After our lovely quick stopover in Venice, we caught a bus through the Italian countryside to Florence (or Firenze in Italian), capital of the Tuscany region of Italy and famed for its food and culture as the epicentre of the Italian renaissance.

From the bus station we caught a tram to a residential neighbourhood called Rifredi where our Airbnb was located. Rifredi is a very quiet area about 30 minutes from the historic centre. Our Airbnb was incredibly lush. It felt like we were staying in a luxury hotel!

Our first morning in Florence we had planned to get out early before the heat and the other tourists. Our plans were de-railed by us both sleeping in - the bed was extremely comfortable! This meant by the time we had breakfast and made our way to the Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral), it was already 30+ degrees and the line to enter was already over an hour long. We decided to skip the Cathedral until the next day but went for a wander around the Cathedral itself (it’s stunning!) as well as the Campanile Di Giotto (Giotto’s Bell Tower) and the Baptistry. The doors on the Baptistry and Cathedral were beautiful and covered in 3D intricate carvings. Brunelleschi’s Dome on top of the Cathedral was so much larger in real life than I expected. You can pay to go to the top of the dome and walk around but spaces are so limited there were no tickets available for the next two weeks. The other option was the Bell Tower but both of us were not keen to pay €20 each to walk up 414 steps!

The area around the Cathedral was beginning to become unbearable with tourists so we continued walking through the laneways of Florence to the Piazza della Repubblica before setting out to find the Fontana del Porcellino, the iconic boar fountain. Apparently rubbing its snout ensures your return to Florence. Around him were a number of stalls selling lots of leather goods. In fact, Florence is apparently world renown for its leather products. We saw so many stalls and shops selling leather bags, wallets, belts & jackets. It’s also a fashion capital so there were a lot of high end designer stores around - definitely not in my budget when I’m earning $0 right now!

Our next stop was the Piazza della Signoria which is the civil centre of Florence and is dominated by the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace). The square was the birthplace of the Florence Republic and has a large number of outdoor statues. In fact, Michelangelo’s “David” used to stand here but is no replaced by a replica (you have to pay to go see the real one!). Fake David was fine for me! The statues themselves were fascinating - unbelievable these were carved from stone! Especially the fabric work it just looks so much like the real thing!

We walked in through the front part of Palazzo Vecchio (as it is open to the public) before wandering outside to admire one of the few working fountains we have seen on our trip!

From the palace, we made our way towards Ponte Vecchio, which is a Medieval stone bridge across the River Arno. Apart from being super old, it’s also famous for the concealed upper level which is part of a kilometre long tunnel connecting the old palace with the new palace. Historically it was used by Duke Fernandino to move between the two palaces out of the public eye.  Moving onwards, we wound our way through the laneways to the Palazzo Pitta (Pitti Palace / New Palace) which was closed for the day (but on our list for tomorrow!).

On the way back to the tram, we caught glimpses of the Uffizi Gallery across the river and a much better view of the Ponte Vecchio.

At this stage, the heat was unbearable so we had a gelato near the Cathedral before heading back to the Airbnb to hide out in the air-conditioning.

Day 2 and this time we were early to the Cathedral (45 minutes before opening early) and were still about 100 deep in the queue to get in. No you can’t pay to reserve tickets for this - it’s free to the public. You would think, with this line being a daily occurrence, they would maybe put in some actual line barriers and shade? Thankfully I had my umbrella to hide under from the sun. By the time we actually got in, a number of people had already given up and left so we had moved forward in the queue. A few more people were turned away literally at the door as there’s a dress code for places of worship (no shoulders and no knees!). A number of opportunistic street vendors were making bank selling shawls and wraps at the door for those unfortunates lacking foresight (not us!).

All this to see the underside of Brunelleschi’s Dome. We both agreed it wasn’t worth lining up to see. Was it massive? Yes. Pretty? Yes. Anything else? Argh, not really! The outside of the Cathedral is much more impressive than the inside!

Walking past the Basilica Di San Lorenzo, we made our way to the Mercato Centrale, Florence’s central market. We tried a few things from the stalls with the most adventurous of these being Lampredotto, a local specialty. Lampredotto is the fourth stomach of a cow served in a panini with green spicy sauce. It doesn’t sound appealing! It was…ok - nothing exciting! A bit chewy and rubbery!

For our last stop of the day we headed back to the Pitti Palace, the official last residence of the Medici family, renown for its Renaissance architecture and the incredible Palatine Gallery! I was amazed with the ceiling decor in Portugal, I was absolutely blown away by the ceilings in the Pitti Palace. I’m not that into art but the architecture and artwork really complimented each other. It was an amazing experience!

Unfortunately the Royal Apartments of the Medici were closed for renovations and the other exhibitions weren’t that interesting so we made our way out into the Boboli Gardens. The gardens were underwhelming but at least we got a spectacular view out over the rooftops of Florence towards the Cathedral.

At this stage, it was sweltering hot again so we made our way back to the Airbnb and had an easy night in with beer and pizza. Florence was nice to visit but definitely not on the revisit list. There were a few more sights related to the Medici that unfortunately we didn’t have time to get to but I feel like we got our fill with the Pitti Palace! We did miss out on the famous food of Florence staying out where we were but honestly I didn’t have much appetite while we were there - it was just too hot! I’d go out and explore more of the region and areas around Florence next time. It’s definitely not somewhere I’d visit again in summer 🥵