Is Florence worth visiting?
- Exploriris Travel
- Mar 13
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 16
🎵🎶"Che confusione, sarà perché ti amo
È un'emozione che cresce piano piano" 🎶🎵
OH. HEY!! You're here. Welcome to my blog!
Today I will answer the question: Is Florence worth visiting? (while you internally have that song stuck in your head, hehehe. You're welcome 😉)
Florence, also called the "birthplace of the renaissance" and the reason why is still very visible nowadays. The city of Florence is filled with beautiful ancient buildings, chruches and statues designed by popular 15,16th century artists like Donatello and Michelangelo.
Since 1982 the historic city centre of Florence is named a world heritage site by UNESCO (³), actually so many buildings in Florence have the UNESCO label. We almost got a little ' spoiled' walking around in Florence
Me: " oh look unesco again"
My friend: "yeayea pretty, but everything here is unesco here".
Me: 😲
All jokes aside, this does not change the fact that this ancient city is so incredibly beautiful! Most buildings stem from the 11th till 14th century.
One of the most popular ancient buildings in Florence is the Duomo di Firenze (Florence's Cathedral). The design of this church started 1294 and finished in 1436. Although the building itself was not fully finished until 1887 (¹). And fun fact, it is still not ' fully finished' . When you climb the belltower you can see a part of the church is still white with only sketch lines drawn on it. This because the designer thought it was not pretty enough he said ' .... it, just stop it!" . How ironic that nowadays the Duomo is now one of the most popular tourist sights of Florence. And for a reason, it is so pretty (at least we thought 😉), it was also super worth it to climb the bell tower and take a look inside. The belltower will give you an impressive view over the Beautiful city of Florence. (see bottom left and top right picture in collage above)
Apart from the Duomo, the city center is filled with many other ancient buildings from the renaissance and gothic movement (³). My favorite (after the Duomo!) are the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Gothic building Campanile di Giotto (bell tower). Two other famous sights nearby are the Vecchio palace with the Ponte Vecchio at the bottom. Aka the bridge with the colorful houses.
The ancient buildings, mix of Renaissance, Romain and Gothic styles designed by the best Italian architects and artists characterises Florence. The city definitely earned that UNESCO title for a reason!
As magical the city is during the day, it is just as magical when starting the night falls. Imagine you are done with your day of exploring the city. Please walk along the Vecchio palace, up to the Piazzale (square of) Michael Angelo. It is a bit of a climb, very popular under tourists, but definitely worth it for......
The best sunset views.
So you climbed all the way up there. (Allright, take a second to catch your breath😜). Okay, now look around.... You can see the Ponte Vecchio, beautiful Duomo, flowers and the rest of the ancient city. You get a full view of all the beauty Florence showed you during the day.
Apart from the views the ambiance is also amazing. Take a seat at the stairs and enjoy the violin music and street performances while you watch one of the most incredible sunsets you'll ever see. You can enjoy a drink (or two 😉) while you're at it, purchasable at one of the many (souvenir) stalls.
What's the plan for tomorrow? What else does this city has to offer?
Botanical Gardens!
We visited two botanical gardens in Florence: Boboli gardens and Giardino gardens.
The Boboli Gardens is very big and has a VERY beautiful nature viewpoint which stood out to me. The plants and bushes are very well maintained and the gardens look very neat. You can also get a great view of the city, with our favorite church in sight , can you spot it on the right picture slide?😉
The Giardino gardens is a bit smaller but provides beautiful city viewpoints as well. It got more colorful flowers than the Boboli gardens. Enjoy some extra color from April to May, while the purple flowers (jacaranda's) are in full bloom (4).
We thought the Giardino Garden was more colorfull and filled with pretty flowers while the Boboli Gardens was more 'neat' and stretched out.
If I had to choose between the two, I would definitely go with the Giardino Gardens. If you have time, it is recommended to visit both. You only need one entry ticket for both Gardens and tickets are discounted under the age of 18-24 for EU citizens.
Enough about gardens, buildings, etc. You haven't really gone to Italy if you haven't tried...
THE FOOD!
The food in Florence was so good, authentic Italian and not expensive. The best restaurants in Florence are (in my opinion and experience).
Best pizza
Berberè`pizzeria santa croce and Miró ristorante pizzeria. Here you can eat the best pizza of Florence.
Best pasta
Hosteria del Bricco. Here you can enjoy the best pasta of Florence. The restaurant is very small (booking recommended) and cosy. It has really classic, homy vibes. The menu is nicely handwritten and contains a variety of pasta and Gnocchi. I ate the truffel pasta and a tiramisu afterwards. Both delicious! Even though the restaurant was very busy, we did not have to wait really long for the food. Definitely a good restaurant experience!
Best paninis (sandwich)
Sapori Toscani streetfood, open 11:30-19:00 daily.
You can choose from so many sandwich combinations that I bet for everyone, they have the perfect sandwhich combination. I myself ordered the number 1: Tuscan ham, fresh pecorino cheese and TRUFFEL SAUCE😍 (a real delicatesse in the regio of Florence). It tasted amazing.
Best American diner (yes, really!)
A bit of an odd one.. The 1950 American diner Firenze.
This diner is designed beautifully total rock& roll greece style. Waitresses fly by on rollerskates while serving the best burgers and big American milkshakes. It is a fun experience and it is good food to satisfy your burger cravings.
Best street food
I booked a street food tour. The Italian lady took us to the most amazing little local bakeries, wineries and markets and let us taste delicious local foods!
The BEST FOOD we tasted during the tour:
A cocoli at bakery "Forno Bruschi Ivana Hemp".
AMAZING. A fluffy soft bread, filled with ham and creamy cheese. It is an amazing salty, tasty goodness. The bakery is run by Ivana, an old lady of 99 years old! She has been running the bakery for a very long time and obviously found the perfect recipe for a cocoli.
We tasted different wines. The santo Vino (holy wine) and Biscotti cantucci (almond wine). (ehh did I tell you the tour started at 11 in the morning, oooopss 😉)
We visited the market Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio where we tasted one of the BEST PISTACHIO paste I've ever tasted, different kinds of olive oil (because Italians love their olive oil) and truffle spreads. All very delicious! A bit pricey, but in my opinion definitely worth it. I bought the pistachio cream as a tasty reminder to this great tour, so bought a souvenir.
From one market into another. Because it was a saturday, the local market on Piazza della Repubblica was on. Random note: lots of fake Leather can be found there (tourist trap!).
To finish of the tour we tasted THE BEST REAL ITALIAN GELATO ever at RivaReno Gelato Firenze!!
Hear me out, because we also became real gelato (tasting) experts 😉. We learned how you can determine if something is real gelato or more artificial modified. Two sings of real gelato are 1. It should be very creamy and 2. It should melt very quickly. By looking at the pistachio ice cream you can also determine the quality of the gelato. Is the pistachio a bright, clear green color? Than it is definitely not real Italian gelato!
Of course we did not stick to one gelato during our stay, since my motto is "everyday it is a tinyy little bit warm I have to enjoy an ice cream". 😉
Vivoli Sbrino and Gelateria Della Passera were two of our other favorite ice cream places.
Got hungry now? Drooling of that yummy gelato? Okay, hold that thought. I got one more reason why Florence is absolutely worth visiting...
The weather!!
From April to september sunshine averages to 11 hours a day. Day time temperatures vary from maximum 24 degrees in May till 31 degrees in July and August (⁵). We visited Florence in May and the weather was perfect, I even do not believe it was under 24 degrees to be honest. we felt like it was so warm. I would say April/May is a perfect time to visit if you want to stroll around the city.. Because even for us in May, it did get a bit too hot to explore in the middle of the day, I can not imagine how that will be in June/July/August. Also these months are characterized by peek Italian school holidays. (⁶).
So yummy foods, perfect weather, a lot of tourist sights. Now what would my conclusion be: is it worth visiting Florence? Yes!! The ancient city is filled with beautiful buildings and churches, Michelangelo square is one of the best sunsets spots you will ever see, the food is amazing and the sun is shining all year around. I mean, what more do you want??
To start planning your trip? Understandable. Click here for a full guide on how to plan a trip.
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Love to read your view on one of my favorite cities, 10000% agree 😍 Reading it makes me go back in time, wish we were there eating cocoli or gelato 😋☀️