The 4 MUST see’s of Florence: [Part 1]

Boboli Gardens:

After crossing the Arno, you’ll find yourself strolling along the cute side streets, filled with jewelry shops, leather stores, and gelato cafes. As you walk along, you will end up at the Pitti Palace. This is the home to the Medici family, all the way back to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Behind the Pitti Palace lies their beautiful gardens. The Boboli Gardens. In these gardens you can find unbelievable statues and sculptures, as well as fountains, such as the Fountain of Neptune and Fountain of the Ocean. As I walked around the vast green hills and stairs showing you new little areas of this extravagant backyard to the Medici family, I tried to picture myself living in the 17th century, walking about with my Prince or Lord, holding my hand, living a lavish life. I would lie on a hill overlooking all of the city of Florence, with a book in my hand. What a life. What a backyard… holy moly.

Michelangelo, point hike across the river:

When walking towards the Arno (the main river), you can see the statue of Michelangelo shining, and catching all the reflections of the sun, gleaming down at you. It is a hike up to where he stands tall, but man, oh man, is he worth it. Where the statue was placed also provides an amazing lookout viewpoint of the entire city of Florence, along with the mountains surrounding it. I used to do morning runs up to this viewpoint around 9 am, and it would be so peaceful, as no one was quite up and moving yet, but about to be. The city was silent for a little, and that to me was a piece of heaven and a view I will never forget.

Uffizi gallery:

Here you can find the second most knowledgeable tour guides in all of Italy. First, of course, are the tour guides of Vatican City, in Rome. BUT, these men and women have a wealth of knowledge of art history that is so spectacular. I would designate about three hours for this tour. I know that seems like a lot of time for a tour of an art gallery.

However, this art gallery also has a café for you to enjoy a small snack, and a cappuccino, to re-energize for the rest of the tour. It also has a wonderful view of Florence surrounding the Uffizi. The art collections range from paintings and sculptures to statues and mementos from hundreds to thousands of years prior. A little background information: the art that is collected in this Uffizi gallery, is the personal art collections from the Medici family. (If you haven’t watched the Medici series on Netflix, give it a watch... it’s wonderful). Something crazy that I learned is that the Uffizi gallery actually has a secret passageway connecting it to the Pitti Palace. This was done so that members of the Medici family, or individuals of honor, did not have to walk amongst the common folk. It was their little secret way to escape the crowds to get from place to place.

Florence’s Cathedral, the Duomo:

You CAN’T miss this. These buildings stand in the heart of the city. I spent many nights walking around the Duomo, and the way it lights up the entire city is spectacular. The line for a tour inside the cathedral normally wraps around the entire building and can take a while to get into it, however, it is so worth it. It is another extraordinary building with more history that just blows your mind. Our tour guide told us this story that the stairs at the top of the dome, in the Duomo, were rounded, and we were all curious why. Well, back in the day, the wealthiest of the city were often carried around on one of those lifts that his servants would carry. The men drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of red meat that they often got a case of gout, and were not able to walk up to the Duomo or their palace. A fun little fact I will never forget.

This is just Part 1, but some of my favorite must sees in this beautiful city.

With all my love - SB