Blogs from Florence, Tuscany, Italy, Europe

After the Garfagnana national park we booked into a campsite just outside of Florence for 3 nights. We spent 2 full days exploring the city. The first day we went to the famous Uffizi Gallery which displays many Renaissance masterpieces, the Vecchio Palace - well worth the effort if you want a crash course in ancient mythology - and the Piazza della Signoria filled with sculptures and tourists. The crowds were overwhelming. On the second day after getting in early to see David by Michelangelo at the Academy Gallery and inside the gigantic Cathedral we went across the river and walked along the quieter and more traditional streets to get a feel for Florence (away from Gucci stores). Florence was extremely busy but really rewarding with so much art, architecture and history to absorb. Next on ... read more

We roll into Florence by midday, and relaxedly wander through town. We have lunch at a nearby vegetarian cafe, bveg, and head to the Duomo via a high end shopping district. We grab gelato at the first gelato shop we see, where the servers wear little sailor hats, and the cones are stacked into cone trees. The fruit sorbet looks enticingly icy. We encounter over ten more gelato vendors in our walk; there are gelato shops every other corner in the center of town. The streets are narrow but the traffic is not as chaotic as in Naples. Blond buildings uniformly have dark green or brown shutters as we walk from the area southwest of the train station eastward. Suddenly the Duomo looms ahead above the buildings, a terracotta dome on a basilica with dramatic white ... read more

“It’s red-brick roofs and pastel-yellow coloured houses!” “Yes, MORE of red roofs and yellow buildings, look there!” Besides the main attractions drawing us in, that was perhaps my strongest impression of Firenze, as it is fondly called in Italian. Like Venice, this beautiful city was flooded with tourists and travelers alike, looking to embrace the centre of medieval European times. I was very impressed with the initial sightings, while walking along the streets towards our hostel. The architecture was distinctly different from the rest of the cities thus far, not surprising considering the accolades given to her, such as being the ‘birthplace of Renaissance’. More importantly for her I guess, it seems like the city resides the highest concentration of art, proudly flaunting its legendary artistic heritage. From the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace to ... read more