*This is one of our first entries since back in 2018 (pre Covid GASP). In the foreseeable future, posts will likely be a mix of entries, jumping around different trips across the past seven years*

Days: 8-10 (28th-30th July 2018)

Total distance travelled: 17,544.87 kilometres (10,901.87 miles)

“Florence is charming, cozy, beautiful, inspiring – it has so many great places to go to and so many unique things to see that you won’t find anywhere else!” So wrote Edgardo Osorio, of whom I knew nothing until the powers of Google after first reading that quote…

How could we not be excited about our next destination?

Well, the early starts on what was supposedly a holiday might get some people down?

At least we were mixing it up this time, with a morning bus to carry us from Bologna to Firenze (Florence) for the next few days of our Italian adventure.

It was an 8am departure that would carry us South (yeah, weird that we’d already journeyed past Florence, to only now head back down) for about an hour to reach this fabled city… well, almost.

It would get us to Villa Constanza on the outskirts of the city, from where a tram would carry us onward to the city centre. Super simple.

Dropping us at Alamanni – Stazione Santa Maria Novella, from there a 15 minute walk saw us cross the famous Arno River and into the narrow streets in search of our apartment.

Despite looking easy to find on a map, reality presented more of a challenge, with few numbers, and incorrectly labelled apartment names & numbers causing us all manner of grief!

Eventually we got there, but not without the need to activate Sarah’s global roaming where a bit of world wide web connectivity solved the mystery!

Now Florence has a pretty famous resident in the form of David (that rather nude male of marble, sculpted by a Ninja Turtle named Michelangelo), so we’d pre-purchased tickets to both the Uffizi Gallery (for 8:15am), & the Galleria del Academia, home to David (for 5pm) the following day, meaning we had little need to stress over tickets & today we were free to wander!

We’d arrived on a Saturday, so as you might expect, the city with buzzing with both locals and visitors alike!

To get back into the central part of the city took us back across the Arno River, which dissects the city in half, the area on the north bank home to the more tourist appealing attractions.

The river itself was a little underwhelming, at in daylight hours. Its languid pace leaving the surface a sickly green, with patches scum floating on its surface…

In the heart of town, it was all business, and super busy!

It’s almost impossible to not be wowed by the incredible facades and grandeur of the major Italian cathedrals, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is Florence contribution to the collection.

Still, if it was ever going to look ordinary, besides surrounding it with scaffolding (we’ve endured that at many sites in the past), immersing it within a throng of people, is probably the second best way to ruin the experience!

Now, exploring the city was by no means all about churches.

Sure, we think they are beautiful buildings, but to say we are even remotely pious, would be complete fallacy.

Yet our wanderings (10-15 minutes worth of it) found us at the Piazza di Santa Croce, the hero of which was, you guessed it, another cathedral, this one, unsurprisingly named the Basilica of Santa Croce!

Aesthetically, it looked like it had been built using leftovers from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and didn’t really blow us away.

Still, it was the forever home of one of the cities more famous historical figures. You see, inside this oversized church’s marbled floors sits a tomb, dedicated to Michelangelo Buonarroti, more simply known as the aforementioned Michelangelo.

From sculpting nude men, to painting the ceiling of famous cathedrals (also with nude men… hmmm, recurring theme here), in art circles, he’s obviously something of a big deal.

We’d be seeing some of his works tomorrow morning!

The hours, they wore on, and exploring, well that’s thirsty work!

What better way to slate ones thirst than with wine… and cheese… and meat!?

So we did, perched on skinny wooden stools, our fare perched even more precariously than us.

It was bliss!

People watching, sipping wine, and watching the world go by!

As the shadows lengthened, the crowds thinned somewhat as people either drifted back to their lodging to rest, restaurants for dinner, or towards the banks of the Arno, many with beers to wait for the sunset.

On route, we’d spied several agencies advertising tours to some of the other highlights of Tuscany. We’d already been thinking to add a a couple of hours stop in Pisa on route to the Cinque Terre, so when we spied the option of a day trip to visit it, San Gimignano & Siena, we thought why not?

We booked ourselves on for the morning departure, sauntered down to the river for sunset (for the record, the Arno looked far nicer when that sickly green was blanked by the reflective, setting Sun), and took a couple of beers back to our pad to retire for the evening.

You can read about our adventures to Pisa, San Gimignano & Siena HERE

Now, the more observant readers may by now have realised the flaw that was in our day trip into the countryside of Tuscany.

As we’d sat on our coach out of Florence, headed first for the famous town of Pisa, the penny had dropped.

Today was Sunday (no issue there with heading out on an adventure. As I’ve already stressed, we’re not pious).

No, the issue was, that at 8:15am, we had our tickets already pre-booked for the Uffizi! Later this same day, we also had our tickets for the Galleria del Academia!!

What a pair of fucking morons we are!

Still, we were in Florence, so best make the best of, especially as there was nobody to blame but ourselves.

Today, set to be our last in Florence at least started sunny, so we kicked things off watching others do moronic things other than ourselves.

Turns out OH&S (Occupational Health & Safety) isn’t much of a thing here!

With morbid fascination, we watched the locals at work installing a new window on an upper floor. One slip would have spelled disaster…

Witness to no tragic death in the name of a roller blind, we eventually tore our eyes away to dive back into the city!

The first part of that was to accept our now lost, fully paid for tickets were now simply a donation to the arts.

And it turns out there are actually other things one can do (who knew?)!

Have you heard of the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella? Quite the mouthful sure, but at almost 800 years old, it’s considered the oldest pharmacy in the world!

Now that is cool, and to be honest, so was it. I probably got more out of it, than I’d have done gazing at religious based art (even though this blended both science and art, founded as it was by Franciscan monks).

Somewhat surprisingly, it is still even a functioning apothecary!

Now I know they say you can’t eat your way to happiness, or shouldn’t indulge when emotional, so we thought if it was going to work anywhere.

Take our lunch as an example of proof this theory can indeed work!

Beautiful Panini, thinly sliced Salami & Prosciutto, fresh Tomato & Mozzarella…

Happiness can be found in food!!

Booking tickets to most things here last minute proved nigh on impossible, but we found an exception.

Il Museo Galileo è una delle principali istituzioni internazionali di storia della scienza was not only relatively quiet, it was also super interesting, especially to lover of stargazing like myself!

Come on, Galileo is cool man!

This place housed all manner of scientific apparatus. Of course there were telescopes, but also ancient compasses or sextants, orreries, maps, globes. Some really neat stuff!

Now, just as Bourdain had inspired us in Rome, don’t think for a moment that inspiration was limited to the Eternal City!

Whilst he hadn’t been there himself, we somehow stumbled upon the knowledge of a Mozzarella Cheese bar in the city (I originally swore it thanks to Tony, but I actually believe it was a different food show back home), and when we learn of cheese, we must follow.

As such, dinner for our final Tuscan night was locked in, wine was poured. Wine was drunk, and more delicious food was indulged.

We left content, hearts full, arteries possibly clogged…

We made mistakes in Florence, but we were able to recover, and at the end of the day, there’s always next time… or the time after that!

* Our open jaw (into Rome, out of Amsterdam), flights cost us $930.05AUD each, which I found and purchased through work at STA Travel

* A tram ticket from Villa Costanza to the centre of Florence cost us €1.50, one way

* For accommodation in Florence, we booked several nights at Residenza D’Epoca San Jacopo via Booking.com for €201.60

* Entrance into the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella was FREE!

* To get into Il Museo Galileo è una delle principali istituzioni internazionali di storia della scienza cost us €10.00 each