Florence!

And the next stop is…. Florence!

After the chaos of Rome, Florence felt like such a nice break. We were still doing a lot of walking around and we were always exhausted by the end of the day, but it just felt more relaxing than Rome. It was so beautiful as well. It’s situated in the basin of a few hills so you get the feeling of being in a city but there is also the beautiful view of nature all around you.

Florence is such a cultural city. There are loads of religious buildings everywhere - the hostel we were staying in was actually a converted convent, right next to a still active church. There are also so many art galleries as it’s believed to be the birthplace of the Renaissance style of art. We went to the Uffizi Gallery when we were there and saw Botticelli’s Venus (as well as quite a few other paintings and sculptures), which was pretty cool and made Ashleigh’s day. The Last Supper used to be there, but they moved it to the Galleria del’Accacdemia unfortunately… 

My favourite place we visited in Florence was the Boboli Gardens. 

They were the gardens behind the Pitti Palace, which was formerly the residence of the grand duke of Tuscany and later of the King of Italy. 

 The gardens were so big and absolutely beautiful. Because they were high up, you got an amazing view of the entire city of Florence as well. After a long day of sight seeing, it was great to be able to lie in the gardens and just relax. Of course you had to pay to get in, but it was only 3.50 euros (for students) and it was worth it because it was so beautiful.

The Duomo was also beautiful. Unfortunately it was under reconstruction when we were there (just like practically everything else we saw in Europe), but it was still gorgeous. 

I would definitely recommend Florence to anyone who wants to go away for a short romantic break. Everyone says that Paris is the ideal romantic destination but I would disagree. Florence is definitely the city of love.

I read a lot of travel blogs before I left for the trip and I read quite a few posts that said that Florence had the most amazing good. Seeing as we were on a student budget we didn’t really get to experience this… we were feasting on an average diet of store bought bread, sliced cheese and ham to fuel all our walking. However, if you’re going away for a nice short weekend break, definitely check out some nice restaurants and see if Florence lives up to its culinary reputation.