Thirty-seven minutes on a high-speed Frecciarossa or Italo train from Bologna Centrale, and you are in the centre of Florence, at Santa Maria Novella station, standing on the flat valley floor of the Arno basin. Trains run multiple times per hour. A standard second-class fare costs €10 to 20 if booked in advance through Trenitalia or Italo's websites.
The Termal Bologna Marathon runs on the first Saturday of March. Florence in late winter is exactly when you want to be there. The summer queues outside the Uffizi - sometimes stretching the length of the Piazza della Signoria - do not exist in March. The streets of the Oltrarno are cold but navigable. The Piazza del Duomo in the early morning, before the coach parties arrive, belongs almost entirely to pigeons and locals crossing to work.
Moving Around the City
Florence has a hill problem only if you let it. The historic core along the Arno is remarkably level, and if you stay within the triangle formed by the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and Santa Croce, your legs will face nothing more demanding than the occasional uneven paving stone.
The Uffizi Gallery - the collection of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian that the Medici assembled and the Italian state maintains - should be pre-booked (uffizi.it, approximately €26 in March). In March, a timed booking gives you the rooms at a pace that the summer queues prohibit.
The Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio are free. The Ponte Vecchio - the covered bridge with jewellers' shops extending over the Arno - is at its most photogenic in the morning light before the crowds arrive.
The Oltrarno (south bank) is flatter in character than the north bank districts. The Piazzale Michelangelo and the Boboli Gardens both involve significant climbing from the river level and are inadvisable on post-marathon legs. Stay on the valley floor.
Where to Eat
Trattoria Mario on Via Rosina, in the Mercato Centrale, serves lunch only - a crowded, fast, excellent Florentine kitchen with shared tables, a chalkboard menu, and no concessions to tourism beyond accepting the tourists who find it. The ribollita (the Tuscan bread and vegetable soup that is specifically a March dish) and the bistecca alla fiorentina (if the legs survived the marathon and appetite has returned) are the relevant orders.
Mercato Centrale itself - the covered market on Via dell'Ariento - is the correct Saturday morning destination: fresh pasta, Chianina beef, truffles from the Mugello hills, and the particular atmosphere of a Florentine food market that has been operating since 1874.
Getting Back
Frecciarossa and regional services from Santa Maria Novella to Bologna Centrale run throughout the afternoon and evening. The last high-speed services depart around 22:00.