#2027 in which I fall in love with Firenze

I visited the city of Florence, Italy in 2022 with MT when we were on a cruise. It was raining, and we only had a few hours there. I was looking forward to going back with Lizzie and spending more time there, and I think I fell a little bit in love with the place. 

We left Milan in the morning and took the train through the countryside down to Florence. It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky and warm sunshine. The train station, Santa Maria Novella, is a short walk -maybe five minutes - from the church Santa Maria Novella which is right in front of the hotel where we stayed, the Hotel Santa Maria Novella. Here's the church:

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella 

We checked into the hotel, but the room wasn't ready yet, so we left our luggage and set out to explore.

Of course, if you are in Florence, you must see the Duomo and Brunelleschi's Dome, so that's where we went first.

The Duomo of Florence and Giotto's Bell Tower

Brunelleschi's Dome

The cathedral is just massive, and of course, the dome dominates, well, everything. From there, we wandered around until Lizzie took charge and got us to Piazza della Signoria. This splendid piazza is my favorite because of the statues, Palazzo Vecchio, and the Uffizi Galleries all right there. It is wonderous.

The Fountain of Neptune

David replica

Palazzo Vecchio

It was between noon and 1:00, so we wanted to get some lunch. All around the piazza there are bars and osterias, trattorias and enotecas. We saw a cool little patio surrounded by greenery that gave it a feeling of privacy. We were quickly seated, and it was really nice! The waiters were wearing beautiful suits and the tables were set with pretty plates and linens (although the linen was removed when we only ordered wine!) The prices reflected the posh-ness of the place: it was Gucci. It was the patio for Gucci Osteria. We just had a glass of wine each. It was quite good, and also the most expensive glass of wine we had on our whole trip! We felt bougie and fancy.

Livin' it up at Gucci

We felt happy after the glass of wine, but still hungry, so Lizzie found a pizza place called MammaMia where we proceeded to drink more wine and eat pizza. (Photos of the food coming soon in the food post!)

Mamma mia, ragazzi!

We started chatting with a lovely couple from Mexico that was seated next to us. Honestly, I could have probably sat there for quite awhile drinking wine and chatting with people. (Wine makes me less introverted.) But we were in Florence, and we had to move along. We stopped by to see Ponte Vecchio:

Ponte Vecchio

Then Lizzie found a wine window near our hotel!

the wine window at Osteria Belle Donne

Finding a wine window was on both of our "must do" lists for Florence. I guess there are several in the city, and this one was super close to the hotel. You knock on that little window, order a glass of wine, then you drink it there on the street! You can't wander around with the wine. You can't sit down. You can't stand in front of other businesses. You just kind of stand there and drink, so it's kind of weird, but it's pretty cool too. You get an actual wine glass, no plastic. It was fun!

So now we have had four glasses of wine in maybe three hours. We were slightly tipsy and feeling pretty good about Florence. We went back to the hotel to get our stuff into our room and figure out what we wanted to do in the evening. Our room was A-mazing! It was huge, by European standards, certainly, and so, so pretty! 

the beds in Europe are kinda weird - separate, but together

bathroom with the deep tub

the room is big!

a bottle of Prosecco!

I loved this hotel. I would absolutely stay there again. We kinda wanted to stay in the room and drink the prosecco or take it to the roof, but after we unpacked a bit, we decided to take a taxi up to San Miniato al Monte to see the sunset over the city. Best decision we made! I've always heard about the view of the Centro Storico at sunset, and it was just as dreamy as I imagined it would be. The light is so soft and Florence is so beautiful and when you put it all together, it's just magic.

Florence at sunset from San Miniato al Monte

panoramic view

view from Piazzale Michelangelo

The taxi ride was maybe 10 minutes, but it was worth the ride because it was way up on a hill. San Miniato is much calmer and has way fewer people than Piazzale Michelangelo. I was very happy to be up at the top. There's a church up there, and a cemetery, as you can see in the middle photo. The church bells rang at dusk and it was one of the highlights of my trip. 

We decided we could walk back down to the Centro Storico. There were hundreds of people at the Piazzale, so we just followed the crowd. There's a good sidewalk, and it's not too steep. You end up walking along the Arno River, looking at the lights of the city reflected in the water. We crossed over Ponte Vecchio, and it's pretty cool. Most of the shops were closed or were closing, but just walking over the bridge felt like walking through time. It is the oldest stone bridge in Europe, dating back to the mid-1300s. 

When we returned to the hotel, we thought it would be fun to get some dessert from the hotel restaurant and take it up to the roof. We got dessert, but we couldn't figure out how to get to the roof, so we at dessert in our room (gelato for me and something with meringue for Lizzie?) and then we went to bed since we had an early ticket for the Uffizi the next day. 

Oh Florence. I just love it, and I got to spend a whole other day there! That story is coming up next time.

Ciao!