Adriatic Trip, Day 4: Venice to Florence

Friday, June 13, 2025

Today was the first of the intercity train journeys of the Italy tour. Our Tauck tour arranged for us to ride one of Italy’s high-speed trains from Venice to Florence. But getting to the train was much of the fun: first we boarded a water taxi to take us to our bus, then the bus to the train station.

The train station was quite busy. Alexa explained that train travel is very popular in Italy, partly due to the country’s size and shape. The train was clean, modern, and indeed fast, traveling at about 150 miles per hour. Our route featured a diverse range of scenery, from the coastal plain through farmland, followed by a mountainous stretch that included several tunnels.

On arrival in Florence, we boarded another small bus and rode to our hotel, the Hotel Bernini Palace. We arrived in the late morning, so we began with a short introduction to art history in Florence from a local guide, followed by lunch. We then set out on a walking tour of Florence, which is a very compact and walkable city. Our tour took us to one of the highlights of Florence, the Galleria dell’Accademia, where we had the opportunity to see Michelangelo’s David, a true highlight of our tour. Even from the far end of the room in which it is displayed, David has an amazing presence and detail that shows him sizing up Goliath before taking him down.

In the evening, we walked around a bit more, hoping to visit the Basilica of Santa Croce, where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. However, the area was closed off for the annual Calcio Storico Fiorentino tournament. Our guide explained that this is a soccer- or rugby-like game with very few rules other than “no weapons”. The tournament is a competition between different Florence neighborhoods.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.