Ciao from Florence! It's Nikita with this blog recap.
I have been personally very excited about Florence. TikTok has been nonstop recommending us things to do and restaurants to visit, and much like Lisbon, I had enough restaurant recommendations for a whole month here. In addition, our friends, Jenny and Graham, had recently honeymooned there, and gave us some more must-dos. I would be remiss without mentioning Stanley Tucci's shows on Italy that gave us a recommendation for one of the best meals we had in Italy but more on that later. So I knew we were going to enjoy it here.
Our time there was a well-balanced mix of art history and food and drink.
 |
| Ponte Vecchio at sunset |
Art History
I'll admit I have never been super interested in European Art History. When it came time to choosing electives in college, I mainly looked for classes on South Asian culture and art vs. anything else as a way to learn more about my heritage. As a result, I never really got it. In recent years, I have found myself gravitating more to late nineteenth century and early twentieth century art, so anything before that I didn't make much of an effort to learn. But when in Florence, right?
Let me say, I get it now. The Renaissance period was incredible. I could feel the depth and emotion in the art we saw. I understood the progression to the flourishing period of Renaissance art. Shout out to Rick Steves and our lovely tour guides for providing me a really in-depth art history lesson that I realistically should have had a long time ago.
Palazzo Vecchio
We started our art lesson by learning about the Medici family by visiting Palazzo Vecchio for our first tour. Cosimo and his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent essentially transformed Florence into the heart of the Renaissance in the 15th to 18th centuries. You really can't go anywhere in Florence without seeing the influence of this family. To emphasize their impact, Lorenzo the Magnificent was one of the first people to discover Michelangelo's talents and gave him the space to flourish as an artist. Lonely Planet recommended a specific "secret passageways" tour of the Palace. This was a small off the beaten path tour that took us through Cosimi's private rooms where he had his office and stored some of his treasures. We concluded the tour in Salone dei Cinquecento, the main meeting room in the Palace and is adorned with frescoes detailing two main important conquests won during this period against Siena and Pisa.
Uffizi Galleries
Our next tour was at the Uffizi Galleries, and we had none other than Mr. Rick Steves guide us through the art here. I highly recommend for any type of art museum of this caliber to go in with some sort of guide. It added so much more context that I would not have had otherwise. For example, we started in a room with three portraits of Mary and Baby Jesus. My initial thoughts were that they all looked the same. We found out that these three portraits were actually a progression in craft and style from less to more realistic. This was the precursor to the Renaissance style.
Now for the art we sought to see: Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci. For Botticelli, we focused on Primavera and Birth of Venus. I found it interesting that the goddess Venus was considered a symbolic replacement for Mary. This highlighted for me the uniqueness of incorporating both Christianity with classical mythology, reflecting that blending of traditions. Botticelli's works were my favorite from the day. There were only a couple of Michelangelo's pieces were there as his more famous works are housed elsewhere. One interesting thing we learned about him is that he was either so busy or quickly bored that he has many unfinished pieces that other artists had to finish all over Italy. Anyways, the piece that we say in the Uffizi highlighted his style of the ideal male figure and his painting structurally represented many sculptures within a piece. Moving onto Da Vinci, we saw a few of his early pieces that showcased his excellence at showing the average person. The depth of emotions in some of these Christian images was range that hadn't been seen before.
We both felt like we came away with a lot more context and appreciation for art in general.
 |
| Botticelli's Primavera |
 |
| Leonardo Da Vinci |
 |
| Michelango and side note: I swear iPhone is lying when they tell you these are straight. All of our art photos are crooked, sorry! |
David at Galleria dell’Accademia
In the same day as the Uffizi Gallery, we also made our way to see David, the legend. Rick Steves guided us through this tour as well. Making our way down a long hallway passing all of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures to David really sealed the deal on what an impressive sculpture it is. We both didn't know that David was inspired by David and Goliath. His gaze from his original position (Piazza della Signoria outside of Palazzo Vecchio) was towards Rome which symbolized Florence being somewhat of an underdog and tackling the greater beast that is Rome (Goliath). Rick had us walk around David to take in the sculpture from various angles. From the front, we noticed that he had this assured, confident demeanor. Moving towards the right to look into his eyes, we noticed a caution that is not apparent from the front. It was one of those moments for us where we have seen David's image all over Florence and online, but he really took on a new life for us in person. This is truly a must-see in Florence.
 |
| David from the front |
 |
| David from the right |
Food and Drink and Vibes
Enough about the art, now onto the vibes. Florence has a vibrant food and drink scene that we really much took part in. There are a ton of recommendations out there, and it feels like every spot that we tried had blown up in some way or another. I'll mention some of our top experiences:
Wine windows: Wine windows are small windows big enough for a glass of wine. They were created in the 16th century by the Medici family and were especially useful when a plague hit in the 1600s. Winemakers were still able to sell their wine in a safe way. They're now a tourist attraction and pretty silly, but I had a lot of joy ringing the bell and ordering a glass of wine through the small window. It was pretty sweet seeing other tourists experience that same joy too.
The viral affogato at Vivoli: If you've done any research on Florence via Instagram or TikTok, you most likely have come across the "best affogato in the world" at Vivoli. They use a rich, creamy gelato made in a flower like design that is absolutely delicious. However, anything that is viral is going to garner huge crowds. We were lucky to try it on the one rainy day in Florence and only had to wait around 20 minutes for it. I don't know if I'd like the experience the same if we had to wait an hour in oppressive heat.
Ciblèo: This is a Japanese-Florentine fusion restaurant with a seven course tasting menu. Stanley Tucci's new show Tucci in Italy provided this recommendation highlighting chefs in Florence doing new and creative things that stretch the limits of Tuscan food. It was honestly one of the best meals we've had in Italy and is making us that much more excited for the Japan portion of our trip.
 |
| 3 out of the 7 courses of deliciousness |
Giunti Odeon: This was a really unique bookstore that we visited with a bookstore, cafe, and theater all mixed into one. Chester and I love visiting bookstores but have found that international ones are somewhat tough for actual reading material due to the language barrier, but this one had such a cool vibe. They were playing Charlie Chaplain movies while we were there and do showcase movies at 9 PM. I believe when we were there the newest Wes Anderson movie was scheduled for that day.
Spirituum Spirits Bar: This was a tiny cocktail bar with beautiful murals and delicious cocktails. They're on the pricier side, but everything we tried was absolutely delicious. It seems fairly new, and the bartenders were all super friendly and knowledgable. They gave the whole bar a round of their favorite cocktail.
Florence as a whole
I wanted to mention a couple events happening in the city before wrapping up. Firstly, there has been a crane in Florence for the past 20ish years near the Uffizi Galleries that has been a complete eyesore. After extensive lobbying and protesting, the city finally started breaking it down while we were there. I feel we were witnessing true Italian bureaucratic history in action. Secondly, the Calcio storico fiorentino, which is an annual event celebrating an early form of rugby from the Middle Ages, was happening while we were there too. Unfortunately, we couldn't get tickets to it, but we saw the parade leading up to the event. It seems to be quite a chaotic predecessor to rugby, and it was cool to be a part of the city's history and annual traditions. One of the many things that I love about Italy is the sense of community and pride people have here. I would love to see that sense of camaraderie back at home but until then, I'm going to fully enjoy it here.
 |
| The crane finally being dismantled |
 |
| The parade before the big game |
Another thing we noticed It has been really interesting how many Americans were in Florence at the same time. We heard more American English here than in any other place in Italy, and we did notice quite a few Americans on exchange here as well. Is there a memo we missed about Florence being the spot for Americans?
Overall, we really enjoyed Florence! It's a small city bustling with life and activity, and I felt our full 3 days there were enough to get a feel for it. I will say we are officially in the thick of the summer tourist season, and both the crowds and the heat did get to us at times. We stayed near the duomo and having to walk through it to our hotel through all the groups got to be exhausting at points. We are mindful about our contribution to overtourism and have discussed at lengths what it means to be a respectful tourist, especially when an area's infrastructure may not support it. We don't fully have the answer yet but stay tuned, after six months we may. We're moving further north to finish off our 5 weeks in Italy but until that blog here are some more Florence pictures that didn't fit earlier.
 |
| Bapitstry of the duomo |
 |
View from the top of the duomo
|
 |
| Sunset over the Arno River |
Comments
Post a Comment