Firenze Aka Florence the land of Renaissance Art

Week 117

Day 672

Noli, Italy

44.2061° N, 8.4133° E

Our next stop after Rome in Italy was Florence to meet up with my mom and dad.

We rented an airbnb just south of the city walls, which was a perfect 1km walk into the center of town.

Florence is the city of Churches, Museums, and Renaissance Art.  Because of this, there are a TON of tourists, crappy over priced food, and a lifetime worth of art.  You can’t see it all, you will give into the over priced food (still cheap by European standards, but the most expensive we’ve had so far in Italy), and I recommend getting Gelato.

We spent our days touring the many museums and churches of the city.

The Duomo Di Siena

This grand Cathedral has been stripped of most of it’s art, but the building itself is spectacular.  I personally thought it was best from the outside, but we did enjoy attending mass there on Sunday.

The Basilica of Santa Croce

This church has more of it’s historical art intact in the church itself than the Duomo Di Siena.  Along the walls are tombs of some of the most brilliant Italian minds such as Dante and Machiavelli.

The Convent of San Marco
The convent of San Marco was my personal favorite of our time in Florence.  Preserved are some fabulous works of art such as Fra Angelico’S The Annunciation which many consider to be the most accurate portrayal and Domenico Ghirlandaio’s The Last Supper.  This version of the Last Supper is one of my favorite depictions as I like the cat sitting at the table, because why wouldn’t there be a kitty?

The most interesting part of the convent were the cells where the monks would live.  Each cell had a singular painting.  I captured a couple in a few of the upcoming photos.

Uffizi

With rooms upon rooms of Renaissance Art work you could spend days wandering the gallery enjoying not only the paintings but the walls and structure itself.  We were getting a little stir crazy ourselves and decided to mix it up a bit…

Accademia

Most famous for housing Michelangelo’s David, I would say the rest was a bit over rated.  One room is full of plaster moldings of famous sculptures from around the world, but no real works.  David on the other hand didn’t disappoint.

It was fun visiting the real David, but the replicas outside of Uffizi and on the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo are almost just as good.

My favorite David experience would have to on the top of Piazzale Michelangelo.  Tom and I ran there on Sunday morning and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the city as well as had fun walking through the Market that happens only on Sundays on the hill top.

It is almost impossible to not give into Florence’s restaurants as museum walking definitely exhausts you.

If you do give in, I highly recommend La Casalinga.  This is a mom and pa type restaurant and the food was by far the most authentic and tasty.  They even have fresh bread which is very rare to find in Florence!

For an amazing view I recommend la Scaletta.  We stumbled onto this place by accident, but of you want to eat with this gorgeous view I highly recommend making reservations as there are on 5 tables on the roof top.

We missed the Florence market which I hear is amazing and the tour books are definitely right when they say to hit up la carraia for the best gelato in town–although so far I’ve yet to have bad gelato.

Following our 4 days in Florence, we headed to the airport to pick up our rental car and continued our Italian adventure in Tuscany.

We saw a ton in a short amount of time, what site sparked your interest?

Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think! 🙂