Barreling through the Birthplace of the Renaissance
Florence was our first stop on a whirlwind tour of central Italy where we abandoned any pretense of “slow travel” and went into hyper-tourist mode.
It was in this spirit that not two hours after arriving in the city, we dashed off to a gelato-making class with a gelato mad scientist (“You know why we don’t cut off the fingers? I tried making [gelato] with finger, it’s no good”)
He showered us with gelato science and history and other related facts, like Leonardo da Vinci’s crucial role in its development. And we also made peach sorbet and stracciatella gelato. Alya found it all quite delicious!
Here are some of the other highlights from our brief stay in Florence, in no particular order…
The excellent walking tour (Guru Walks) of the city on the first day introduced us to the main sites of the historical center: Michalangelo’s David (replica), Fountain of Neptune, Palazzo Vecchio
and of course the Uffizi gallery. Though we didn’t go inside, just the building itself and the courtyard was very impressive, with exquisite sculptures of famous Italians that one way or another crossed paths with the Medicis
We also learned, on our walk, about Calcio Storico - a traditional Florentine game played once a year on the plaza in front of the Duomo. It is a brutal rugby/wrestling/soccer game… and frankly, you have to see it to believe it. We promptly watched the first episode of Netflix’s “Home Game” to learn more about it — wow!
Every day we walked past the Duomo palace (Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore), one of the most stunning structures in the world, on par with the inside of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Aside from the fact that it’s the largest masonry dome in the world, the tricolor marble looks unreal, and the amount of Gothic detail on it is breathtaking. (Tip - go to View on Art Rooftop Bar for a stellar view of the dome itself)
When you first encounter it walking on a street, you can’t quite make sense of what your eyes are telling you, but it is very real indeed. And the colors were designed to mirror the Italian flag
The dome side glows ethereally after rain
One of the days was dedicated to hitting the city’s major churches. Buying into the common refrain that the best part of the Duomo is the building itself, we opted out of the gargantuan lines to get in, and instead went for 1) Basilica of Santa Croce which houses tombs of Florentine celebrities, including Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo, as well as just beautiful finishing inside and out,
and 2) Basilica of Santa Maria Novella which hosts some extra-old frescos and spectacularly decorated chapels (or so I thought until we visited Rome)
Thomas Aquinas and 10 Biblical figures presiding over 14 allegorical disciplines and their respective wise men in the Spanish Chapel
A four story fresco depicting scenes from the life of Mary to whom the church is dedicated
Unlike Bologna where the main church even the facade wasn’t finished, much less the whole building, the overflowing wealth of the Medicis is everywhere on display here.
After the waterless Bologna, we also enjoyed Florence’s Arno river and its beautiful bridges in day, night and sunset. In the evening, you can watch the sun set to some beautiful music nearby. It’s frankly magical
What more profound way to experience landmarks than drawing them? So Masha and Alya took a drawing class with the old Medici palace’s tower as subject
Leather - everywhere! Like Venice with its masks, there are a million shops with the same mostly mass-produced leather stuff. The prices vary wildly — you can get a leather belt for $300 or $10 — and I didn’t even go into the luxury brand names (think Rodeo Drive on Dubai scale). Our walking tour guide told us the best places to buy it is the Leather Institute and Charme 2 leather shop, selling Medici products (no relation) — the latter turned out to have good prices and quality!
Gold - not to be forgotten is Florence’s storied Ponte Vecchio, which was a butcher’s bridge during the time of the plague, but has since been smartly redone and rebranded as THE place to buy gold jewelry. This was all very timely, as Masha had been needing a cute little ring on her finger.
In keeping with the tradition of meeting people wherever we go, we ended up experiencing the local way of life with Elena, Masha’s friend from college, and her family, who happen to live in Florence. We crossed the Arno river to “the other side” where tourists are rarely said to go and had aperitifs at Piazza de Santo Spirito followed by a lovely local dinner… truffles you say? Si, per favore! It was a lovely night for all.
In addition to its beauty and food, Florence is full of other art. For example, just walking down the street, you discover that there is a tradition of opera singers coming up to the doors of Basilica di Santa Trinita and superbly bellowing superb opera arias at passersby… and upon request a happy birthday to you, opera style.
Florence shines best at night, and in addition to the Ponte Vecchio (see above), one of the best places to hang out on the tourist side is Piazza Della Repubblica. Alya was overjoyed to ride the beautiful carousel there again and again, bought a flashing toy launcher, and all while Masha grooved to the sound of music from some pretty awesome singers nearby. It’s just a lovely place to breathe some cool fresh air and chill that we went back to several times.
Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella- the oldest functioning “pharmacy” (now a place to buy super overpriced perfume and liqueurs) also has an artist’s exhibition — a very Burning Man experience — where you can sit and just tune out as flowers continuously evolved over and around you
Those little bells are perfume sample covers that you bring up to your nose - very cute!
Now, lets talk about food. While we had some decent meals in Florence, we just didn’t put the effort into finding memorable restaurants as we did in other places. But several just fell into our laps. Walking into the Farmaceutica, we saw a line of people standing in line for a restaurant (a rare occurrence here). When we walked out, the line was half as long. “Can’t pass this up!” said Masha. At closer inspection, it turned out to be a recent Instagram phenomenon of cheese wheel-made pasta. Luckily we only had to wait a measly 30 minutes for our turn. Unexpectedly, they also had such a delicious tongue dish (Masha doesn’t pass up ordering tongue, liver or other strangeness that she then makes me try) that even I liked it!
Our other culinary discovery of Florence’s specialties was beef tartare, which we tried in different forms and in all places, which were various shades of excellent. Steaks on the other hand, I’d stay away from in Florence (Italy?), no matter how many aged hunks they hang in the window.
And if you missed L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele pizzeria chain in Bologna, there’s one in Florence too.
And here are the honorary mentions of food, lest they be forgotten: liver risotto (yes, Masha ordered it) and deconstructed tiramisu in Rose’s, and tomatoes everywhere
Florence didn’t have too many craft cocktail bars, but Misha did get to try Mad Souls & Spirits bar, which had some innovative tomato-themed cocktails (caprese salad in a cocktail? Yes, please). According to the bartender, craft cocktails are only just starting to make inroads in the city (the bar had only been open for a year).
In addition to consuming all gelato all the time…Misha also made it his mission in Italy to try local amaros, which went well in Bologna. In Florence, he only found one place with documented proof of amaro tastings — Enoteca Allesio. Although the experience was outrageously expensive, it was nice to try a curated set of bottles (in fact the Luxardo was so good and different, he bought a bottle!)
Due to scheduling constraints, we couldn’t stay longer in Florence. There was certainly more to see. But the throngs of tourists were difficult to contend with. Apparently, even districts adjacent to the center are being taken over by expats, nomads and tourists.
Up next, Sorrento and then Rome, the granddaddy of historical landmarks. For once we decided to walk to the train station - leveling up our nomad cred!
