<- regarding how to make it a day trip. There is a lovely trail called "Via dell'amore" or Lover's Lane, which is really just so romantic with the most dramatic, beautiful views. 

I would suggest taking one of the shorter hikes, and then stopping for a long, leisurely lunch on one of the terraces, with views that are just to die for. We started in Riomaggiore and went on to Manarola (a little more than a mile) and then and Manarola to Corniglia, which is where we stopped. There are trains that leave from each town and pass back through all of the towns, so we took advantage of that after we finished off some bottles of wine :P It is definitely a bit different than Florence, but if you are into beautiful landscapes and romantic seaside walks, I would totally recommend it. For what it is worth, I did this as a day trip travelling from Pisa (which is only about 40 minutes less of a travel from Florence, so it would be a long day, but in my opinion definitely doable and worth it)! 

allispain

I fourth the trip to Cinque Terre. One of my favorite places in Italy - I hiked between the towns, went swimming in the sea, etc. It's beautiful!