A Winter Weekend in Florence

I first visited Florence as an enthusiastic, but hard up student as part of a whistle stop inter-railinging tour of Europe.  My then boyfriend (now husband) and I were determined to pack as many countries as we could into our month long trip.  We had a fabulous time staying mostly in youth hostels or sleeping on overnight trains or train platforms   We lived on baby bell cheese and bread (but thats another story).  And we mainly saw major sights from the outside rather than the inside as we could rarely afford the entry fee.  Consequently we were keen to spend a bit more time in the beautiful city of Florence on this occasion.

Getting There

Just like we did all those years ago, we arrived on train from Pisa.   Although this time we had flown into Pisa from London Heathrow.  Living in West London this was by far the easiest route as there are no direct flights from Heathrow to Florence.  I enjoy train travel and the short 60 minute journey was pleasant and gave us a taste of the Tuscan country side in winter.  It wasn’t too hard to imagine it bathed in sunshine and sunflowers in the heat of summer.

Why visit in Winter?

Florence is notorious for being a very busy city.  The crowds and queues to enter the major galleries and cathederals and churches are legendary.  And although it will never be a quiet place, in January it is very relaxed, and is much easier to wander around .

Much of what you might want to do in Florence is inside so although diving  into an art gallery to escape the scorching sunshine of summer may be appealing, far more appealing is a more leisurely meander around the major works of art without hoards of other tourists peering over your shoulder or more commonly these days taking selfies in front of you.

We also found the choice of accommodation plentiful and much better value than during the summer months.  Going in Winter means that some of the higher end accommodation becomes much more affordable.  We stayed at the fabulous Ad Aastra Apartments.  These were so special, and I have so many pictures to share,  they deserve a post all of their own.

What to do and See

We had two full days and one morning and had gone with an idea of some of the things we were sure we wanted to see, largely  the major art galleries and buildings but as ever we were looking forward to putting down the guide book and finding some treasures of our own.

Galleria dell’Accademia

This was our must see and we had booked early tickets (9.30am) before we arrived.  We had read lots about the world famous, marble statue of David by Michelangelo being worth the entry fee to the gallery alone. Although we were looking forward to seeing it, we weren’t quite prepared for how breathtaking it would be.  Within minutes of entering the gallery, we rounded a corner and there he was. Magnificent and imposing but ultimately beautiful.  I don’t think I have ever been so moved by a piece of art. Because we were early, and it was January we had fabulous views from all angles without the hustle and bustle of tour groups.  It’s only now as I look back at my extensive photographs that I realise how many angles of David I managed to capture!

David is obviously the star of the show, but the 19th century hall of plaster cast statues and busts is stunning too and we spent ages wandering around.  There were some large renaissance paintings which again I enjoyed.  It takes only a short while in Florence to realise it is brimming with iconography, and there was plenty in the Gallleria dell’ Academia.  I am less inclined towards this but I couldn’t fail to be impressed by how much beauty and art history was stored under one roof.

Mercado Centrale

I always try to find a market to wander around when in other countries or even in the UK. Its a great way to watch local people, and market stalls in other countries always look so much more tempting that in our own.  Florence has got this covered,  literally, in the enormous covered Mercado Centrale. The ground level is is a myriad of stalls selling meat and fish, and fruit and vegetables and there are numerous stalls selling the local speciality Tripe.  I’m usually keen to sample local fayre but I’m afraid tripe was just a step too far. We did however sample some delicious fresh pasta and pasta with a glass of dry local chianti.  Upstairs from the market itself is a food court ‘Italian style’.  Their is a great variety of local food and table service for drinks so it a great place to rest a while, and refuel on lunch.  The atmosphere is loud and noisy and full of cheerful italians doing what they do best, eating and drinking and serving great food. We soon realised early on the best tactic here was to just dive right in.

The Uffizi Gallery

As advised by any guide book, or travel blog post you ever read, the key to visiting the Uffizi is to book ahead and go earlier or later in the day.  So just as with the Galleria dell’Accademia we had done just that, although being Sunday gave ourselves a little more of a leisurely start than on the previous day!  We thought we had some idea of what to expect from the Uffizi, what we didn’t expect was the huge scale of it.  With such  a vast building packed with artistic treasures it was always going to be difficult to know where to start with or without a guide.  We took the without a guide approach and went with our  instinct to head to the top presuming most people would start at the bottom.  This instinct proved to be a good one as were were able to enjoy Botticelli’s masterpieces  easily and in an uncrowded way.  The corridors of The Uffizi are almost as spectacular as the art, and are also lined with treasures.  We spent the best part of the morning in the Uffizi until we felt saturated with renaissance and beauty.  I have never considered my self a huge fan of renaissance and religious art, but I certainly came away from The Uffizi with a much greater appreciation.  I’ve also realised that even if you are not sure what a particular renaissance painting is depicting, chances are it will be called ‘Madonna con il Bambino‘!

Climb to the top of the Dumo

We had elected to save our climb to the top of the Cupola in the Dumo for late afternoon in order to get some views over Florence as the sun went down.  It was a beautiful clear day so this proved to be a good decision.  Their are 463 steps some of them steep and narrow but it is worth every one of them, for the view from the top.  Also you are rewarded with  much closer views of the ceiling of the cupola, decorated with Giorgio Vasari’s frescoes of the Last Judgment (1572-9) At 4.30pm in January, the soft golden light was already illuminating the terracotta roofs below bathing them in a mellow warmth. Despite the crowds at the top there was still a sense of stillness and peace.

Wander and drink coffee

We made sure to drink plenty of coffee during all of our trip – an essential part of any winter break and when in Italy who wouldn’t want to drink the delicious coffee. However on our last morning we had no particular agenda so just took ourselves for a walk.  We veered off from the main tourist trail and being a Monday morning the locals were heading back to work.  We mooched and people watched and enjoyed some time away from the Michelangelo’s and the Botticelli’s on the other side of town. We poked our noses into doorways of churches and buildings and edged our way into an enormous church which we had passed lots of times in the previous days but hadn’t though of going into.  We were so glad we did. The beautiful buildings had vast vaulted ceilings and was littered with renaissance painting by artists we now felt familiar with.  However, the most wonderful surprise was the enormous nativity scent at the back of the church complete with falling snow, music lights, moving star and 100’s of characters.  It was a gem of a discovery and that along side the excellent coffee in a tiny cafe in a tiny back street was a very pleasing conclusion to our first weekend of travel in 2018.

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