Our three days in Florence, Italy!

Oh Florence! A good friend had told me that I would love this city, that she had spent a week in this city on her own a few years ago and had a grand old time, but I still came into Florence with low expectations. Well, was I proven wrong! I loved Florence and it ended up being my favorite city in all of Italy. I loved the size, the beauty, the safety and the life you could live in it. What an awesome and amazing place.

Wandering around Florence

We arrived in Florence after a long day touring a Parmigiano Reggiano factory and balsamic vinegar producer and met our apartment host in the heart of the city. One thing that was good about arriving later was that the restrictions on the no-driving area of the city were not active, so we could drive right up to the apartment and drop the car off. (As an FYI, almost every city in Italy has these restrictions and if you accidentally drive into the city center during the restricted hours they capture your license plate and charge you hundreds of euros … no thank you!).

To give you a little background, Florence is very small city (shout to small cities!) of ~100 square kilometers and less than 400,000 people. There is disagreement as to when it was founded, with dates anywhere from 200 BC to 59 BC. Much of the city’s history revolves around the Medici family, who ruled the city for hundreds of years.

The best part of this city is just wandering around and getting lost in all the streets. On our first full day in Florence I needed some alone time and so Damian and Merritt explored on their own and I explored on my own. I just had my bag, my trusty map and a few anchor points, and off I went!

The first thing, of course, like all the Italian cities, was that all the buildings and architecture were super old and super cute. It was so neat to just roam in and out of small streets and alleys, to come across a piazza (plaza) on my way and see so many fun things. The first picture on the left below is the Palazzo Vecchio, an old palace and residence of the Medici family, and the picture below that is of Via de’ Tomabuoni, Florence’s high-end shopping street.

I then walked over to check out the Arno river. In addition to loving small cities, I love cities that have a river running through them, so Florence really got the double whammy here. There is a famous bridge called Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio has a ton of jewelry shops in little buildings running across it. It was neat to see just because it is a thing in Florence, but the views of the river itself were way more awesome for me.

Later in my day of walking around I swung back around to the river to see what it looked like at sunset, and it definitely did not disappoint. These may be some of my favorite sunset shots from our entire time in Italy!

Also while exploring I wandered into some random fun stuff. On the left below is a temporary installation in the Palazzo Strozi. You could go up to the third floor and take these slides down (which Damian and I did a couple days later!). Aside from being fun it is also a science experiment. Some of the people coming down the slide carry plants, and then those plants are being studied alongside plants that went down on their own, to see the effect of screaming and laughter on their growth. The study will be published in a few weeks and my MIT side is interested in seeing what it says!

The right picture above is of some handmade paper from one of the local shops. I confess, I am a stationary addict (let’s not even discuss the number of purchased-but-unused-because-they-are-pristine-and-special notebooks I own). These stationary shops usually had places where you could see this paper being made (by floating the inks on water, making designs on top of the water and then dipping the paper on top of it) and sold all sorts of items using the paper. If we weren’t traveling (and thus carrying stuff), oh the things I would have purchased …

One of my favorite parts of wandering was discovering pieces of “mini-street art” around the city. I started noticing that some of the “do not enter” signs (normally red with a simple white dash) had been transformed into little cartoons by some secret street artist. Once I saw a couple I started seeing them everywhere and they just put a smile on my face!

It actually reminded me of Praia da Pipa’s “mini-street art” in a way. Below is a sample of some of them, and it really shows how Florence truly is an art city, in every way! (By the way, wouldn’t this be such a great “prompt” for a graphic design class? Such a basic concept but with infinite directions it could go in!)

And then, finally, one place I didn’t wander to (because it was too hot) was the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a plaza across the river from the historic center and after climbing up to the top you get some pretty amazing views. Damian and Merritt did head over there so I included one of their pictures from it below!

Michelangelo’s David

Ok there was one other thing I did on my own, but it was so awesome that I had to put it in a separate section. To start with, none of us ended up going to the Uffizi Gallery, Florence’s biggest art museum, because lines to get in were two hours long and advance tickets were sold out for a full week. But, there was one piece I needed to see, and that was Michelangelo’s David.

The original statue, from the early 1500s, is at the Galleria dell’Accademia (there is a replica outside the Palazzo Vecchio and it just isn’t the same), and when I went there in the afternoon the wait was also about two hours long. I decided to return about an hour and a half before closing time and waited less than 15 minutes to get in. This was plenty of time for me because there isn’t too much else in the gallery. And well, it was stunning. I mean, just look at it.

I spent a good 45 minutes just walking around the statue and admiring it. It is amazing how Michelangelo got the veins and muscles and undulations of the body just right, especially with a material as unforgiving as marble. I remember taking Mr. Vieth’s art class in high school and even just making hands out of clay seemed impossible!

However, what made it extra cool was the hallway leading up to the David. Along this hallway there were 5-6 of Michelangelo’s unfinished statues and it was so neat to see the process of his work. I mean, look at all the chisel marks, every single one of those is a result of a hand tap, and it just brings to life how much work and effort goes into each piece!

I also learned a bit about the process of how these statues were made. First, the sculptor usually made a plaster model – much quicker and easier to manipulate – as a guide for the marble statue. Then, he/she would use metal rods to measure the depth of different parts of the form in the plaster (for example, if he/she was starting with a plaster or marble block, the nose would end at 1 foot in from the edge, while the chin maybe would end at 1.25 feet in from the edge). Then, the sculptor would use these measurements and drill metal rods into the actual marble piece he/she was going to use for the full sculpture, so that he/she didn’t go too far in the initial cuts. You can see one of the metal rods still left in the unfinished sculpture in the picture on the left above. Pretty neat, eh?

Florence’s Duomo, Tower and more!

After wandering around on our own, it was time for me and Damian to reconnect, yay! We decided to head to the main cathedral of Florence, called the Duomo, and its surrounding complex. Immediately upon stepping into the Piazza del Duomo, I was awestruck. Honestly, this might be one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen and I can’t wait to get back home and decorate everything in pink and green.

We didn’t go into the Duomo cathedral itself because there was another two-hour line and I had seen online that it is pretty plain inside, but we did plenty of other exploring! First, we headed across the walkway to the baptistry. I still find it crazy that there is an entire building for just baptisms (I mean, how many could there be happening in any given day?), but whatever floats your boat. The baptistry was decorated in a similar color scheme on the outside and had the most gilded interior. It really was beautiful.

We then headed over to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, which is the official museum of the Duomo. I have to say, this is one of the most well put together museums I have ever been to! When you first enter you see a recreation of the walkway between the Duomo and the baptistry, with the Duomo as it was in 1587 on the left and the original doors of the baptistry on the right. These doors were called the “Gates of Paradise” by Michelangelo, partially because of the amazing work by Lorenzo Ghiberti and because these doors are where the baptized walked to leave the baptistry and enter the Duomo.

The rest of the museum was just as well done, and it was especially neat to watch a video where we learned about the architecture and physics behind what was, at the time, an untested and first-of-its-kind dome! After, we headed to a “secret” viewing spot to look over the city (and the Duomo). We went to the Piazza della Repubblica and went into the La Rinscente department store – then we went all the way to the top (escalators first and then the stairs). We got to their café and were rewarded with a pretty sweet view!

Our next stop was the Basilica di Santa Croce, which is where Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante and a number of others are buried. The outside of this church was made it the same beautiful style as the Duomo, and of course I loved it! The inside, however, was also super ornate. I really enjoy a good set of stained glass windows and this didn’t disappoint.

We wandered around a bunch in here (there’s a ton to see, especially stuff that was recovered and restored from the tragic floods in Florence in 1966. But the pièce de resistance was Michelangelo’s tomb. I still find it a little creepy that his body was put in this marble coffin and is just there, sort of, well, rotting away, but I guess that is what they did back thing. I did like the symbolism of the three angels representing art, sculpture and architecture mourning his death.

And then, our final activity was climbing the Duomo tower! You can see it to the right of the Duomo below and, if you’ve been reading this blog, you know that climbing high things in cities is sort of our favorite (see here, here and here). As usual, my knees weren’t super happy but it was so worth it. What was extra nice was that they had platforms to stop at and look out from along the way.

This tower is 85 meters high and has 414 steps to get to the top. Even though the platforms were awesome, I know they don’t (yet) match the awesomeness of the trivia and progress markers on the Statue of Liberty steps that I just read about in Hannah’s blog, but the views make up for it!

And then, once we got to the top, WOW. The views were literally breathtaking. We just kept walking around in circles looking at the city, pointing out fun sights and, of course, taking pictures. If there is one thing I think everyone who goes to Florence should do (if they physically and emotionally can), it is climbing up this tower!

Up next

There was so much more that we didn’t get to do in Florence and I really hope to return again one day. The Galileo museum looked totally fascinating, the Uffizi is a classic of course, and then all the more wandering and eating (food and gelato) and drinking.

I am so glad we got to explore this city and, in hindsight, I may have cut a day or two off our Rome trip and added it to Florence. But, it just means a reason to return! Next up will be our drive to Rome, with a stop in some little thermal bath towns and at an amazing Brunello winery!

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Read more about our time in Italy using the links below:

• Italy Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Italy – The plan for our six weeks here
• Italy – Visiting Pisa – the Leaning Tower and the Luminara festival
• Italy – Our day in Lucca
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 1: Montecarlo (Tuscany)
• Italy – Four days in Bologna
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 2: a vineyard in the Chianti region (Tuscany)
• Italy – Wineries and wine tasting in Chianti
• Italy – One day in Siena!
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 3: Emilia Romagna
• Italy – Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory and Balsamic Vinegar producer tours
• Italy – Hiking Cinque Terre
• Italy – Our three days in Florence (you are here!)
• Italy – Brunello wine tasting and visiting thermal baths
• Italy – Our three days in Rome