Falling for Florence

We were all so excited to be heading to Florence (well, technically I was dying of the infamous stomach bug as we headed to Florence, but deep down I was super excited). Rebecca and I knew we wanted to really experience Italy, so we planned for the majority of our 18-day, three-country, five-city family friends adventure to be spent here.

We booked a spacious AirBnB very near town and less than a ten-minute walk to the famed Duomo. It was a great location. Of course, I wasn’t immediately able to appreciate it because I was still famously sick with the stomach bug when we arrived. That said, we were all in high spirits and excited for our 7-day stay in Florence, including a surprise celebration for my birthday.

Some of our favorite things about Florence:

Technically named the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo is an absolutely stunning landmark of Florence. It has to be the thing that Florence is most famous for, right? Or maybe that’s David (more on him later). Regardless, the Duomo plays a huge part in my memories of Florence. Just getting to walk past the gorgeous green and pink and white marble domed beauty every morning brought me such joy. I know I sound gushy, but so many of the great churches of Europe, while all beautiful, tend to look alike. Finding this green goddess overlooking the the town square made me dream of having my own green and pink retreat somewhere. You have to buy tickets to tour the inside, which I do recommend, even though the inside is a little underwhelming, except the dome fresco which is absolutely stunning (side note – the dome is largest brick dome in the world). The least talked about, but perhaps one of the coolest parts of the tour, is going downstairs under the Duomo to tour the original, 4th century church, Santa Reparata, that originally occupied the site. The site was in shockingly good shape, considering it’s 1,700 years old and been buried underneath the current Duomo. Hands down my favorite part of the visit was the original mosaic flooring. Absolutely stunning.

Giotto’s Campanile – 

I feel like a common theme on this blog, and my year abroad in general, is me being forced to climb things at heights I do not enjoy.  And here we go again.  Giotto’s Campanile is the Duomo’s bell tower.  It stands towering alongside the dome of the Duomo in matching green and pink marble, and I was lured to make the hike up by the promised stunning views overlooking all of Florence.  Well, let me tell you something, you’re gonna have to work for those views!  If you want to make it to the top, be prepared to hike 414 steps.  And these are steep, narrow steps!  Don’t try to stop to catch your breath because someone else will need to get by and you’ll be blocking the path.  So suck it up and climb! Honestly, focusing on the steps was helpful for me because you know I’m not a big fan of heights.  It was also very helpful for me that the bell tower is completely surrounded, which helped me remain only mildly panicked as we stood over the city.  The views were absolutely wonderful though and well worth my weak knees and sweaty palms.

If you find yourself in Florence (congratulations!) with kids, this is an absolute must-do. We hit up the Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum with the kids and it was great. The museum is relatively small but filled with working and interactive models of Da Vinci’s mechanics. The kids and adults alike had a great time playing with and operating the mechanics. You will truly be blown away by his genius. Now, I’m full discretion, if you’re anything like me, you might also walk away feeling a little depressed by the realization that “OMG, if I started right now and spent my entire life trying, I wouldn’t even be able to come up with one of these inventions, much less a museum full of them.” You can’t help but be overwhelmed with just how prolific the man was! Because, oh have I mentioned that on top of endless inventions, Leonardo da Vinci painted the freaking Mona Lisa (you know, as just one of his remarkable artworks). I could have stayed and admired all of his work for much, much longer than the recommended one hour. And as an added bonus, the museum keeps all the kids busy and happy and occupied!

I can still vividly remember studying David in my freshman art history class. I remember sitting in the dark theater and learning all about this unique and remarkable sculpture. Let me tell you something, studying David did not prepare me for actually seeing David. He’s beautiful. The size alone is breathtaking. Honestly, I didn’t expect to feel so stunned by David, but he is stunning. The entire gallery, Accademia Galery actually houses many, many beautiful works of art and is a feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, we had six sets of adolescent eyeballs with us and after David, they were pretty ready to rush through the rest of the gallery to head to lunch.

Another must-do in is taking in the views over the city from the Piazzale Michelangelo, especially (and I really, really recommend this) if you can do it at sunset. After a long day of sightseeing around the city, we made the long, but worth it, walk up to the plaza. Our first stop was to a small cafe where we purchased a bottle of champagne for the adults and fruit juices for the kids and then, with cups in hand, we found ourselves some steps to settle into overlooking Florence and waiting for the sun to do her magical thing. There was a street performer dancing at the bottom of the steps and the kids got all excited watching him and the adults had a great time talking and refilling our champagne glasses. Florence is a gorgeous city and I definitely recommend that you take it in from above—with champagne, of course!

Piazzale Michelangelo and our “Green David.”

Florence takes its gelato very seriously and so should you.  I recommend you set to tasting it all like it’s your life’s mission. Or at least, that’s what we did. Gelato, gelato, gelato! We did not let a single day pass during our seven-day stay without grabbing a delicious cup (or cone) of the true sweet stuff at least once (several times, twice). We were even lucky enough to get cones from Gelateria Dondoli, the World Champion gelato maker in San Ginignano (I would recommend the lemon and Nutella and so would Nora because she stole mine after deciding it was better than her mixed berry selection). **Pro Tip – when making your gelateria selection, avoid anywhere where the gelato is stacked high, piled way above its stainless steel container. Stacked gelato is full of preservatives and there are just way too many delicious options to settle for anything less than the best.

The kids had a blast spotting Florence’s famous street artists all throughout town. I’m actually quite thankful to these street artists who kept our kids engaged and excited as we walked around town. It became a game to see who could spot a Blub or a Clet. “Look!! I found a Blub.” “Ha ha ha! Look at that street sign.” They had so much fun.

Admittedly, this is not normally the blog you should follow if you’re looking for shopping tips. We are traveling Europe for a year on our savings and often in teeny tiny carry ons, so touristy shopping isn’t something I get to do often. But exceptions must be made for leather in Florence. Actually, I’m pretty sure shopping of any kind is excellent in Florence. I just chose to focus my hunt on leather. Now mind you, there are leather goods hanging in just about every store on every street corner, but I was looking for something a little more special. I found exactly what I was looking for at a gem of a shop, Vi de Ginori, 23r. The more I looked around the more I fell in love with every single leather creation in the shop. And the shopkeeper (it’s a family business) was so lovely! It was really, REALLY difficult not to go overboard and I actually had to call in reinforcements to reign me in (although the reinforcements ended up spending a pretty penny too on the most gorgeous leather jacket ever). I think the only thing that got me out of the store with only a reasonably priced purse was the assurance that I could order online and they would ship to me. An offer I am most definitely taking them up on!

Since this blog at its heart is about traveling as a family, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a second to recommend Dreoni Giocattoli, a deceptively large toy store that the kids loved.  This is another must do, although when you first walk in, you will think I’m delusional.  Trust me though, this amazing toy store is shockingly good (and large).  The girls would run from one room to another screaming, “There’s another room back here!”  Dreoni Giocattoli is a nearly 100-year-old toy store and yet it still gives the famous, giant toy stores we are so familiar with a run for their money.

Also, I feel like maybe I should bring this up here because everyone recommends shopping along the famous Ponta Vecchio bridge.  I’m going offer a different opinion here: skip it.  The bridge is an iconic site in Florence, but personally, I found the shopping (almost all jewelry) boring and a bit repetitive.  Now, I’m fulling willing to admit that maybe I didn’t find it all that exciting was because of the aforementioned budget we were on, but really, it just felt like store after store of the same jewelry.  All of it pretty, but very little of it special.

I don’t have to tell you how amazing Italian food is, do I???

Again, this one doesn’t need any explaining, does it?

*Fun fact: You can find fun little wine windows, buchette del vino, dotting the walls all around Florence.  These windows, just the perfect size for a bottle of wine, were used in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries by noble families to sell wine to people on the streets.  We had a great time spotting them on our walks through town.  Unfortunately, we never found one in use (although I’m told they do exist).

It’s needless to say, but I will anyway, I fell head over heels in love with Florence.  It’s a wonderful city, full of history and art (oh my goodness, the art!!) and culture, and food, and wine and beauty and on and on.  I have all the feels for Florence and would love to explore even more one day.