Come hell or high water, I knew I'd have to visit Florence while in Italy again. Albeit, it was only a day trip, we thoroughly enjoyed our time under the Tuscan sun.
Florence has always been a dream city for me. Honestly, I really wanted to pay a visit to the birthplace of the Renaissance because of my strange adoration for Hannibal Lecter, but also to be able to say I have enjoyed one of my favorite blends of wine {"...a nice Chianti"} in it's home region. Yeah. I really do like Chanti, and it has nothing to do with Hannibal the Cannibal.
We started our day off by catching the Frecciarossa (high speed) train at Rome Termini station. I had already purchased our fare while vacation planning, so it was nice not having to deal with ticket machines or the queues at a service desk.
The trip to Florence via high speed train was an hour and a half long (Note: The cheaper, slower train takes about 3 hours, one way). I was slightly worried that the 1.5 hrs would still feel too long, but the time actually passed pretty quickly. The train was quiet, clean, comfortable, and equipped with decent magazines and catalogs. More importantly, the scenery was beautiful.
Our train dumped us off at Santa Maria Novella station; right in the heart of Florence. I was immediately ready to start exploring, but my family was ready to eat lunch even though it was only 10am. Hungry kids (and husband) means grouchy kids (and husband).
We found food nearby, then we set off to the Duomo.
It's super hard to miss this ginormous cathedral when visiting Florence. There's that saying that "All roads lead to Rome", but I'm going to go ahead and coin my own phrase about Florence: "All roads lead to the Duomo".
From almost anywhere in the city, the cathedral dome and Giotto's Bell Tower catch your eye. There wasn't even a need to bust out my phone GPS and figure out how to get there: The tower served as a beacon, and it was as simple as walking toward it.
Along the west facade of the cathedral, a line forms to enter the main sanctuary.
It. Was. Loooong.
But I refused to miss seeing the inside of this place being a first time visitor to the city.
The queue passed pretty fast, and within 20 minutes, we were inside.
*For future visitors, again, this is a cathedral that is strict about dress code.
I hate to say it, I really do, but the inside of this cathedral was a bummer. Very lackluster when compared to the exterior. I've visited smaller, less popular, cathedrals in Europe with more "wow" and no line to get in.
But I will counter with this: The exterior of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is a visual delight. No doubt about it. In that regard, I feel as if it is one of the most beautiful we've seen.
With keeping good time and no real attraction in mind, we wandered our way to Piazza della Repubblica. The square is gorgeous in the simplest of ways: A city arch (formally called "Arcone"), a lovely carousel, and we also encountered a soprano opera singer belting tunes for donations. For the record, she sang like a nightingale.
Piazza della Signoria was way busier than I expected. I was extremely excited to see Palazzo Vecchio in person, though we opted not to go inside (it's a ticketed attraction; the city town hall that also doubles as a lavish palace).
Making our way to the Arno river, I knew what would come next: Ponte Vecchio.
This bridge is a huge landmark in the city and is rumored to have ties to Hitler.
It has been said that when he paid a visit to Florence, he expressed his admiration for this bridge and promised to help it stay protected during the war.
Maybe he really said it, maybe he didn't?
Because of my European history background, I'm going to go ahead and say that Hitler also loved his German land and her cities, and in some cases, that love wasn't enough to save them from the bombings of Allied forces during WWII...just sayin'.
My educated guess is that this bridge withstanding the war had nothing to do with Hitler. However, it sure is neato! That much is true.
We still had loads of time to kill. I thought we would have spent a lot more time waiting to get into the cathedral, thus we had no reason to rush through Florence before having to catch our train in the evening. I had Boboli Gardens on my 'maybe' itinerary list, and once we factored the time left in our day, we knew it was do-able. We walked to Ponte alle Grazi, crossed the river, and headed to Piazza dei Pitti.
Once we hit Piazza dei Pitti, I was a bit confused.
The Boboli Garden website explained the entrance was here, but Google maps didn't seem to agree. We bought some slushies and chilled out for a minute so I could assess what to do next.
Come to find out, in order to access the gardens, you have to go into the same ticket office for Museo degli Argenti (the arch ways in the lower right side of the photo below are where the garden ticket office is). There were two types of tickets, so I purchased the one with the gardens included. The same ticket also gave us admittance to some of the smaller galleries within the Museo degli Argenti. FYI.
It was starting to warm up, so we walked to the west side of the gardens.
The gardens are dusty as all get out, and water fountains are scarce. Luckily we stumbled upon a drinking fountain and were able to fill up our bottles.
Even after doing so, we were becoming a bit bored. The gardens are pretty, but the humidity was beginning to get to us and I was a little disappointed there weren't more colors (in other words, flowers). Was it green? Oh, yes. But visually, it wasn't the most beautiful garden space I have seen, and not because of the lack of flowers.
Before we knew it, we had to catch our train back to Rome after eating dinner.
I am ever so grateful to have been able to visit Florence. It wasn't what I imagined it to be, though. Movies sure do romanticise this place. I feel as if Florence is more for people who want to shop. I don't travel to shop.
Is it beautiful? Yes. But it is very touristy, and I was crossing my fingers it wouldn't feel as such. I may piss some people off, but even Rome seemed less touristy than Florence. Just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...
There are a few things I really wanted to do in Florence that I didn't have the chance to do.
I would have loved to see a sunset along the river. I have zero photos of night photography while visiting Florence, and that's one of my favorite things to do while visiting any city.
Also, we did pay a visit to Accademia Gallery, but because I didn't want to pay the online mark-up ticket prices, we chose to wing it once there. The queue was terrible as I assume it'd be. Because we only had nine hours in this city, I didn't want to spend three of them waiting in line to see the David. My advice: Buck up and just buy the tickets online. The advanced ticket thing has paid off for every other city we've visited.
I did want to get the views from the bell tower or the Duomo, but I wasn't so butt-hurt about missing out once we visited the Boboli Gardens and were able to see some neat views from there.
Bottom line, I would visit again, but I would definitely plan stay at least one night. If anything, I would love to explore more of Tuscany outside of Florence, in smaller towns.
Alrighty, y'all, I have one more post regarding our Italian adventures and then it's on to France!
Next vacation post: The Smallest & Holiest Country in the World: Vatican City
But... before that, I will be posting about our two year anniversary of living abroad. So much has happened in the past two years, and I can't help but reflect upon it all: The highs, the lows, and everything in between.
Ciao, dudes!
Florence has always been a dream city for me. Honestly, I really wanted to pay a visit to the birthplace of the Renaissance because of my strange adoration for Hannibal Lecter, but also to be able to say I have enjoyed one of my favorite blends of wine {"...a nice Chianti"} in it's home region. Yeah. I really do like Chanti, and it has nothing to do with Hannibal the Cannibal.
We started our day off by catching the Frecciarossa (high speed) train at Rome Termini station. I had already purchased our fare while vacation planning, so it was nice not having to deal with ticket machines or the queues at a service desk.
The trip to Florence via high speed train was an hour and a half long (Note: The cheaper, slower train takes about 3 hours, one way). I was slightly worried that the 1.5 hrs would still feel too long, but the time actually passed pretty quickly. The train was quiet, clean, comfortable, and equipped with decent magazines and catalogs. More importantly, the scenery was beautiful.
Our train dumped us off at Santa Maria Novella station; right in the heart of Florence. I was immediately ready to start exploring, but my family was ready to eat lunch even though it was only 10am. Hungry kids (and husband) means grouchy kids (and husband).
We found food nearby, then we set off to the Duomo.
It's super hard to miss this ginormous cathedral when visiting Florence. There's that saying that "All roads lead to Rome", but I'm going to go ahead and coin my own phrase about Florence: "All roads lead to the Duomo".
From almost anywhere in the city, the cathedral dome and Giotto's Bell Tower catch your eye. There wasn't even a need to bust out my phone GPS and figure out how to get there: The tower served as a beacon, and it was as simple as walking toward it.
Along the west facade of the cathedral, a line forms to enter the main sanctuary.
It. Was. Loooong.
But I refused to miss seeing the inside of this place being a first time visitor to the city.
The queue passed pretty fast, and within 20 minutes, we were inside.
*For future visitors, again, this is a cathedral that is strict about dress code.
I hate to say it, I really do, but the inside of this cathedral was a bummer. Very lackluster when compared to the exterior. I've visited smaller, less popular, cathedrals in Europe with more "wow" and no line to get in.
But I will counter with this: The exterior of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is a visual delight. No doubt about it. In that regard, I feel as if it is one of the most beautiful we've seen.
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| The main, front entrance of the cathedral. |
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| I wasn't ready. |
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| We walked around to Giotto's Bell Tower, and although it was only 11:30am, the line was cutoff/sold out for the day. |
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| East facade of the cathedral |
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| Giotto's Bell Tower |
We didn't stay at the Piazza for too long before wandering away. Knowing we could hit it up on the way back, we began trekking towards Piazza della Signoria to visit Palazzo Vecchio.
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| The archway (?) along Via Pellicceria was adorable; flower vendors galore. |
Piazza della Signoria was way busier than I expected. I was extremely excited to see Palazzo Vecchio in person, though we opted not to go inside (it's a ticketed attraction; the city town hall that also doubles as a lavish palace).
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| The balcony in 'that one' scene in Hannibal (the movie). |
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| The Fountain of Neptune in the piazza wasn't running with water. Boo. |
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| Statua Di Francesco Petrarca |
This bridge is a huge landmark in the city and is rumored to have ties to Hitler.
It has been said that when he paid a visit to Florence, he expressed his admiration for this bridge and promised to help it stay protected during the war.
Maybe he really said it, maybe he didn't?
Because of my European history background, I'm going to go ahead and say that Hitler also loved his German land and her cities, and in some cases, that love wasn't enough to save them from the bombings of Allied forces during WWII...just sayin'.
My educated guess is that this bridge withstanding the war had nothing to do with Hitler. However, it sure is neato! That much is true.
We still had loads of time to kill. I thought we would have spent a lot more time waiting to get into the cathedral, thus we had no reason to rush through Florence before having to catch our train in the evening. I had Boboli Gardens on my 'maybe' itinerary list, and once we factored the time left in our day, we knew it was do-able. We walked to Ponte alle Grazi, crossed the river, and headed to Piazza dei Pitti.
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| Ponte alle Grazi |
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| A cute little church tucked between houses on the river's 'less busy' side.~Chiesa Evangelica Luterana |
Once we hit Piazza dei Pitti, I was a bit confused.
The Boboli Garden website explained the entrance was here, but Google maps didn't seem to agree. We bought some slushies and chilled out for a minute so I could assess what to do next.
Come to find out, in order to access the gardens, you have to go into the same ticket office for Museo degli Argenti (the arch ways in the lower right side of the photo below are where the garden ticket office is). There were two types of tickets, so I purchased the one with the gardens included. The same ticket also gave us admittance to some of the smaller galleries within the Museo degli Argenti. FYI.
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| What's awesome about the Boboli Gardens is that the area sits a top a hill of the city. There are plenty of sweet views to appreciate while wandering the gardens. |
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| We saw this naked Oompa Loompa on quite a lot of postcards in Florence. I knew little about him, but as it turns out, he was housed inside of a building on Boboli's grounds. His official name: The Dwarf Morgante by Valerio Cigoli |
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| There are a few small vineyards within the garden's grounds. We took a minute to stop and taste the grapes. |
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| Needless to say, the grapes were not exactly ripe. Pretty darn sour! The kids liked them. |
It was starting to warm up, so we walked to the west side of the gardens.
The gardens are dusty as all get out, and water fountains are scarce. Luckily we stumbled upon a drinking fountain and were able to fill up our bottles.
Even after doing so, we were becoming a bit bored. The gardens are pretty, but the humidity was beginning to get to us and I was a little disappointed there weren't more colors (in other words, flowers). Was it green? Oh, yes. But visually, it wasn't the most beautiful garden space I have seen, and not because of the lack of flowers.
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| Cypress Lane |
Our next adventure in Florence took us to the famous Ponte Vecchio. We crossed the bridge quite fast. There wasn't much to see except overpriced gaudy jewelry and cheap souvenirs.
From there we found our way to Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. There were a few things I wanted to see inside, but unfortunately it was closed upon our arrival. So, we began to aimlessly wander through the heart of the city, seeing things we had already seen. Of course, we stopped for gelato and let the kiddies whirl about on the carousel in Piazza della Repubblica.
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| Basilica di Santa Maria Novella |
Before we knew it, we had to catch our train back to Rome after eating dinner.
I am ever so grateful to have been able to visit Florence. It wasn't what I imagined it to be, though. Movies sure do romanticise this place. I feel as if Florence is more for people who want to shop. I don't travel to shop.
Is it beautiful? Yes. But it is very touristy, and I was crossing my fingers it wouldn't feel as such. I may piss some people off, but even Rome seemed less touristy than Florence. Just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...
There are a few things I really wanted to do in Florence that I didn't have the chance to do.
I would have loved to see a sunset along the river. I have zero photos of night photography while visiting Florence, and that's one of my favorite things to do while visiting any city.
Also, we did pay a visit to Accademia Gallery, but because I didn't want to pay the online mark-up ticket prices, we chose to wing it once there. The queue was terrible as I assume it'd be. Because we only had nine hours in this city, I didn't want to spend three of them waiting in line to see the David. My advice: Buck up and just buy the tickets online. The advanced ticket thing has paid off for every other city we've visited.
I did want to get the views from the bell tower or the Duomo, but I wasn't so butt-hurt about missing out once we visited the Boboli Gardens and were able to see some neat views from there.
Bottom line, I would visit again, but I would definitely plan stay at least one night. If anything, I would love to explore more of Tuscany outside of Florence, in smaller towns.
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| On the train ride back to Rome. |
Alrighty, y'all, I have one more post regarding our Italian adventures and then it's on to France!
Next vacation post: The Smallest & Holiest Country in the World: Vatican City
But... before that, I will be posting about our two year anniversary of living abroad. So much has happened in the past two years, and I can't help but reflect upon it all: The highs, the lows, and everything in between.
Ciao, dudes!
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