Florence for First-Timers: AC Hotel Firenze, Medici Chapels, and a Day Trip to Cinque Terre

Updated April 2026 | 6 min read

Two Nights Is Not Enough, But Here’s How to Use Them

Florence is one of those cities that punishes you for under-allocating time. Two nights is the minimum viable visit. I did it in September 2024 as part of a longer Italy road trip from Milan to Rome, and I left with a list of things I didn’t get to — the Uffizi, the Oltrarno leather market, an afternoon in Fiesole. What I did cover was good. Here’s the honest account.

AC Hotel Firenze: Review

I stayed at the AC Hotel Firenze, a Marriott property in the city center. It’s a modern hotel in a city full of historic ones, which is either a point in its favor or against it depending on your priorities. My priorities: clean room, reliable wifi, decent breakfast, proximity to walking everything. It delivered on all four.

The lobby is sleek without being precious. Rooms are standard business-traveler size — not spacious, but well-organized. The breakfast spread covers the essentials. Location is the main selling point: you can reach the Duomo in about twelve minutes on foot, the Oltrarno in fifteen, and Santa Maria Novella station (critical for day trips) in ten.

It’s not the most atmospheric place to stay in Florence, and I say that without complaint. Sometimes you want a hotel to be a hotel.

Monday Afternoon: Medici Chapels, Boboli, Bardini

Medici Chapels

The Cappelle Medicee — the Medici Chapels — are attached to the Basilica di San Lorenzo and contain Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, which is among the most concentrated collections of his sculpture anywhere. The tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici with the allegorical figures of Dawn, Dusk, Night, and Day are in a single room. It’s not a large space. The density of what’s in it is staggering.

Book timed entry in advance. The queue without a reservation moves slowly and in September the afternoon heat makes it worse. I booked through the official Musei del Bargello system — b-ticket.com — which is unglamorous to navigate but functional.

Boboli Gardens

The Boboli Gardens sit behind the Palazzo Pitti and run up a steep hill on the south side of the Arno. They’re large, formal, and in September still green enough to be worth the walk. The amphitheater at the top has a view back over the city. Wear something with grip — the gravel paths on the upper terraces are loose.

Combined ticket with Bardini is available and worth it.

Bardini Garden

The Giardino Bardini is a five-minute walk from Boboli and receives a fraction of the visitors. It’s terraced, with a long central staircase flanked by wisteria frames (spectacular in spring, still handsome in September), and a belvedere terrace at the top with an unobstructed view over the Arno rooftops toward the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio tower.

Go to Bardini before Boboli if you’re doing both in one afternoon. The light is better earlier and the terrace is less crowded before the Boboli overflow arrives.

Tuesday: Cinque Terre Day Trip from Florence

Logistics

The day trip to Cinque Terre from Florence is entirely doable but requires an early start and a hard return deadline.

I was at Santa Maria Novella station (SMN) at 7:30am. The Intercity train to La Spezia takes just under two hours. From La Spezia, the regional train runs along the coast through all five villages — Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso — with stops at each. The whole coastal stretch takes about thirty minutes end to end.

The Cinque Terre Card covers the train between villages and the coastal trails. Buy it at the La Spezia station or the Cinque Terre visitor office. In September, the trails are open (they close after heavy rain), but check the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre site before you go.

Which Villages

With a day trip, you realistically get three villages at a comfortable pace, or five if you’re moving quickly and not lingering.

My order: train to Riomaggiore first (southernmost, less crowded in the morning), walk or train to Manarola (the postcard view of stacked houses above the water), then north to Vernazza for lunch and the harbor. Vernazza has the most intact medieval center and the best lunch options — I ate fried anchovies and focaccia at a place steps from the port.

Monterosso is the largest village and has the only real beach, which makes it the most crowded. I passed through briefly. Corniglia requires climbing a long staircase from the train station to reach the village proper — worth it if you have the time, cuttable if you don’t.

Getting Back

I was on a train back to Florence by 5pm and at SMN by 7pm. That left enough evening in Florence for dinner before an early Wednesday start. If you’re doing this as a self-guided trip, the Cinque Terre day trip from Florence on Viator handles train logistics and gives you a guide who knows the tide of the crowds — useful if it’s your first time navigating the coastal train system.

Wednesday: Florence to Rome via Orvieto

Morning in Florence

I kept Wednesday morning in Florence until about 3pm. That gave me time for one thing done properly: I walked the Oltrarno neighborhood — the south bank of the Arno, quieter than the tourist corridor, with artisan workshops, a few good leather and paper shops, and the kind of streets where Florence feels like a city people live in rather than visit.

The Orvieto Stop

Orvieto is ninety minutes south of Florence on the A1, just off the autostrada, and it earns the detour. The city sits on a volcanic tuff cliff and the Duomo di Orvieto — specifically its west facade — is one of the genuinely surprising things in Italian architecture. The mosaics and relief carvings run from the 14th century through the 20th. I gave it an hour, sat at the wine bar on the main square with a glass of local Orvieto Classico, and was back on the road.

The drive from Orvieto to Rome is about ninety minutes on the A1. I was at the hotel by 9pm.

Gear That Made the Day Trip Easier

The Cinque Terre day trip involves a lot of ground: Florence station walking, coastal trail hiking, village stairs, harbor scrambling. Two things I wouldn’t do it without:

• Walking shoes with real grip — the coastal trail between villages has uneven stone sections and gets slippery. I use the Salomon X Ultra 3, which handles both trail and city pavement without looking absurd in a restaurant.
• A compact day pack — something that holds a water bottle, a layer, and fits under your seat on the train. The Osprey Daylite is 13L and collapses to nothing when empty.

What I’d Do with More Time

Three nights in Florence instead of two. The Uffizi on day one, done properly and without rushing. An afternoon in Fiesole, the hill town above the city with an Etruscan archaeological site and a view of Florence from above. And I’d have given Cinque Terre a full night — staying in Vernazza or Manarola instead of returning the same day changes the experience entirely.

If you’re building out a longer Italy itinerary, the full breakdown of the September 2024 trip — Milan, Monza, Florence, and Rome — is in Milan to Rome: 8 Days in Italy for Under $1,200.Book Tours and Activities

• Florence Walking Tour
• Tuscan Wine Tour

Find Flights to Florence

Book Tours: GetYourGuide skip-the-line Uffizi and Accademia tickets in Florence | GetYourGuide Chianti wine tasting day trips from Florence

Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you. SafetyWing, Skyscanner, Airalo, Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Viator.

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