Florence - brunch & parade

Brunch
We had a good sleep at the Best Western, we slept until we woke up naturally.  We had a refreshing morning; we first walked to a pizza place for some brunch.  We ordered two slices of pizza, cappuccino and water, quite cheap.  The pizza types in Italy are more simple than the ones we have in North America; it is not common to see "meat deluxe or hawaiian pizza" in Italy.  The italian pizza I saw in Italy usually have only 2 toppings.  I guess they only treat pizza as appetizer or a small meal??

stuff pizza and meat & mushroom pizza

While we were having brunch, we heard it was quite noisy outside the pizzeria.  There were some people with Roman and Medieval costumes that were marching on the street.  Quite interesting.

I booked the tickets for the Uffizi Gallery at 12:15pm.  We arrived early and there was some street artist painting on the ground with chalks.

Florence - late night strolling

Strolling in Florence is quite romantic at night....the streets are so quiet and the lighting is so soft.

Mix of new and old buildings....so chill to walk around.

Street performance with lots of audience around...the streets were so clean..

Ponte Vecchio aka The Old Bridge

late night snack

late night dessert....yummm :)

love these road signs...

Florence - Piazza della Signoria

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

It was a nice day strolling around the Piazza della Signoria.  According to Wikipedia, Piazza della Signoria was created in 13th century, the piazza is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, it was named after the Palazzo della Signoria.  Palazzo Vecchio ("the old palace") is the town hall of the city.

Palazzo Vecchio (left) and Loggia dei Lanzi (right)

Loggia dei Lanzi
The original purpose of the loggia was to shield dignitaries from the elements during ceremonies, public meetings and events.  Today it is an outdoor gallery with a collection of impressive Renaissance and Roman sculptures.

The statue of David
The square is almost like an open air sculpture museum with plenty of statues that remind visitors of Florence's glorious past.  Michelangelo's masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture, the statue of David (left), was created in 1504 for the city of Florence and placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.  But in 1873, the original David was replaced by a replica, now the original David is located in Galleria dell' Accademia - as mentioned in my previous post.

inside the Palazzo Vecchio

Reference

Florence - random night shots in Florence

First night in Florence:

After dinner, we just walked around Florence.  We took a lot of random photos of the gates, the texture and the tiles were so vintage and unique. 

Some said the cobblestones were from the medieval era

..to be continued.. :)

Florence - First Dinner in Firenze

Our first dinner at Florence:

We walked around the Duomo and we decided to have an early dinner right behind the Duomo.  The waiter was waving us over, so we sat at the outdoor terrace.  We were the first guests there as I guess it was a little too early for the tourists and locals to have dinner; it was around 5:30 pm.

Pappardelle with mushroom

We got a bottle of white wine and some fresh bread to start with.  We ordered only two pasta dishes as we weren't that hungry, we just want to sit and chill.  This time we ordered a type of pasta we never tried: pappardelle.  This type of pasta is large and broad, similar to lasagna...I'm not a big fan of this.  I would probably prefer lasagna better.

Risotto with Lobster

I ordered this pasta dish: risotto with lobster.  It was pretty good, quite creamy but not very special.  Overall we were not super satisfied with the food quality, but the location was good.  It was quite a nice place to chill around the Duomo, aka: tourist trap.  It wasn't super expensive though, probably 15- 18 Euro per pasta dish.

Florence - Accademia Gallery & Basilica de San Lorenzo

Galleria dell' Accademia:

Michelangelo's masterpiece - The real David you can't miss seeing in Florence.

Day 1 - After a nice lunch, we went back to hotel and rested up.  We unpacked and got changed.  At around 4pm, we walked to the Accademia Gallery to get our prebook tickets.  It got us in quite quickly, we skipped the long line up.

The gallery had some modern arts, but our main purpose was to see the real DAVID by Michelangelo.  There was no photo allowed, but we still happened to take several sneak shots inside.

The real David is big, bigger than I had expected.  The masterpiece was so detailed.  we were quite amazed at this famous sculpture.  (see below).

There are quite a few of David replica placed around Florence, but nothing could be compared to the real one.  This was bigger, and you can actually see the details of the veins and muscles.

Tips to skip the line to the Academia Gallery:

 - prebook the tickets online from the OFFICIAL website.  (b-tickets)

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/venueAccademia.aspx

If you just google online, there are tons of websites that sell you the tickets but they are more expensive.  So it's best to buy from the official website.  The time we went, the museum had an expedition so the ticket price was a little more.  You do have to pay for reservation cost of 4 Euro.  In general the info of the ticket price should be:

The official site for Polo Museale Fiorentino museum ticket sales

Opening hours

Tuesday through Sunday: 8:15-18:50, entry every 15 minutes.

Closed: Mondays, Christmas, New Year’s Day, May 1st

Tickets

Full price: € 6,50

Reduced : € 3,25 

Entry free of charge 

In conjunction with the exhibit "Dal Giglio al David. Arte civica a Firenze in età comunale", 14 May - 8 December 2013, full ticket price € 11.00, reduced € 5.50

Reservation cost

€ 4,00

After I made my payments online, I only got an email but it didn't give me an authorization or reference number.  So I made a long distance call to their museum and asked.  They said they will try to send it again, and even if I didn't get it, it should be ok.  They would have a list of my name and the visiting time on that day.

When you buy the tickets online, they made you reserve a time.  I picked 4:15pm; so we had to arrive by 4pm.  Make sure you don't go to the wrong line.  You first need to go to the reservation counter, across the street from the museum.  Then they checked ID and the confirmation number, and then print you the tickets.  Then you walked across the street to line up to get into the museum and for security check.  It felt good to skip through a big line up to get in.

- Avoid bringing a big backpack or any food in.  They would make you leave your bags at the security counter until you leave the museum.  

Basilica de San Lorenzo:

After visiting the Accademia Gallery, we hung out around the Duomo area.  Everything was so close together.  We took some nice photos and bought some postcards.  We also visited the Basilica de San Lorenzo - the oldest church in Florence, I believe.

It was a nice walk inside, not bad...but nothing special.


My first impression of Florence:

I fell in love with Florence.  There were many tourists walking around, very commercialized with shopping and brand names, yet very classy with the cobblestone and the vintage buildings.