Florence: The Renaissance Walk

On this day we left Turin for Florence. We took an early train because we wanted to spend as much time in Florence as we could, and arrived around lunchtime. We walked to our AirBnb, which was located in the Santa Croce neighborhood of Florence, and met Gio, our amazing host. Gio checked us into our home, gave us a ton of recommendations for the city, and left us to explore.

Waiting in line for a sandwich

First up, was a short walk to All'Antico Vinaio for a sandwich. I know I said there will be another post all about food, but if you know anything about Florence, then you've heard of this shop. A huge sandwich, along with a huge line, for just a few euros. It was well worth the wait, as the sandwiches were delicious, and well worth the laughs watching every teenage girl pose with their sandwich in front of the shop for a photo....and almost falling while doing it. We, however, decided to backtrack a bit and eat our sandwich in the plaza of the Santa Croce church. Beautiful views and people watching. 

After lunch, we walked a couple of blocks to the Leather School of Florence. A bit about Florence and it's leather fame: Florence is one of those unique cities that has a lot of seafood, because of it's fairly close proximity to the water, but also a great place to eat steak or beef, with a lot of cattle in the region. Historically, Italians used every bit of the cow, from a wide range of meals (yes, every single inside of the cow) to the skin, which is why Florence is so well known for it's
leathers. We thought it would be fun to purchase something leather, but wanted to make sure it was good quality, and not a cheap knockoff. That's when I found the leather school. Not only could we watch students making leather products, but there were great show rooms with items ranging from luggage tags, coin purses, up to purses and jackets. We stuck near the belt and wallet range so it wouldn't hurt OUR wallet too much. :)

After our shopping excursion, we stopped at home quick to drop off our goodies since we were just a few blocks away. Our home was also around the corner from the former home of Michelango, so we stopped for a quick photo. It was surprisingly underwhelming from the exterior, but if you want to enter, there is a museum for eight euros you can visit. After we dropped off our goodies, we made our way back to the Duomo and ordered a bottle of wine to sit in the beauty of Florence and get plenty of photos of the famed dome.

We planned to just wander Florence and take in all of the history. Since we didn't want to miss anything, we had brought with us part of Rick Steves' book that has a great walking tour of Florence called the Renaissance Walk. I mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn't a big fan of Rick Steves' books, but what I DO love and recommend in them are his walking tours. An easy way to see the town and learn all about it. If you don't buy the book, you can download the audio tour for free on his website. Here are the sites and stops of the Renaissance Walk. Keep in mind, every stop had incredible detail about the origin and details you looked at. I won't go through them here, but check out the Rick Steves website for more:

1. The Duomo
2. Brunelleschi's Dome
3. Church and Bell Tower
4. Baptistery Contest Doors
5. Baptistery "Gates of Paradise"
6. Via de'Calzaiuoli (Pedestrian street connecting the Duomo to the rest of the walk, with a gelato shop about every other door)
7. Orsanmichele Church
8. Piazza Signoria
9. Palazzo Vecchio (town hall of Florence and hosts a replica of the David)
10. Savonarola plaque (Exact spot where preacher Savonarola was hanged)
11. Uffizi Courtyard (Uffizi gallery is one of the largest art museums of the world, with many pieces of art from the Medici family and Italian Renaissance era)
12. View of the Arno River
13. Ponte Vecchio ('Old Bridge'. Shops all along the bridge, now famed for gold, silver and souvenirs. During World War II, all bridges in Florence were destroyed by the Germans, except this one.)

At the end of our tour, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio, into the neighborhood called Oltrarno (other side of the Arno) and stopped for an apertivo at a cute place called Golden View Open Bar. We each did a wine flight, had a snack and enjoyed the beautiful view of the bridge and the Arno river. Just a few blocks south of here, was the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. (For those interested, the Boboli Gardens is host of the site where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married. There's your pop culture - ha!) The Pitti Palace used to be the residence of the Medici family, a base for Napoleon and the capital of the unified Italy. Now, it is the largest museum complex in Florence.

We then made our way to Osteria Santo Spirito where we made a reservation for dinner to come back later. Restaurants in Italy are very tiny, so almost all require a reservation for dinner. We were thrill
ed that we had a great seat outside just next to the square, to enjoy our wine and most famous at this restaurant, the gnocchi. It was a great way to end our first night in Florence after a relaxing day of wandering the city and taking in the history this beautiful town has to offer .We went to bed that night understanding exactly why everyone falls in love with Florence.