Florence 2015
In September 2015, Ann visited her sister in Slovakia, so I took the opportunity to spend a week in Florence on my own visiting all the sites I was particularly interested in..
Needless to say I took an enormous number of photos on this trip, but am only showing a small selection here, concentrating on (for me anyway) new and unusual views of Florence.
Florence was part of our Honeymoon and we revisited it in our 2004 anniversary Honeymoon. If anyone is interested, I spent a long time creating my ideal itinerary for this visit & would be pleased to share it with you.
A few tips:-
Why queue for hours before visiting any of the popular galleries when you can buy a FirenzeCard and skip the queues?
Also the Uffizi & Palazzo Vecchio are open some evenings in the week. I visited both at night and they were almost deserted. Ideal!
Since our last visit, it is now possible to visit the Vasari Corridor (as a group tour, booked in advance) as well as climbing up Torre Arnolfo (the tower of Palazzo Vecchio). Both are great fun with new views of the city.
With the Vasari corridor, there are several companies offering the tour (it can only be done as a group). The corridor tour has to start on the second floor of the main Uffizi gallery – so you typically have a sneak preview of some of the Uffizi. The tour, once inside the corridor lasts an hour. So when some companies claim their tour lasts 2 hours or more, the extra time is spent talking about the history, etc. outside in the Piazza della Signoria and getting to the start in the Uffizi. Also many companies will combine their groups together. The tour I was on had tourists who paid varying amounts for exactly the same experience. I chose FlorencePass which I would recommend, as they were the best value and also the tour guide, Maurizio, who runs FlorencePass was excellent with a good sense of humour.
Most guidebooks suggest going to Piazzale Michelangelo or going a bit further up to San Miniato al Monte to get a panoramic view of Florence. I found that going to Forte di Belvedere, I got better & closer views of the city. A bonus for me was that there was the Antony Gormley “Human” exhibition at the Belvedere.
I happened to be passing by the Chiesa di Santa Maria de’ Ricci when I heard this organ music. Someone was practising & there was no-one else round. Sublime.