Florence, Italy -An Art Lovers Paradise

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…..Florence is well known for famous sculptures, paintings and architecture 

Everyone told me I’d love the art in Florence. There certainly was a lot of it. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art, architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti.

Florence was home to one of European history’s most important noble families, the Medici. In 1469, Lorenzo de Medici, grandson to Cosimo, took over control of the city from behind the scenes. He was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. To his peers he was known as Lorenzo il Magnifico which ironically was also the name of the street our apartment was on.

If you are going to Florence in the near future I would recommend that you prebook your tickets to the Uffizi Gallery. We booked on line the night before and went right to the front of the line when we arrived at our designated time. In fact we were ushered to an even faster line because we had the baby with us. Even though the baby was free of charge they wanted to see her passport before they gave us our tickets. We didn’t have the passport so we pleaded ignorance. Who knew? Did they think we were going to smuggle in an adult on an infant’s ticket? Other than that, getting into the popular Uffizi was quick and relatively easy and well worth the few extra euros to book ahead of time.

We never did get to see the real Michelangelo’s David. The two in the gallery above were replicas. I thought I would be disappointed if I didn’t get to the real one but there was so much to see and do and it was so hot in Florence that it wasn’t worth the ultimate exhaustion we would have suffered trying to get to the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, which is now the home of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. Maybe I’ll go there the next time I’m in Florence.

Ciao!

12 thoughts on “Florence, Italy -An Art Lovers Paradise”

  1. Thank you for the stunning trip down memory lane. I was in Florence in 1992 and still remember the heat and the relief of a cold gelato. I think I did see the original of David and bought a print of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus which a boy friend later described as a “naked woman standing in a shell” his ignorance was quickly shown up: “What?!! That’s a Botticelli!
    Sounds like a great trip.
    xx Rowena

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  5. Your pictures are a great glimpse at what Florence has to offer. I visited Florence in the 90s and really didn’t enjoy it for a multitude of reasons that I realize now had nothing to do with Florence.

    Now I wish I could have a ‘do over’ 😉

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    • I have to admit that it wasn’t my favourite place in Italy but there is a lot to see and do. The downside is that it is very hot and busy with tourists in July. I think if I’d been there in October it would have been more enjoyable and less hectic. Our host who lived in Florence said that the city centre was not meant for the locals. It was strictly for the tourists.

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      • I don’t feel so guilty about not liking Florence the first time. Certainly the heat played into it, but mostly I was really tired. We were already a week into a very hectic trip and I needed a rest.
        We’re not very good at building rest time into our trips 😉

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