The last stop on my Italy vacation was spending a couple of nights in Florence, which is the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region. I knew about Tuscany because of its wine production, so I was hoping to get the chance to sample some Tuscan red wine. Upon entering the city by train and checking into our hotel, I felt safer than walking around in Rome, which was something I could not really explain. We got into Florence in the afternoon, so after doing laundry at the local laundromat, we spent the evening walking around the city. Here is my experience:
As I left my hotel and started walking towards the city centre, the streets were busy, but I did not have the same level of paranoia of watching my back as I did in Rome. In fact, I felt safe walking around in Florence, even at night. The buildings and signs were starting to light up, and Florence had that old city feel, but did not feel tired at all.
I was in one of the squares (Piazza di Santa Maria Novella) walking around and the whole vibe was beautiful. All the buildings were bunched together and there was an old Basilica at one of the ends of the square.
The night sky gets darker and we walk further into the city centre. We were inside the Strozzi palace (in the square in the middle of the palace) and the area with lit up with coloured lights. There was also a DJ spinning some tunes at the palace as well, which I thought was pretty cool. There were some people who would stop to dance for a bit.
One of the main pedestrian squares in the middle of Florence was the Piazza Della Repubblica. It was this big square with musicians and a carousel that you could ride. I did not want to ride it, but there were some who wanted to re-live a small part of their childhood.
As we walk down the street with all these luxury clothing stores (and there were A LOT of these stores in Florence), we pass by another square with a man belting out Andrea Bocelli’s greatest hits for everyone to hear. He was great! People would occasionally drop a few coins for him for his performance.
We get to the Arno River and I was able to snap some pics of the Ponte Vecchio, as well as some nice night pics of Florence on the river.
The night walk around Florence was beautiful, with good weather and good ambience. Florence is such a beautiful city, and in the second Florence blog post, I will check out the Duomo and see the statue of David.
More night pics/videos below:
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