On Monday we drove to Florence. We were in dilemma whether we should visit it or not, but then decided to do it. Mondays most of museums and galleries are closed, so we hoped there would be less tourists in town than usual. And we didn't have any plans to visit museums and galleries, we didn't have very much time and we would need to buy tickets for that well in advance anyway. We were a bit nervous about traffic and parking, but it all went better than expected.
We decided to park in the parking on the North side of old town centre (and no-traffic zone). We drove by the Piazzale Michelangelo, a famous spot where people gather in the evenings to watch the sun set over Florence. We stopped for few moments and even without a sunset the view was great.
There was a 15 minutes walk from our parking to the centre of Florence. The buildings here were much bigger, taller and grander, and mostly also more modern than what we saw in Certaldo or Volterra.
This is the most famous church in town, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is all covered in multi coloured marble.
There was a huge line of people waiting at the entrance.
The buildings around the church are also very pretty.
This is the back of the church, with less people.
I found it interesting that the bell tower wasn't attached to the church building.
There were also some more medieval buildings around, like this granary.
We also saw some very nice facades.
This is another must see building in Florence, the Palazzo Vecchio or the old palace.
In front of it to the right there is an open building with many famous statues, most of them depicting beheadings or rapes. Life must have been pretty cruel back then.
In front of the palace there is a copy of Michelangelo's David, right on the place where the original used to be. Even the copy is pretty impressive.
But I also liked this Fountain of Neptune by Ammannati.
The Pallazo Vecchio has a very high tower and we were tempted a bit to climb it, but then decided to just explore the streets.
Next beautiful thing we found was the famous bridge Ponte Vecchio.
This was probably the most crowded part of the town. And I managed to resist the temptation of all the jewelleries that were on both sides on the bridge.
We walked to the next bridge to the West, the Ponte Santa Trinita, from where there was again a great view of Ponte Vecchio.
We were getting a bit tired and hungry and decided we have enough energy left to walk to the central market and get something to eat there. On the way there we saw some more pretty buildings...
...and we found another church with facade made of multi coloured marble.
The stalls on the ground floor in the central market were already almost empty, but the food court on the first floor was full of stalls and people. We walked around a bit and found several places where the food looked and smelled delicious, but then we came across this one with great selection of Fiorentina steaks. We asked if they are still open, as it was already passed 4 in the afternoon, and they said of course. And we decided - it's now or never!
We ordered the smallest steak we could and it was still 1.2 kg. When we saw it on the platter we though we will have to ask for a doggy bag to pack all the rests, but once we started eating it it was so delicious, we managed to eat it all! It was also helpful that we didn't ordered any potatoes with it, just some grilled veggies.
After so much meat and a bottle of wine we were done for the day. We slowly walked back to our car, by on this pretty Porta San Gallo and drove back.
But while driving by on Piazzale Michelangelo, we had to make a stop again. Here there is another replica of David, this time in bronze.
It was much more crowded than in the morning, but it was worth the stop - the views over Florence in evening light were quite spectacular.
Then we drove back to our hotel and went to bed early.
