A Day in Florence, Italy

With only a day in Florence in this 2015 trip, we ran into some planning/crowd hiccups and didn’t enjoy our time as much as we could have. But then when I look at the photographs, warm fuzzy feelings of our time spent here a decade prior come back and I forget about the crowds and the difficulties of this day.

When we had visited Florence in a decade earlier, it was in April – which in retrospect is supposed to be less crowded than the summer months. Hence, our expectations for June may not have been realistic, and perhaps we should have allowed more time.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Our morning started with a fast train ride from Rome to Florence, stowing our bags in the train station lockers on arrival. The original plan was to go to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David, but after standing in a ridiculously long line that was completely in the sun and completely at a standstill, after 15 minutes we decided to skip it. Alas. But we showed the boys the replica in the square. If you want to visit this museum during the summer crowds, I highly recommend purchasing advance tickets.

At this point, we decided to wander a bit, visiting a few churches, including the Duomo, and stopped for some amazing paninis for lunch. Since we had seen the Uffizi on our last trip, it wasn’t a high priority for us this time around, which was good, given the lines. Maybe it’s just us, but when we went previously, the Uffizi felt somewhat smaller than we had expecting.

And I found my favorite lemon almond Tuscan cookies, “Ricciarelli,” at Migone. So delicious! I’ve even tried making them at home. At Eur 5.5 per 100g (55 Euros/kg, or about $27/pound), they’re not super cheap, but yummy!

The streets were super cute!

And the Ponte Vecchio and other bridges over the Arno River lovely.

More wandering and it was a picture perfect day! We did check the lines again at the Accademia, but they were still a bit too long for the amount of time we had in Florence, so we got some gelato instead.

For dinner, I finally got to try some Tuscan Tomato Bread Soup at Giannino in San Lorenzo. Paired with some nice chicken with a gorgonzola sauce, amazing! The boys have been eating way too much pizza, pasta, and gelato. No complaints from them!