After a quick hour and a half train ride from Rome, we arrived in Florence. We walked about 15 minutes to our Air BnB and were amazed at how beautiful the streets are. All the roads are cobblestone, and the buildings have a distinct Florentine architecture that I immediately fell in love with. After getting settled in our ADORABLE Air BnB, we set off in search of some food.
Our Air BnB was total apartment goals. It was a tiny loft with terra cotta floors, a tiny little kitchen, a cushy red sofa, and a cute little ladder that led up to a lofted bedroom. It was on the fourth (top) floor of the building and there was no elevator, so that was the only downside. But I would honestly buy this apartment in a heartbeat, it was in the perfect location and it was so cozy and homey and adorable. When we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the heat, our host Tom, as my friend Valerie so eloquently put it, “made a cute .25 second trek across Florence on his Vespa in the rain to come illegally turn on the heat for our chilly booties.” Within minutes of us asking him for help, he was at the apartment, turning on the heat even though it was against the rules to have the heat on at certain times of the day. He then proceeded to plan out the rest of our time in Florence for us, drawing us a detailed map of exactly which restaurants, bars and clubs we had to go to each night. We ended up following his suggestions and they were really great, so thanks Tom!!
We had our first taste of Pasta in Florence, which was somehow even better than in Rome. All the ingredients in everything we ate in Florence were fresh and local, which is probably what set them apart. We spent the rest of the evening wandering around and exploring the area we were in. Our Air BnB was in a great location, a couple blocks from the Arno river and about a block away from a ~bougie~ shopping district. For dinner we went to a place called Gusta Pizza, which was recommended to us by a friend, and also by Tom. Gusta Pizza forever changed the way I view pizza. It was unlike any food I have ever experienced. I would honestly go back to Florence just to go back to Gusta Pizza, that’s how good it was. I normally don’t love tomato sauce, but I could’ve eaten their sauce by itself by the spoonful. Their crust was EXACTLY how crust should be, and the mozzarella was so incredibly fresh and perfect.
After dinner, we went to this bar called Volume that Tom recommended to us, right around the corner from Gusta Pizza. It had a really cool vibe, it was super trendy and kind of old school at the same time if that makes sense. We sat at this long table and ordered cosmos, and when they brought our drinks out they also brought out a free spread of various cheeses, chips, dips, and veggies to snack on. We were already so full from Gusta Pizza but we managed to make room, cause how can you say no to (basically) free food?
The next day, we set out to really explore the city. Our first stop was Piazza della Signoria, a huge plaza with around a dozen different statues and sculptures, including a replica of Michelangelo’s David. It started raining pretty hard at this point, so we ran to our next destination, Medici Chapel. The Medici family was sort of like the Italian equivalent to Spain’s Fernando and Isabella, except they ruled for longer because there were more of them. We took a tour of Medici Chapel and wandered around the museum, which was filled with some really creepy relics. Once the rain let up, we left to find some lunch.
I feel like every time I’m describing the food I say “It was the BEST (insert whatever type of food) I’ve ever had!!” but this time I really mean it, I’ve never had better Ravioli than I did at Trattoria Za’Za. We also shared a serving of Bruschetta. Tomatoes aren’t really my thing, but I could’ve eaten 10 servings of it, it was so good.
After lunch we stopped to take some pictures on Ponte Santa Trinita, overlooking the famous Ponte Vecchio, on our way to a bus stop. A sweet old Italian man offered to take a picture of the three of us which was so sweet.
We took the bus for about half an hour up to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a lookout point over the entire city of Florence. It was SPECTACULAR. We could see literally everything: Rio Arno, Ponte Vecchio and Ponte Santa Trinitna, where our Air BnB was, the Duomo, you name it. It was so incredibly gorgeous. We stayed up there for a while to take pictures and buy souvenirs. It was a great time until we were heading back. I guess we got on the wrong bus, because it did not stop where Google Maps told us it was going to, and we ended up riding it for over an hour. For some reason we kept thinking it would circle back to where we started, so we stayed on, but it just kept going further and further away from the center of the city and eventually we bailed. It took forever to find another bus to take us back, but we finally made it home about an hour later.
That night, we did the same thing for dinner and drinks as the night before, because Gusta Pizza and Volume were both super amazing and affordable. Later, we met up with our friend Freddy from our study abroad group and his two other friends, at a club called YAB (You Are Beautiful). We had somewhat low expectations going in because of the incredibly lame name, but it was actually a lot of fun!
The next morning, we woke up early to go to the Accademia, one of the two most famous art museums in Florence. It has lots of beautiful art, but it is famous for having the statue of David by Michelangelo. It was so surreal to see this statue in person. For some reason, I had imagined it being more of a life size statue, but it is massive! It was breathtaking to stand in front of, and I don’t often have that reaction to sculptures.
The (second) highlight of the day was lunch. We realized that we had yet to try a single panini since being in Italy, so we set out in search of a panini place, and stumbled upon a tiny little hidden gem called Panini Toscani. Again, LIFE CHANGING. When you walk in you are immediately escorted to the back, where a man describes the different types of local cheeses and meats that they offer. He let us try a sample of each, and we chose which cheese and which meat we wanted for our panini. He let us pick which type of bread we wanted, out of six options, and we then moved down the counter and got to choose three more things to go in. I chose tomato, arugula and some sort of spicy sauce that they recommended. They make it for you on the spot, and since the restaurant is so tiny and there are no seats inside, you take it outside to enjoy. It is right across from the Duomo, so you have amazing views when you’re eating. That panini was hands down the best thing I’ve had in my life. We were all SHOOK. We basically ate in silence because we were so in awe. It was honestly one of the best parts of our entire trip, in my opinion.
When we first arrived in Florence, we checked out the Experiences section of Air BnB to see if there were any fun unique activities available.
Travel Tip: Air BnB is for more than just places to stay! Hosts can offer activities to help tourists get to know their city in a fun, unique way. The hosts are locals of the city and offer a wealth of information that you wouldn’t get by just exploring on your own!
We ended up signing up for a treasure hunt activity around the city, so later that day, we met up with the guy hosting it and the 6 other people participating. We met everyone at a coffee shop in Piazza della Repubblica, where our host Pietro explained the game to us. We each got a treasure map and a sheet of paper with riddles and small pictures, and we had an hour and a half to find each thing on the treasure map around the city and match it up with the riddle. This was an amazing way to see the city!! We learned so much about Florence and its history, and it was a great way to see places and things we wouldn’t have otherwise. We ended up coming in second place, which earned us a jar of Italian jelly beans (which are WAY better than American jelly beans for some reason, shocker). The whole thing was super fun, and a great way to end our time in Florence.
One last highlight was exploring this cute little paper/leather shop right across from our Air BnB. The man working there explained to us that it had been in his family since 1908 (the year JMU was founded GO DUKES), and he makes all of his own papers and hand makes beautiful leather products, like wallets and notebooks. He showed us how he makes his decorative papers. He has this special liquid solution that he puts drops of color in, and mixes in certain ways to create patterns. He then puts a sheet of white paper on top, and the design of the colors is transferred onto the paper. I ended up buying a notebook from him, because it was all so beautiful. He was so sweet and even though I was HURTING for cash, I happily gave him twenty euros because his products were so beautiful.
We went back to Gusta Pizza for dinner that night, because we were so obsessed with the pizza (and couldn’t really afford anything else tbh). We got gelato afterwards, and I ran into one of my friends from JMU who is studying abroad in Florence for the semester, which was really fun. We left Florence early the next morning which was bittersweet. I completely fell in love with Italy so it was extremely difficult to leave, but I was obviously excited to go home to Salamanca. This whole trip has been filled with so many bittersweet goodbyes to amazing places that we have briefly visited, but I’m so grateful that I have Salamanca to come back to after all these crazy adventures that we have been on.
Idly Wild 