Florence

Travelling to Florence

We went to Florence on 13th July 2022 via coach from our cruise ship. Please click on the following link for full details of the cruise and our itinerary Highlights of the Mediterranean. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to Florence from the port of Livorno. We had our own guide on the coach who talked us through various area’s we travelled through on the coach. She was very knowledgeable about Italy. It was a bit strange finding out that area’s of Italy do not like other area’s of Italy. For example our guide was from Livorno in Italy and she spoke negatively of people from Pisa although it be in a jokey way.

Places of interest

It was a very hot day 39 degrees with bright sunshine. Later met another guide who took us around various places of interest in Florence. The Guide was also very knowledgeable about Florence. She spoke at great lengths about the The Cathedral of Sana Maria del Fiore and Piazza Duomo. We were at the Cathedral for over an hour. Fortunately we were stood in the shade whilst listening.

The guide took us to see some extremely interesting tourist attractions in Florence including Ponte Vecchio bridge and Michael Angelos David to name a few.

Florence is a beautiful and interesting place to visit. There is so much to see and do that you could spend more time there but unfortunately we had to go to our next destination which was Pisa, But before we left Florence we were taken to the viewing point which over looks the whole of Florence. The view is absolutely spectacular.

There is also Michael Angelo’s David at the viewing point, Should you be in need of a cold drink and a bite to eat there are stalls selling food and drink.

Food and Drink

We had lunch at a little side restaurant and watched the world go by. It was a typical Italian restaurant serving traditional food and good wines. Due to the heat of the day the restaurant had good fans which kept you cool. There were a lot of people in the restaurant drinking Aperol Spritz. We just stuck with water and soft drinks as we had a long day.

We had an ice cream in a lovely little bar/restaurant and sat eating it on an upstairs balcony other looking the streets of Florence. The ice creams cost 16 Euro’s for 2 but the surroundings and where we were sat made them worth every penny. The ice cream was very nice too.

Shopping

Florence has a commercial are full of many designer shops but it also has a lot of traditional narrow cobbled streets with nice little bars and restaurants. Florence has the best of both worlds the old and the new. You could spend days in Florence and still not have enough time to see everything.

We then had to head back to the meeting point and wait for our guide to take us back to the coach. We had to wait in intense heat for people who were not back in time. This is always the problem with organised excursions.

Summary

Florence is a beautiful place with so much to see and do. We would like to return in the future and do the things we have not managed to do on this trip. Also it would be nice to have the freedom to go where we want as apposed to an organised excursion.

Images

Things to do

• Visit Ponte Vecchio Bridge
• Visit the Cathedral
• Visit Basiica of Santa Croce
• Visit Baptistery of St John
• Visit Piazza della Signoria
• Visit Piazzale Michelangelo
• Visit Piazza del Duomo
• See the statue of David
• Visit the view point.

Top Tips

• If you are able to get to Florence on your own do.
• Take hat, sun cream and lots of water when it is hot.
• If not on an organised excursion plan what you want to see.
• Allow lots of time in Florence to see things
• Check out other places in Italy that we have visited. Please click on the following links Ravello , Pisa , Venice , Rome
• Check out the weather below for best time to visit. Please be aware that these are averages therefore could be higher or lower.

Weather

Temp – Celsius Rain – mm	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
High Temp	12	12	15	19	24	29	31	31	27	21	15	11
Low Temp	3	4	6	9	13	18	19	18	16	12	7	4
Rainfall	63	49	69	79	72	50	31	48	76	96	102	72
Number of days	11	8	9	13	9	8	5	6	9	12	14	13