24 Hours In Florence

Truthfully, Florence didn’t even make our original itinerary.  It was only added later on, when we ran our trip plans by people and they gasped in shock at the fact that we were skipping over their beloved Firenze.  It was a simple addition, we just shed one night off our Venice stay and opted for a quick 24 hours in Florence.  I really did feel a bit better about adding a brief glimpse of Tuscany to our schedule, and spoiler alert!  Everyone was right, Florence is a must.

Our accommodation requirement was, once again, proximity to the train (I promise we’re not as lazy as it sounds).  The Atlantic Palace was only a few blocks from the station, so we were able to gracefully (sarcasm)  roll our luggage there by foot.  The place was nice and clean, but the customer service was impeccable.  In fact, an Italian Zach Braff manned the front desk both days and he was most delightful. Location was perfect, the included breakfast was not.  You can’t win them all.

I was so tired from our early start to the travel day, but with less than 24 hours in this beautiful city, there was no time to rest.  We changed and headed out to explore.  Just outside the Atlantic Palace is the leather market where I was able to bargain my way to a gift for my brother and two new purses, thank you very much.  The most embarrassing moment of the trip occurred too when I accidentally said ‘gracias’ instead of ‘grazie’ because I’m apparently a super ignorant North American?  I don’t know what happened to me, my mind just failed me.  I kind of convince myself that the guy didn’t notice, but Adam wouldn’t let that one go.  He definitely still makes fun of me for it.  Darnit!

In the middle of the leather market is a modern, open, and bright indoor food market.  Fresh, local fare, and upstairs is a cafeteria style array of eateries.  And now, I know how incredibly sacrilegious this is, but I promise you, it was the only time in 3 weeks that I didn’t eat Italian food.   For lunch that day, I ordered a veggie burger – and loved it.  Are you judging me?  Me too.

After lunch, we ventured into the heat and set off to see as much of Florence as possible!  It’s so distinctly different from Rome and Venice that we’d seen beforehand.  We walked around leisurely and took in all the art and culture and diversity.  We crossed the water and stumbled upon an outdoor wine bar at the Piazza Nicola Demidoff.  There was music, tons of people watching, a gorgeous view, a big glass of wine AND I was able to rest my feet.  It was literally perfection.  Oh, I also have a funny story about this experience for my next Italy post.

When Adam was in high school, he did an Italian exchange program with this guy Bernardino.  He hadn’t seen Bernie since he’d come out here to stay with Adam’s fam back in 2002, though they’ve stayed in loose contact.  Adam reached out to him before we left to see if he still lived in Tuscany and if he’d be free to hang out and it actually worked out!  He brought his girlfriend Valeria and we went for an evening stroll where they ran into friends and made our way to del Fagioli for dinner.

We told Bernardino and Valeria that I’m vegetarian and otherwise gave them total control over ordering.  It was our favourite dining experience of the entire trip!  There we were, sitting with these two people from a completely different country, having conversation in broken english, but finding so much in common.  They wanted us to have an authentic Tuscan dinner and ordered us share plates that are all native to the area.  Their passion for food was infectious.  They explained each course with tons of excitement.  “We’re such a cliche,” they’d told us, after they’d argued loudly in Italian over what to order next.  They were absolutely the highlight of our time in Florence, I am so glad Adam and Bernie kept in touch all these years.  It only adds feeds the travel bug and a need to make friends all over the world that we can go visit!

One day/night isn’t very much time to see a place, so I’ll just have to go back again someday.  Even better than explaining all of this to you, is showing you!  Here’s a little video footage of our 24 glorious hours in Florence, including everything I just told you about.  Enjoy!

STAY

The Atlantic Palace

EAT

The Central Market in the San Lorenzo Market

Ristorante del Fagioli

DRINK

The outdoor bar at Piazza Nicola Demidoff