Season’s Greetings from Italy Part 1: Florence

While teaching in Thailand, I only had 4 days off for the holiday season (Buddhist country = no days off for Christmas). Travel, therefore, was kept within the country. This year, however, I had a total of 17 days off. Meaning that traveling outside the Czech Republic was not only a desire, but an obligation as well.

And where to go for those days off?

Somewhere to escape the cold and overcast skies obviously!

Hello Italy.

For this trip, my friends Kelsey, Olivia, and I had 3 primary destinations- Florence, Napoli, and Rome- with day trips to Pompeii and the Vatican City as well. We planned our trip for 10 days and 9 nights; 3 nights in each city.

Needless to say, a lot of walking, eating, and “Ciao’s” ensued.

We left for Italy early morning on Christmas Eve. Our plane landed in Rome, but our first destination was actually Florence. To get there, we took a 3-hour scenic train ride.

Florence

As you may recall from your high school history class, Florence is the birthplace of the 14th-17th century Renaissance; a new age of thinking marked by drastic change in the social and political climate, as well as in the arts, literature and science. What happened in this tiny city soon spread to the rest Italy and then throughout the world.

By the time we got off our train, night had already fallen. This however, was not disappointing as it made my first impression of Florence even more magical; the whole city was lit up for Christmas. Thanks to the narrow roads and alleys, each pathway had its own type of Christmas lights strung up between buildings. Each time we turned down a cobblestoned street, I was welcomed by a new series of lights and decorations.

As it was Christmas Eve and the middle of winter, Florence was significantly less crowded than usual. And so, after a dinner of polenta and chicken liver (I know- sounds disgusting, but was it really delicious) we set out to take advantage of the empty streets.

First, we found ourselves at Piazza della Signoria, which has the famous statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, as well as a replica of Michelangelo’s David. The piazza also has an outside hall filled with many other statues to remind you just how old Florence is. Add in the street performer who was playing the theme song to Game of Thrones, and you felt like you were living in a different time period.

Funny enough, right outside the hall you can see an H&M clothing store. Not sure that I liked the instant transport back to present day…but whatever. It is what it is.

Next, we stumbled upon the Duomo. With Florence’s narrow streets, I didn’t even see the Duomo as we approached. It literally popped up out of nowhere and left my mouth gaped open as I stared at the large and majestic cathedral and dome.

We also found Florence’s carousel in Piazza della Repubblica:

Not going to lie, I was a little more excited to see the merry-go-round than a 26-year old has any right to be. But hey, it was Christmas Eve. I was allowed to revert back to childhood, right?

The next day, we got an intense workout by walking up and down two large and steep hills to get to Piazzale Michelangelo and see a panoramic and stunning view of Florence. I counted my blessings that we were in Florence in winter; let’s just say no jacket was required by the time we got to the top of this mini-mountain. And, since it was off-season, we didn’t have to fight too hard to find a spot for pictures by the railing.

As I have said in previous blog posts, I’m a firm believer in that the best way to come to know and appreciate a city is to take time to just walk around aimlessly and enjoy the sights you stumble upon. And of course, hit up the main sights that you don’t find later on ;)

And so, as we were searching for a good lunch spot, we unintentionally came upon La Basilica di Santa Croce. This church contains the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Gentile, Rossini, as well as Dante’s empty tomb (Dante was exiled from Florence and was therefore never actually buried here).

Being teachers on a budget and partially starving at the time, we didn’t actually go inside… but it was still cool to gaze at the church for a bit.

We also saw and walked through the Ponte Vecchio:

One of Florence’s most famous landmarks, I was a bit surprised to see how small this bridge really was. To be honest, I enjoyed the Ponte Vecchio a lot more from the next bridge over; the bridge itself is lined with expensive jewelry stores and crowded with people. Not to mention, you can’t enjoy the bridge’s artistic mash of “storebacks” from the inside.

Exhausted from a full day’s walk, we then plopped ourselves down in front of the Pitti Palace to enjoy the last of the day’s sunshine and listen to Christmas music played by a trio of violinists.

That night, we took a quick peek inside Santi Michele e Gaetano church. I’m not a religious person, but it was Christmas Day and a beautiful church.

We then walked around in search of dinner. As we were checking out the menu at the front of a restaurant, a waiter came out and offered us glasses of prosecco free of charge- even if we decided to not then eat at the restaurant. Well, we couldn’t turn down that offer, could we?

Of course, we did decide to eat at this restaurant and were soon treated to discounted bottles of wine, in addition to an extra bottle of wine, shots, and two desserts- all free of charge. Turns out, our waiter had developed a crush on Olivia and was showering us with food and drink. Merry Christmas to us! He even left this “secret message” for Olivia when delivering us cheesecake:

The next day, the three of us woke up early to go to the Accademia Gallery and check out this naked guy:

Since it was the morning after Christmas, Florence was still a bit deserted. And so, we were some of the first people in the museum and got to see the David before any crowds formed.

After, we spent the majority of the day picnicking in Le Cascine Park and then grabbing dinner at the Mercato Centrale Firenze.

And with that, I crossed everything off my list of “Florence’s Must Do’s.” I’m sure we could have found more things to do in Florence, but I was now content to hop on a train and move on to our next destination- Napoli.