A few days in Firenze

I was in Florence (Firenze in Italian) for the last few days, birth place of the Renaissance and quite a nice city. The historic center is a mix of narrow streets and old buildings with luxury shops. Of course the city is also full of museums and churches.

Florence is all about Art and churches. The dome of the Duomo was, when constructed, the biggest in the world and is really impressive. I really enjoyed the view from up-there as well as the dome paintings. The style is really different from the Vatican.

There are two really important museums in Florence: the Galleria dell’Academia, where the statue of David is, and the Galleria degli Uffizi, which host the biggest Renaissance art collection in the world. I was impressed by the masterpiece of Michelangelo and the 2 hours of queue outside where worth it.

On the contrary, I was quite glad I didn’t have to queue for the second one. Even if I would highly recommend it, I do not enjoy Renaissance paintings enough to stay very long in a museum full of them. The only work I liked was from Botticelli which I found used lighter colors than the rest.

Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to take pictures in the museums of Florence, so I have not many things to show.

I would recommend going to the Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Pitti which I found very interesting. They were the residence of the ruling family and offer a peak in what life could have been. The Boboli gardens behind the Palazzo Pitti are beautiful and really pleasant to walk around.

The best part of Florence is walking around the city center, enjoying the architecture and relaxing at a café. I think this city would be much more enjoyable with a bigger budget and time to try restaurants and do shopping.

I took the opportunity to go visit Pisa, where apart from the tower, there’s not much to do! The tower is leaning more than I thought and it’s kind of strange to go up stairs which are not straight.

All in all, I liked Florence but I must say that I preferred Rome which doesn’t seem to be the prevalent opinion. Next stop: Venice!

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