Florence really surpassed the expectations I had of it. I'm sure there's a lot more places in Europe/in the world that are even more beautiful than Florence but still, it is a really beautiful city and I wish I can travel more around Tuscany in the future. Other places in Italy on my must-visit list are definitely Venice and Milan but I'll also love to visit Siena, Genoa, Naples, Verona and all the other amazing places in Italy.
But I might think twice about going in the summer next time. Maybe in April or May the weather would be perfect. Or in September. I know that August is normally the hottest month and most of the tourist places will be close. But yeah.... needing to walk so many hours under the sun is just too much for me to handle.
Started our day under the nice morning sunshine! This is the back-view of the church of Santa Maria Novella.
Piazza Santa Maria Novella
Basilica and Museo di Santa Maria Novella. We didnt want to pay to enter the church and the museum though. Please dont think we are stingy or anything for not wanting to pay to enter the some of the museums, because we saw a lot of other people doing the same thing. In the morning, it wasn't opened yet when we went there so we went back later in the afternoon only to realise you needed to pay to get in. So we just sat outside the church and rested for a while. At the same time, we did some people watching. We noticed that every single person that entered the church walked out within 5 minutes because they also found out that they needed to pay to get in!
But still, let's admire how beautiful the design of this church is!
Finally came the day where we visited the Florence Cathedral/Duomo/Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore/Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower! This was something I was very excited about!
How amazing does this look? We decided to visit it on our third day there because it was a Monday and most of the museums/galleries are closed on Mondays.
This is the view of it from ground level
Giotto's Campanile - Giotto's bell tower!
These are stairs. If it isnt obvious enough. LOL
They are the stairs of the bell tower. We bought our ticket that allowed us access to the bell tower, the cathedral/dome, the baptistery, and the Santa Raparata which is a former cathedral of Florence, which has its remains below the current cathedral.
The ticket was suppose to include access to the Museo della Misericordia which is a museum with paintings (the usual) and they have information on the duomo and the history of it which I was quite interested in but I didn't realise before we went they it was under renovation or some sort of revamp going on so it was closed. And the fact that they charged us the same amount of money for the access of 4 out of 5 places annoyed me a little. They should have gave us a discount or something!
1/3 way up to the top!
Living in a place like this, you might really forget that you're living in the 21st century.
Look how beautiful the design of the church is up close! All those different tiles are just so unique.
The view of the baptistery from above!
The old bell used in the bell tower~
I wonder whether all these wood would collapse one day....
It goes all the way downnnn
You basically could see the view of the city from every angle.
I wish I wore shorts that day but because we were visiting the cathedral so I couldnt. They were really strict about attire at the cathedral. They really stopped people entering the church if they wore shorts and sleeveless tops.
We then reached the top after climbing a lot of stairs. And the stairs just got steeper and steeper as you approached the top.
But all those hard work was worth it.
Thankfully the weather was nice, so you could all the way to the mountains!
The majestic dome! I watched a documentary about Florence when I got back from my trip and the dome of the cathedral was actually only build some years after the cathedral was build. There was no architect brave or good enough to build it until a brave man called Filippo Brunelleschi did it. And it is the largest brick dome ever constructed! Can you imagine the cathedral without it's dome? I'll post the documentary below these photos if you're interested in watching it.
That huge building is the Pitti Palace!
A selfie at the top of the tower!
After we climbed down the bell tower, our next stop was the Duomo! Look at that queue! We waited more than half and hour the queue but thankfully it was in the shade.
I think they call this part of the cathedral we were standing at the drum of the cathedral.
I think the technical name for hole at the top is a lantern.
The climb to the top of the dome was very very tiring. All of the stairways were very narrow and steep and there was people in front and behind me so I couldnt even stop to rest. Joon Tian had an even harder time climbing because she had a bad knee. I have a bad knee too, I just never realised how bad of a condition it was in until I climbed all those steps. My knees still hurt after I came back to London. I don't even know how I hurt my knee though. I know I hurt my ankle a few years back which didnt totally heal... maybe it affected my knee as well.....
We then reached back to ground level! Climbing down hurt our knees even more. It was hard for me, it must've been harder for Joontian. But we made it down safely!
I can't rmb how many stairs there are in total. I clearly rmb overhearing someone mention it.
After that, it was finally time to actually visit the cathedral.
It definitely has a more simplistic design compared to other basilicas we've been to in Rome. There's a reason to that, but you can just google it. LOL I forgot half of it already.
More stained glass!
We were up there!
The colours turned out different on my phone's cam.
That clock above the door is also an important feature of the church. It only has one hand if you hadn't realise already and has 24 hours on it.
We then headed down to the Santa Reparata. The present cathedral in built on the site of this old cathedral.
Following that, we made our way to the Baptistery, with the amazing gold ceiling!
After we rested a bit after visiting the cathedral, we walked to the Basilica di Santa Croce which was designed by the same architect of the Florence Cathedral. We didn't go in and see it though.
We then decided to walk along the Arno which had no shade.... but there was an nice view of the building on the opposite side.
Then we approached my favourite Ponte Vecchio! I just find it very fascinating how they built the houses/shops outwards. How did they paint them?
Another photo of it~
There were a lot of shops along the river bank as well and there was one shop that sold really nice souvenirs so I bought two calenders and a few postcards~
Mountains of gelato!
There's always a need for a photo of these quiet lanes.
We had nothing specific planned for the rest of the day so we went to indulge in some yummy gelato! I think I forgot to post a photo of the gelato we had on the first day in Florence. We went to this shop to have gelato on the first day because it was just so hot and it was delicious so we didnt want to risk it by trying any other gelato shops, so we came back for more!
This was from the first day in Florence! Surprise, surprise, I didn't choose a chocolate flavour which I kinda regret now. But the mint with choc chips and the cheesecake flavours tasted amazing though. The only downside was that it melted really quick in the hot weather. I didn't really have the chance to slowly enjoy it which is what I normally like to do with food.
This is the proof shot of me having gelato on the third day in Florence! I chose a berry flavour and a cookies and cream flavour which tasted really good. I told myself that I should always try new flavours but chocolate is still the best. You can never go wrong with chocolate.
In this photo, the gelato was already dripping so I had to hold it far away from me but it still got on my jeans.
But sigh those were very happy times. I wish to be back there for the gelato.
We continued walking around the beautiful town centre of Florence and came to Piazza della Repubblica. We always walked pass this square but didn't really see what the little shops and stalls were selling.
We then walked further away from the town centre and went to see a place called the Fortezza Da Basso.
I actually don't really know what it is. We walked there just because we had to kill some time before the restaurant we wanted to go to opened.
After that, we passed by some of the market stalls selling a lot of overpriced goods.
This is a food market!
The interior of the market~
Sorry for the blurry photo but I probably was too hungry to care at that time. Dinner for the 3rd night in Florence. We went for something simple. I had this pita bread with pepperoni, spinach and lots of cheese!
The name of the B&B/guest house we stayed at in Florence. From the posters I saw in the guest house, I'm guessing it's named after an Italian film.
And from our room, we could see the train station. Our room also faced the very busy roads of Florence which I thought was going to affect my sleep but it didn't because I was always too tired.
Wow. This has been a really long post.
Not going to make it any longer.
Oh and the documentary I mentioned!
Oh and the documentary I mentioned!
x
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