Firenze. Florentia. Fiorenza. What a lovely name for such a mesmerizing city. Location in Tuscany makes us imagine lavender fields, flowers everywhere and endless summer. You can almost smell all the beauty, or the pizza, risotto and spaghetti. But is this city really like that?

Let's find out.

The city itself is thought to be a "cradle of renaissance" which translates into beautiful architecture with white and green marbles you can see in the whole city.

It was also the center of the trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities in medieval era. It has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". The most famous rulers in the city were Medici family.

Fiorentine dialect soon became the language of culture due to famous poets and writers like Niccolo Machiavelli, Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch).

There are cca 400k inhabitants and 100 km2 (40 sq mi). However when the tourists come there are more than one million people in the city.

There wasn't much space in Florence so the Florentins chose to build very narrow houses which has a balcony (more like another room) at the first floor. I've seen that tactic in multiple Italian cities like Venice as well.

BASILICA DI SANTA CROCE

(Basilica of the holy cross)

Our first stop was at Santa Croce which is a Franciscan church built on a small typical square. All of the historical squares in Italy basically look the same. They all have a church as a main aspect and then there are some rectangular shaped buildings all over. They are mostly decorated with arcs.

As our first stop, the church quite disappointed us. I was expecting so much more honestly. It was very nice on the inside, but there are plenty similar ones in my country. The square was also a bit boring, there were only thousands of tourists. If I'd visited Florence once again, I won't come to this place.

However if you are interested in seeing the burials of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and more Italian most well-known men, you will like it. It is located only 800 meters from the Duomo.

However I was too eager for jumping into conclusions. Later that day we visited the most famous buildings in Florence.

CATTEDRALE DI SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE

(Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower)

It is considered to be the cathedral of Florence (so the famous "Duomo of Firenze" is this church). The building itself looks very majestic as it is faced with green and pink marble panels. It was built by Brunelleschi and two other architects.

It was the most beautiful church I've ever seen in my life and I've seen a lot of religious sights. I've seen mosques, synagogues and churches, but this one tops them all. The paintings, the ceiling, everything there was stunningly made.

Actually it has one peculiarity. The dome was built without using centering to support the structure. Brunelleschi lightened the dome and used his own machines to build it, even with a lot of criticism.

The whole complex with the dome, baptistery and Giotto's Campanile is the most captivating thing in Florence. I definitely recommend visiting the insides of the buildings as well.

PONTE VECCHIO 

(Old bridge)

The most famous bridge in Florence is this one. It goes over the river Arno. On the bridge there were multiple artisan's shops that sell jewellery or leather gloves (I bought one of these and they are amazing). There are many tourists on the bridge during daytime so if you really want to take a nice picture of the river and the city I recommend going later in the evening or soon in the morning.

TRANSPORT

Plane ✈️

If you want to visit Florence by plane you basically have 3 options. Florence AirPort (FLR) (called Amerigo Vespucci) is the closest one. It is only 5 km from the city itself. You can take a bus that takes you directly from airport to Florence.

Low cost airlines mostly flies to Pisa's AirPort (PSA), which has the name of Galileo Galilei. The AirPort is connected to Florence as well, but it isn't as close. It takes 70 minutes and you have to deal with bad traffic. There is also another solution. You can reach Florence by train, from the train station in Pisa.

The third option is Bologna (BLQ) airport. It is only one hour ride to the city. However some airlines insist that airport Forli (FRL) - *notice the similarity between Florence airport (FLR)* - is the Bologna's airport. But Forli is very far away, it takes 2 hours and 48 minutes to get there by train (with changing to bus). So be careful while choosing where you'll land.

Car 🚗

If you want to book a car, there isn't any problem. However you must deal with really bad traffic in Florence, since it is a small city (with very small routes). Cars also aren't allowed to historical center of the city.

You should also consider choosing a hotel with a parking lot since a lot of them doesn't have that. There are many boutique hotels which can have amazing prices, but may not be the right choice for car drivers.

Trains 🚃

I suggest to take a look at Trenitalia.com website to plan your journey. Be sure to also check which train is going to your dream destination since some can be pretty expensive. Frecciarosa trains have the cheapest tickets for 20€ for one hour ride, while classic Trenitalia costs around 5€.

STAY

I would highly recommend to book a hotel in a town near Florence. The trains aren´t expensive and they are fast and ride very often. We were living in Monte catini san Therme, which was a small bathing city near by. The hotels in Florence tend to be quite expensive so I´ll strongly suggest maaking the same decision.

More sights and traveler's notes will be published in next post dedicated to them.

little street behind me was even more beautiful than on this picture ✨

Príspevok, ktorý zdieľa Radka 🦋 | Travel | Slovakia (@sosheglows), 4 Okt 2017 o 4:34 PDT