Transportation:
Feet. Haha. Everything was walking distance within each other. But I'm guessing bus would be the next option as there is no metro. Though I really advocate walking because the streets are much different than Venice or Verona.
Base/Hostel: Hostel Archi Rossi
Location: 3.5/5
Environment: 4/5
Dorm: 3/5
This has got to be one of my favourite hostels, in terms of the ambience especially. The bedroom and amenities were basic, and good enough to get by. What made me happy was the amount of common spaces, garden areas like in Hostel Ruthensteiner, just bigger, and they have a canteen with buffet breakfast! Plus, food is available at night at really cheap prices, probably cheapest dinner I had in my whole entire trip which was quite good food really. As evident, food makes me happy. Though wifi is a bit wonky, I think overall the ambience was good.
Day 1
Evening arrival to Florence
Walking around
To be honest, I arrived in Florence with the most foul mood I had in my whole travel period - the gloomy weather, the rain, my swollen feet, my bed bug bites. It just felt like a total mood spoiler. And I didn't get to find the piazza where there was supposedly a jazz festival because I was in an un-chummy mood and all I wanted was a warm shower and food. Which I did get, and was very thankful. Chatting with my dorm mate also made things much better, she was a bubbly young lady from Oregon, lotsa stories. I spent my night in bed, after attempting to walk around and get a sense of direction, but I was honestly not fond of walking in the rain in that current condition. Went to bed damn early that night.
Day 2
Palazzo Vecchio
Mercato del Porcellino
Uffizi Gallery
Piazza del Signoria
Basilica Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio
The morning was made better with the crazy amount of food selection, and coffee. Though I must say that Italian coffee is way stronger than Viennese coffee and sometimes I just took hot chocolate to avoid caffeine overdose. I got a bit lost trying to find my way into the city centre, but it's really near, if you know how to read maps. I headed straight for the Uffizi Gallery line, but it was a long queue. Actually the line is not massive, but they only let a certain amount of people in at one particular time, so smart people who have booked their slots will get to go in first and depending how much space there is, people who are waiting in line get to go in. The whole going-in-by-blocks makes it longer than usual because you'll be waiting for enough people to go out before you get a turn in. And Uffizi takes a LONG TIME.
Tell me the breakfast spread is not amazing, and this is just half of it
View of the first floor of the Palazzo's main hall
I decided not to wait, and headed for the Palace or Palazzo Vecchio instead. No queue, and I got in really early. There were typical museum exhibitions, so I wandered around for a bit, but the best bit had to be climbing the clock tower. It was really really narrow, so you basically can only fit one person at any one time in traffic, so the other person has to stop and stick as close as they can to the wall to allow the other person to pass through. Can be patience-testing if you are claustrophobic. Got a great view at the top, saw the verandah of the Uffizi Gallery, and I was really determined to get in.
View of Piazza del Signoria from the Palazzo's bell tower. If you note the arch at the far left of this photo, that's the verandah of Uffizi Gallery
Headed on to Basilica Santa Croce, located at a Piazza slightly away from the main Piazza del Signoria, again, quite gorgeous and had interesting crypts of famous people (i.e. Galileo Galilei). The Italian "more feminine" version of the Statue of Liberty can be found here.
Outside Santa Croce
Visited the famous market, where they sell a lot of leather products. Florence is known to make the best use of its cows from leather belts, jackets, bags to tripe sandwich. The market was packed but you probably can get a good bargain if you are patient enough. Lots of choices to choose from.
Tons of bags, no money
So, in the spirit of getting into the Uffizi, I remembered researching online that you can get tickets from a window at the Orsanmichele Church which is a street before reaching Piazza del Signoria where the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio is. Decided to try my luck, and they had a ticket for 1pm! Got it for an extra 4 euros, my price to pay for being impatient and silly for not booking in the first place.
The Italians don't like me very much. I had my lunch around 12 something, and I wanted to make sure I get to Uffizi in time so I was impatient with my bill. The waiter wasn't happy. So no, I'll probably be the death of Italians who take their time to breeze through life slowly across their primi, secondi piatti, then dessert then coffee. HAHA. Anyway, got into Uffizi, and it's my personal record of staying in one place - 3 hours. I didn't even see every single exhibit but I definitely had art overdose and coma after that. It's worth it's name as one of the Western world's oldest art collection, really amazing, and I wish I had a guidebook. If you realise, I have very little photos of Florence, because the bulk of it is spent in museums, and the museums like Uffizi banned photography, massively sad.
After that, it was on to another famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio which was quite similar to the Rialto bridge in Venice because it was full of shopping - particularly gold products, way off my price range. It was really packed! From there I went on to Piazza Michelangelo which is really quite a walk away but I enjoyed walking by the River Arno, not so much up the hill though it's quite shady.Spent a good hour plus in Piazza Michelangelo which basically overlooks a large part of the city and finish reading the book I brought along - Frank McCourt's 'Teacher Man'. The place is definitely good to chill and watch the city.
View from Piazza Michelangelo
Had an early close to the day, by this time, I was rather annoyed with the condition of my itch and the blazing sun didn't help. I don't mean to complain about the rain and/or the sun, I am actually really thankful for good weather. Just that when I read about how direct exposure to the sun made my bites worst, I felt really silly. And I only knew that when I got back to UK.
Day 3
Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiori
Campanile
Santa Maria Novella Church
Baptistery
Saved the best for the last, the Duomo, really quite damn gorgeous and massive. There was actually a queue outside the Duomo, though it moved really fast, and there is no entrance fee unless you want to climb the dome. I decided to climb the Campanile instead, which was opposite of the Dome and slightly less steps. At this point you would notice, I pretty much like climbing. The Campanile gave a better view of the city from up close than Piazza Michelangelo as the latter was technically located outside the city centre.
I also visited the Santa Maria Novella Church, while smaller was also quite pretty, more pretty than some other churches rally. There was a museum inside to showcase some paintings and it was quite sad as multiple floods devastated the church a number of times throughout the decades, so there were quite some stories about how the paintings were restored. Ended my Florence journey at the Baptistery which is located opposite the Duomo and had gorgeous gold ceilings. One part featured the story from the Genesis, but I can't remember if it was mosaic or painted on.
Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiori; the tower next to it is actually the Campanile
View of the Duomo's dome from the Campanile
Crypt of Santa Maria Novella's church, it's also an archaeological site featuring the structure it was built upon, I really liked this one
Baptistery from the outside
Ceiling of the Baptistery, very gorgeous
Do try:
-Visit Piazza del Signoria just to be in the midst of all the action bustling about and to see the fake green David statue
-Visit Uffizi Gallery and be amazed by the exhibition even if you may not understand everything
-Vist the Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiori or any church in Florence really cause they are different from the churches in the other cities, more understated but nevertheless elegant. The crypt/museum of Santa Maria Novella Church was interesting
-Climb either the Campanile or the Duomo's dome, or both if you have the money
-Spend some time in Piazza Michelangelo, and take in the views
Tips:
-Book your Gallery Uffizi tickets because the last-minute-ticket counter I mentioned may not have tickets for the day. Or you could actually go nearer to closing time when the line at Uffizi is much shorter. I'm guessing booking won't work if you don't want to be tied down by times because apparently booking needs to be done a month earlier
- Bring a guidebook or take guided tours because a lot of Florence is the art and history (like most other cities actually) but I guess with such a huge focus on art, having something to refer to would make it more meaningful
- You can actually complete quite a bit of Florence within 3 -4 days if you don't take long in one place. Most websites I researched say to choose between Uffize Gallery or the Accademia (where the real David is) but unless you take your time with every exhibition, it's safe to say you can probably do both within one trip, if you are willing to pay the price. Art museums in Florence are not cheap.
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