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| Florence from the top of the Bell tower |
This is not my first time in Italy. I've been to Rome for a weekend for a U2 concert/sightseeing some years back, and it didn't disappoint at all, I loved it and felt very at home. This time it was Erik doing the planning, that led us to the North of Italy for a week.
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| View of the Bell Tower from the city streets |
The trip started with flying to Milano (but our luggage didn't catch up), staying overnight there then taking the train to Florence the next morning. Erik has booked us into a little bed & breakfast, that although nothing special was clean and cozy, very cute and smack in the centre of Florence, walking distance from all the sights (and on a street with a lot of very expensive designer shops: Prada, Fendi and the likes).
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| Ceiling in the baptistry |
It's a very beautiful city Florence. The narrow streets with the old buildings, the restaurants, the shops, the sights...We started our tour by visiting the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, it's still active so the church part you can see for free, but you can also buy a ticket and visit the baptistry, the bell tower, the dome, the crypt and the museum. Be warned though! the Dome needs time slot booking in advance.
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| Floor inside the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore |
We skipped the crypt, but went into everything else, after the Cathedral itself, we bought the tickets and went into the Baptistry, the bell tower and the museum. The insides of these things! People spent a lot of time and money on these buildings, huge paintings on the ceilings, amazing marble floors, etc...both the Cathedral itself and the baptistry are examples of that. Those floors! 😍
The museum was also good, some of the pieces are really impressive works of art, so if you like museums in general, see this one.
The bell tower requires some degree of fitness, but the view from the top is really awesome, the whole of Florence with the hills around it and the Arno river. Day 1 dinner: Pizza! 😁
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| Basilica di San Lorenzo |
Day 2 started with some shopping due to the lost luggage that still didn't catch up to us. Then us heading towards the Basilica di San Lorenzo, another impressive display of money spent by the Medicis on religious greatness. San Lorenzo was of the Medici family himself and this one is even more impressive marble work than what we saw the day before!
One must see in Florence is of course the statue of David (of David and Goliath) by Michelangelo, so next stop was Galleria dell'Accademia where the original one stands today, after hesitating a little by the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and deciding not to go in.
David is so impressive! First of all, he was a lot bigger than I expected, I thought a 2-3 meter thing, but he's over 5m tall! I was very impressed by the state of it to start with, it could've been made yesterday. And it's so detailed and so accurate. I appreciate art in many forms but I also like lifelike creations. David looked lifelike, the proportionality of his features and body in general is perfect. New level of respect for Michelangelo!
On the way back I dragged Erik into the Palazzo Medici anyway. I mean I don't want to regret not going in which now I don't since I did go in, but it's nothing special unless you're interested in the current exhibition held there specifically.
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| Basilica di San Lorenzo |
One must see in Florence is of course the statue of David (of David and Goliath) by Michelangelo, so next stop was Galleria dell'Accademia where the original one stands today, after hesitating a little by the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and deciding not to go in.
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| David of Michelangelo |
David is so impressive! First of all, he was a lot bigger than I expected, I thought a 2-3 meter thing, but he's over 5m tall! I was very impressed by the state of it to start with, it could've been made yesterday. And it's so detailed and so accurate. I appreciate art in many forms but I also like lifelike creations. David looked lifelike, the proportionality of his features and body in general is perfect. New level of respect for Michelangelo!
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| David of Michelangelo |
On the way back I dragged Erik into the Palazzo Medici anyway. I mean I don't want to regret not going in which now I don't since I did go in, but it's nothing special unless you're interested in the current exhibition held there specifically.
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| View from Piazzale Michelangelo |
After this I requested a walk through the local market to see what they have there. The answer was Leather. Loads of it, in all shapes and forms: bags, shoes, wallets, jackets, coats, and the works. But it's clearly aimed at tourists who are expecting great leather products from Italy, and what you find there isn't the greatest...Mercato di San Lorenzo turned out to be just a food market, similar to Oslo's Mathallen but bigger. Well, too bad.
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| On Ponte Vecchio |
I think a lot of government managed museums are free on Sundays by the way! We got into both the Basilica of San Lorenzo and Galeria dell'Accademia for free.
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| Ponte Vecchio |
We spent the rest of the evening walking around the town, we headed towards the Arno and looked at Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge), then crossed the Arno and walked about towards Piazzale Michelangelo: This is an open area on a hill with a view of Florence, great for taking panoramic photos but super crowded, so you'll have to fight to get to the front and take those photos. I managed some (of course 😎). Crossed the Arno back to the city center on the Ponte Vecchio with all its street artists and little shops and today we decided to go to a nicer restaurant than yesterday's blah pizzeria, and ended up in a relatively fancy Italian restaurant. Day 2 dinner: Not pizza.
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| View from the Dome |
The third day was the day we were leaving Florence, but since our time slot for the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore was today at 13:00, we had the morning to wander around the different squares some more. We've already been through Piazza della Republica, Piazza della Signoria and Piazza Santa Maria Novella, so today we walked along the Arno towards Santa Croce. We didn't go into the Basilica but walked through the gallery of statues they have there, onto the Piazza Santa Croce, then Piazza della Signoria again where they also have some statues on display, took a coffee there, wandered around some more and found a super cute shop making and selling wood articles of all sorts, clocks, puzzle games, key chains, cups, etc...called Bartolucci. It's like being in a fairy tale, we did leave some money behind 😄, then sat a bit in the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata just because we ended up there before it was time to climb up to the Dome.
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| Inside the Dome |
This thing is even higher than the Bell Tower and the view even a bit more splendid. If you appreciate architecture and construction, you'll be impressed by how this dome was built too. Even the architect himself wasn't sure this method will work, it was so innovative at the time (I won't bore you with details, google it).
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| Piazza della Signoria |
The last thing I did in Florence was to go fabric shopping! Yippeee! I had no clue where the shops are, but I googled and selected a few at random. Started with the posh streets and visited Casa del Tessuti and (if I remember correctly) Valli Tessuti. Gorgeous stuff, but I wasn't going to spent 200 euros per meter. The third stop was a lot better. Hidden behind all the leather street sellers in the market is Bacci tessuti. These guys are fabric heaven. Great store, great selection, very helpful staff and normal prices. Went out of there with a beautiful wool mix piece in red and black that'll become a dress this autumn/winter so watch this space 😉
Hotel in Milano: Club Hotel, 3 stars, impression: meh...
Hotel in Florence: Hotel Scotti, 1 star, impression: super cute and cozy.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures! I am so jealous you:)
ReplyDeletehaha :D You're welcome! I can say the same about you, you live in a country I'd love to visit! Japan is like this amazing mythical creature for me :)
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