My first impression of Florence was what a dirty and loud city! We stayed 5 nights in an apartment in a suburb of Florence near a hospital. We heard sirens throughout the night, dogs barking, people talking, etc. We went from peaceful Cinque Terre where I heard the waves right outside my window to uncontrollable dogs, sirens, and what sounded like people arguing.
However, as we started visiting the main city, Florence grew on me. We went to several museums - Pitti Palace, Academia, Ufizzi, and walked around the Duomo, Collin climbed the Duomo, while Emily and I took Caden to buy some fine jewelry for ourselves. I am glad we got to see the statue of "David" which is located in the Academia Gallery. We were not allowed to take any pictures but let me tell you, "David" is pretty impressive and a lot bigger than I imagined it would be. As far as the other museums go, I would have preferred to stay outside and enjoy the weather and just walk around the town, sit at a cafe, eat gelato and drink coffee. Although it was interesting looking at the workds of art by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello, Giotto, Cimabue, Masaccio, and others. Probably the most interesting painting in the Uffizi Gallery was the "Birth of Venus." I say that partly because it was the only major painting I could remember from my Art History class in college. We took a bus to the edge of town and saw wonderful views of the city and walked along Ponte Vecchio, the "jewels bridge." It is basically one of the oldest bridges in Florence and is filled with shops that sell jewelry. I like museums to an extent, however, I'm more of an outside kind of girl. I loved Rome because most of the things we saw, the Colleseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, etc. were located outside. My desire to be outside has increased since living in Germany since our weather keeps us indoors half the year. And the weather was perfect in Florence.
If you were going to spend a day in Florence I would recommend eating gelato, visiting the Academia Gallery, Uffizi Gallery, walking across Ponte Vecchio, and taking a bus or cab to Piazzale Michelangelo where some of the best views of Florence are. If you had time and energy, Collin would suggest you climb the Duomo and see the views there. If we didn't have Caden with us I would have climbed it with him.
Florence is a pretty city. It is a great place to go shopping and visit some interesting museums. The best gelato we had was in Florence. It was accompanied with a waffle. Collin bought me some very nice jewelry and an Italian leather purse. I bought him a belt and us both leather book marks with our initials stamped on them. Emily went to Florence last year on a cruise excursion so she was familiar with the city already. Overall we had a great time. It is not a city I recommend taking a young child to. Caden did great because he's used to traveling a lot but I could see a little older child being bored. Caden got bored at times too. He was not fond of shopping and since it was so crowded he had to hold our hand or sit in his stroller unless we were inside a museum. Then he was allowed to walk next to us. His freedom was quite limited. Thankfully we were able to cook dinner at our apartment most evenings so that allowed him a chance to play freely there. Collin also took him to the park early one evening and he loved that while I went to the grocery store.
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| Outside Pitti Palace |
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| View from the top of the Duomo |
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Collin at the top of the Duomo
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The Duomo
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| Caden and his monkey friend at our apartment in Florence |
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| The square by the Uffizi Gallery |
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| The "fake" David |
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| View from Piazzale Michelangelo |
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Ponte Vecchio |
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