Florence, Italy

The capital of Tuscany and the former capital of the Italian Republic, Florence is a truly ancient city, founded in 59 BC personally by Julius Caesar. However, Florence reached its heyday in the 14th-16th centuries, when, without exaggeration, it became the financial and cultural center of Europe. Florence successfully combines the spirit of a great past (you absolutely can’t take a step here without hitting some historically significant place) and the atmosphere of a lively and dynamic modern city with excellent food, shopping and a lot of entertainment opportunities.

It is Florence that is considered the place where the Renaissance began, and for many prominent figures of that period, such as Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, it was the hometown. But Florence is famous not only for poets and writers – Renaissance architecture also came from here, and the great Florentine architects, primarily Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Batista Alberti, laid the foundation for a new architectural style, which for many centuries influenced construction in all major European cities, from Barcelona to Saint Petersburg. Since then, the city in all its Renaissance splendor, as they say, has been well preserved, and today Florence can be called an “open-air museum” without any stretch. Check liuxers for customs and traditions of Italy.

Florence Hotels

Ancient Florence is a very popular city among tourists. And, it means that rooms in local hotels, although there are a lot of them, it is better to book in advance. And prepare for relatively high prices. In the off-season, you can find a “double” in the center for 50 EUR, but from April to the end of September, the cost rises by about 30%. The most budget options are traditionally hostels, the price per night in which starts from 15-25 EUR. Large companies should pay attention to 2-3-room apartments – in addition to the opportunity to feel like a local, walking every morning for fresh buns for breakfast, the price of 100-150 EUR per night is conveniently divided into several families.

Almost exponentially, the cost per night in hotels is growing, which is closer to the famous Piazza della Signoria. But sometimes such a price is almost “justified”: the pleasure of staying in a medieval palazzo with a romantic story from the life of the Medici family is worth it.

Communication and Wi-Fi

Italians are not as dependent on the World Wide Web as guests from Russia, the United States or China, so for them free Wi-Fi is more of a whim than a necessity. Therefore, most of the local hotels take a small tribute for such whims of guests – 5-7 EUR per day. There are, of course, hotels with free access, but it is better to check in advance.

Cafes and restaurants also do not indulge guests with access to the network, perhaps they are afraid of their cuisine competing with Facebook. Needless to say, they are afraid.

Firenzecard

“72 hours, 85 EUR and 72 museums” is the motto of the official guest card of the capital of Tuscany Firenzecard, which can be bought online at the official website. website, at one of the museum’s ticket offices or at the information office. Whether it’s worth it is a different question. If you want to visit at least a couple of museums a day (and in Florence it’s simply impossible to do otherwise), the card, if it doesn’t “pay off”, will be approximately equal to this amount, because the average price for tickets to Florentine museums is about 7 EUR. But besides this, Firenzecard holders will not have to queue at the box office (including the famous Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio or Palazzo Pitti), and they will be able to go to one of the selected places without a queue at all – the so-called priority will work pass.

7 things to do in Florence

1. Quote something from the Divine Comedy at the monument to Dante.
2. Pay tribute to the memory of Michelangelo at his tombstone in the Basilica of Santa Croce.
3. Find a house with a sign “L’Idiota” – this is where Fyodor Mikhailovich finished guess what his novel is.
4. Remember the great people of our land and find all the places in Florence that belong to the Demidovs – the villas of San Donato and Demidoff, the square named after the famous industrial family and the monument of the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, who also glorifies this particular family.
5. Order an amazing Florentine steak – powerful, juicy, fragrant and with blood.
6. Find a profile allegedly scratched by Michelangelo on a stone right behind the sculpture of Hercules in Piazza della Signoria.
7. Popsy, but necessary: ​​to rub the nose of the wild boar Porcellino, which fell apart at the New Market Gallery. They say that the snout of a wild boar brings good luck to everyone who touches it.

Weather

The climate of Florence is a strange mixture of Mediterranean and subtropical humid climates. On the one hand, the fields of Tuscany in the off-season always bring a gentle and warm breeze, full of aromas of flowering herbs. On the other hand, the summer in Florence is very hot and stuffy, not to say suitable for long sightseeing walks. But the winter here is mild, but rainy, and in some years it can bring quite severe cold snaps. The best time to visit Florence to replenish your cultural baggage is early spring and mid-late autumn. To combine a couple of days of excursions with swimming in the sea, which is about 100 km away, this is June-July. August is also good, but it is in this month that many Italians take vacations and flood all the surrounding beaches with their cheerful and noisy crowds.