*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026
Hello friends! How are you? Did you have a good Christmas break? I absolutely love these days in-between Christmas and New Year’s – made for lounging in your comfy pants, eating leftovers, and watching alllll the movies. We’ve been doing plenty of that, while also fitting in lots of time with families and loved ones. It’s the best time of year, and I love every single second of it. I’m dropping in today for just the briefest of moments to share this: Florence in December. A quick recap about our trip to the Tuscan capital two short weeks ago. I had intended on posting this before Christmas to get us all in the mood, but then life happened. We got stuck in Italy for an extra few days, I was behind on my Christmas gifting, my self-inflicted job got in the way, etc. etc. Better late than never, right?
I might sound like a broken record, but there is already a couple Florence travel guides on the blog. Florence is my absolute favourite spot in all of Italy – followed closely by Bologna – and I find it hard not to share new discoveries here when I get home. That is more true today than ever before, because this is the first time I’ve been able to experience Florence in the wintertime, and gosh it is so magical. Before our trip, I had no idea what to expect from Florence in December, but I was truly blown away by how festive the entire city was! Fiancé & I tried our very best to capture a tiny portion of that magic through these photos, and so, in order to let the images speak for themselves, I’ve made a concerted effort to keep my recommendations brief and to the point. Enjoy, friends!
PS! All of my old guides are updated and fact-checked regularly, so they’re all still as relevant today as they were the day they were published. If you’d like to read them: Italian Adventures in Florence / An Ode to Florence / Three days in Florence.
before you visit
Just a few things to keep in mind if you’re thinking of visiting Florence in December!
the weather is unpredictable. It rained rained rained all day every day of our long weekend in the city. As someone who genuinely enjoys a good downpour of rain, this didn’t bother me, but it might not be what you want.
related: even when it stopped raining for brief periods, the nooks and crannies of the charming old Florentine cobblestones perfectly held any of the rainfall that came their way previously. We ended up with a wet foot or two during our time walking around. You have been warned.
aside from the rain, it was actually a little cold! I think the weather dropped to something like 6°C — how joyous! It was so nice to be able to be in my favourite city, wearing a nice cozy jumper, and to not be sweating. Who even knew you could visit Florence without sweating?! A true dream!
getting there
We actually had a rather nightmarish time getting into Florence this time ’round, but here’s the details anyways:
we flew direct from Dublin to Pisa with Ryanair, which normally takes about 2.5-hours. We had done this in the past and it has always been totally fine, but this time we were subjected to horrible HORRIBLE travel delays. On the day of our flight, Dublin was doused with a light layer of ice/frost, and, unsurprisingly, the airport only had one working de-icer and was barely able to handle the pressure. We were moved around the airport countless times and delayed by 5+ hours — but at least our flight wasn’t cancelled.
when we did finally arrive in Pisa, it was after 1am. I was mentally prepared to sleep in the train station overnight, but we somehow lucked out & managed to get a bus from the airport directly into Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Train Station! The company was called Sky Bus Lines Caronna, and it was €25 per person, one way. I believe they might wait for the last flight of the night to arrive, because we managed to get onboard despite arriving a good 30-minutes after their scheduled departure. The bus took approx 1-hour to get into Florence.