Florence or "Firenze" is an amazing city filled with magnificent
Gothic architecture and sculptures . Firenze is home to the famous
Michelangelo's David sculpture, famous designers like Prada, Gucci, Chanel,
impressive Italian leather. As you take a stroll through the streets of
Firenze, you will find yourself surrounded with amazing work of art, beautiful
massive architecture, sculptures, breathtaking cathedrals, grand churches, and
of course, Chanel, Prada, and Gucci. These shops and boutiques are
located on Via de' Tornabuoni street, at the center of Firenze, there is no way
for you to miss it, you will accidentally run into it once or twice on your
stroll through Firenze. If this is your second stop in your travel to
Italy or first, Firenze is where I would suggest buying you gifts, replica
sculptures, beautiful genuine leather bag or a shirt, apron or boxer of
Michelangelo's David's magnificent part like the picture below, it will sure be
the talk among your family or friends.
Suggestions & Tips
Comparing Firenze to Roma, Firenze is significantly smaller than Rome, yet
just as impressive in its own right. Firenze is a city small enough that I
would suggest spending at most 2 days but can easily be explore in 1 day.
Some things to do before arriving in Firenze, only if you must see the real
David's sculpture otherwise, you can easily skip this suggestion below.
Make reservations in advance for the
Galleria d'ell Accademia and the
Uffizi Gallery, the cost is extra for reservation but will spare 2-3
hours of standing in line (the entrance cost is the same both the Accademia and
the Uffizi, 6.50 euros if you stand in line and 10.5 euros if you call ahead).
Your hotel conceirge can make these reservations for you and you can request
certain time if you make book it in advance, however, if you go to Italy
off-peak, between Nov-March, this will not be an issue. The reservation
line is good for both Accademia and the Uffizi:
055/294883; the
reservationist speak English).
Personally, I did not find the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery as
impressive as the Vatican in Rome, they are both much smaller in scale, with
less interesting art work, and ended up costing more. I must say, I was
quite impress with Michelangelo's David sculpture, knowing that Michelangelo
sculpted David from one single block of marble as he imagine in his mind, is
just amazing.
The famous sculpture of David is hosted at the Accademia however you can not
take any pictures (not knowing this, I did get a picture of the actual David,
standing 17 feet tall, impressive) of it and that is the main reason why people
do go to the Accademia. The Accademia is about 8 small rooms or so with the
main room/hallway with David, one room dedicated to sculptures, one smaller room
of musical instruments, one small dedicate to Christianity's paintings, and a
couple of smaller rooms of Biblical paintings.
David's replica is also available for picture and admiration at
Piazza
della Signoria in front of the
Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall of
Florence). So if you want to save your money, you can take plenty of pictures
of David here, in addition, across from the Piazza della Signoria, there is
Loggia
dei Lanzi (also known as Loggia dei Signoria) with replica sculptures such
as the
Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa, the Medici
Lions, and many other famous sculptures. I thought the town hall was much more
impressive than both the Uffizi and the Accademia. Firenze is one of those
cities where you don't need to go museums to see impressive artwork, Firenze
itself is a giant museum, out in the open, available to the public, completely
for free. Its a place you can really stroll along all day, stopping along
the way for a scoop of gelato or a cup of latte.
A couple of attractions that I highly recommend paying for are:
Giotto's bell tower (Campanile di Giotto) with about 400+ steps
to the top with a panaromic view of Florence, costing
6 euros.Its a
great spot for you amateur photographers or those who just want to see the view
of Florence.
Boboli Gardens (Giardini Boboli) 9 euros - its
relaxing but you have to be willing to walk and explore. We spent about 2 hours
walking through museums and then the gardens. **one suggestion - diagonal from
the entrance is a little grocery store, we bought some cheeses, salami or
salame picante (equivalent to our pepperoni as pepperoni is not known as that
in Italy) and a bottle of (Chianti - even for 3 or 4 euros, its great)
wine to take in with us.**
Now if you are in Firenze longer than 1 day, I suggest taking the train
to
Siena for wine tasting or
Pisa.
Train
tickets are about
7-11 euros or
rent a car for
the day
35-50 euros per day would have been a better way to go
then do one of those tours. We booked this tour using those advertising
pamphlets available in the hotel (there were about 5 or 6 different tour
groups). There were tours for 1/2 day Pisa for 75 euros, full day for 150
euros, 1/2 day Siena/Chianti Wine tasting 55 euros, full day Siena/Chianti 75
euros. We wanted to do a Chianti wine tour, we booked a full day tour for 75
euros per person, meeting spot was about two blocks from our hotel. We did
Siena, Chianti, and
San Gimignano tour and looking back, we could have
saved ourselves 150 euros and got a better experience by taking the train or
renting a car. The tour stated that we would go to
Sant'Appiano for Wine
tasting and snacks were included, so we expected at least a bottle of wine and
a cheese and deli spread, nope, what we got was and I am not kidding you, a
small plastic appetizer bowl with one thinly (i mean paper thin, see through)
piece of proscuitto, a tiny piece of dried up italian bread (the side of a
dollar ripped in half) and a drizzle of olive oil, 4 sips of chianti, not a
shot, but rather think of a shot glass, half a shot of wine. I am including the
picture below.
My suggestion is rent a car for the day, book your
Chianti wine tasting reservation online, it will much more reasonable than
doing a tour.
If you are looking to shop for leather, Firenze is the place to bargain for
a nice leather bag or briefcase. Whatever the price is, you can negotiate for
20-40 euros less, if the one shop will not negotiate, the one next door will,
so keep that in mind when you shop.
As for food, find a restaurant that does not charge a cover fee, we got some
suggestions from the hotel conceirge and we liked it so much that we went back
there for two dinners and one lunch. I suggest getting a quart or pint of house
wine, the house chianti never disappoints and so reasonable in price (3-9
euros, depending on the restaurant). I'll blog more about food in Italy
shortly, food would be a big blog for me. I am a bit of a food snob, I love to
eat but I only love to eat good food, not just anything. More to come on food.
Have a great time in Firenze, feel free to send me a comment, email or a
twit if you want more details that I did not cover here.
