Florence or Firenze is the renaissance capital of the world and it has a lot to offer! We planned about 3 days in Florence and still wish we could spend more time there.
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| Santa Maria Novella |
We started our exploration of the city by joining a walking tour by Another Florence (this has to also be booked in advance online). The guide gave us good insight into the city - just what we needed to figure out the history and our way around. Florence’s transport network is a little complicated and it took us a while to figure it out. So is the complication with the entries to all the major sights - Florence Cathedral, Galleria Accademia etc. We had decided to purchase the Firenze card since we were spending 3 days in Florence. But one has to pre book the entry time for the Galleria Accademia which houses David and Uffizi gallery by calling on their number and booking an entry time. You still need to pick up the Florence Cathedral free pass and then book the climb to the Duomo once you get to Florence which is a little bit of a pain since the slots get booked well in advance. You just have to take your chances. If you are spending lesser time in Florence it may help to just directly book these top 3 sights through their websites.
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| Michelangelo's David |
We had pre-booked our time to enter Galleria in the afternoon and it was a blessing since the queues to buy tickets are really long! Once you enter Galleria the first and the main thing to catch is Michelangelo’s David and boy what a beauty! The intricacy in the details of the sculpture is mind blowing and its worth grabbing a seat near him and admiring the sheer art. We spent a couple of hrs inside the museum, also waiting for the rains to stop - yes weather is quite unpredictable. We spent the rest of the evening chilling on one of the squares.
Our Day 2 in Florence was the day we decided to visit the cathedral in the first half. We collected the ticket early morning (since it was a monday) and then went on to the join the 1km+ long queue to enter the cathedral. The Firenze Card does not give you priority entrance into the cathedral and that's a bummer. 1.5 hrs later we entered the cathedral and the highlight of it is the fresco of the Last Judgement on the dome - spectacular. We did not get slots to climb the Duomo however we evaluated climbing the Campanile - but again its 400+ stairs and I had been limping on this trip (tore my ligament a week before the trip). We then headed to Palazzo Medici nearby wherein you see the most famous painting of Medici on the horse with a lot of people depicting the renaissance era.
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| Florence Cathedral |
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| Renaissance @ Palazzo Medici |
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| Vineyards @ Chianti |
For the afternoon, we had pre-booked a tour to Chianti for wine tasting through Ciao Florence. We met the tour group and off we were, this time with the weather being on our side - bright and sunny! The beautiful Tuscan countryside is better than the pictures.. an afternoon spent in tasting the famous Chianti Classico wine, with lots of cheese, and enjoying the lovely countryside of Chianti and smaller towns like Greve.
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| Birth of Venus @ Uffizi Gallery |
Our last day in Florence began with the Uffizi gallery - the gallery which houses the major artworks of famous artists from the era - Michelangelo, Leonardo, Rafael etc. The star attraction is ofcourse the painting of the Birth of Venus - spectacular. We spent easily 2hrs there and this was just seeing the highlights using the Rick Steve's Audio tour on his app (very useful!). Post that we walked down to Santa Croce, the church which is the burial site of Galileo, Michelangelo and others - well worth the visit. Palazzo Veechio, Ponte Veechio, Palazzo Pitti and a few other churches were the ones we visited but majorly spent time sitting in the squares and enjoying the sun and gelato :)
One of the major things I love doing in a new city is to find the sunset point and a place which would give a great view of the city. To see this we headed out to Piazzale Michelangelo which is one of the best sunset points and viewpoint of Florence and its absolutely amazing - a great way to end the Florentian expedition.
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| View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo |
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| Sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo |
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| Sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo |
Florence is a city which has a lot to offer - from sights to food, to great wine and cheese, some good shopping for italian leather and much more... get lost in the streets and soak in the art all around...
Coming up ... Pisa & Cinque Terre
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| View of Ponte Veechio from Uffizi |
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