5 days in Florence for our 1st wedding anniversary!

[MrAsifZahoor]

Ciao Lourdes!

My wife and I will be visiting Florence for a romantic 1st wedding anniversary!

We went to Rome for our honeymoon and absolutely loved it. This was easy to plan day by day as everything was within walking distance (Stayed at Hotel IQ - it's fanatastic in every way from breakfast, staff, room quality and a base for seeing every sight!!!). I am not sure how to plan this one as it seems pretty spread out, so wonder if I can call upon your brilliant well knowledge?

We land in Pisa (PSA) Airport and will be staying at Hotel Caravaggio from 8th April till Saturday 13th. So this will be our base of travelling.

We touch down on our anniversary day, Monday 8th at 20:00 - so can you recommend a restaurant? I don't know how accomodating restaurants are with Halal meat as a dietry requirement (we are Muslim so no alcohol or regular meats). So failing this, we are of a fish and vegetarian diet.

We would like to spend a day in Venice, experience the sights and tastes - and a Gondala ride too! Hopefully we can see one of those masked masquerade street parties at night Is there a specific train we can take there? Do you know how much it roughly costs and what we should make a point of checking out when we get there?

Siena looks like a fantastic visit too, can you recommend this?

We would also like to see the Pisa too. We love architecture and histroy very much - which is why Rome was perfect for us

Thanks for your time and hope you can help out! Take care, and many thanks for this forum <3

[Lourdes]

Ciao MrAsifZahoor,

You're right, Rome is a little easier because even if it is large, it is a city and most of the sights are close to each other and concentrated in a pretty well defined area.

Tuscany on the other hand is an entire region.... and Venice is about 2 hours train ride away now that there are faster trains, you can certainly try to fit in a day trip there as long as you leave early and come back late. You can check timetables on the Trenitalia website: http://www.trenitalia.com/ - rates start from around 45 euro each way - and check out the new train company Italo: http://www.italotreno.it/en/ as they often have special offers.

As for a beautiful place to eat on your anniversary - you arrive in Pisa at 8 or into Florence at 8? Because if you're in Pisa at 8, I'd recommend to stay there for dinner and wholeheartedly recommend the Osteria dei Cavalieri: http://www.osteriacavalieri.pisa.it/
We had a fabulous lunch there a few years ago, I can only imagine it is better and even more romantic in the evenings. They have a lot of seafood dishes in case you just want to try them. The website has a menu so you can check it out ahead of time.
If you're in Florence by then, ask at your hotel - you're right in the center and there are so many places nearby I'm finding it hard to recommend one in particular, especially as regards seafood/halal meat. Cipolla Rossa near the San Lorenzo church offered a great atmosphere and meal when we went there, but there is really won't be lack of choices.

I definitely recommend at least 2 full days in Florence, a whole day in Siena, another in Pisa, maybe dividing it up with nearby Lucca (near to Pisa). So you might not find the time to fit in Venice at all... maybe for next year's anniversary? ;-)

Hope you have a great anniversary!