~Hey, I've found cheap flight to Italy, wanna go with me?
~What a question, sure! Where to exactly?
~Bologna
~Wow, so nice! We can go to Florence, which is near!
~Deal!
So this is how my first trip to Italy begun. Friend, who I've known for only 2 weeks offered a trip together and I agreed (risky, but fun). My expectations were extremely high. Florence. Art. History. Pizza. Come on, it's a big deal and everyone should visit it and experience at least once in life. I had more or less two weeks to prepare myself for it, so I was trawling internet for tips and I was reading guides to know as much as possible about places to see and be prepared to understand its fully historical meaning. (Seems right, huh?)
Well, it does, until the moment you get there and all you see is tourists with cameras taking photos of everything, buying cheap souvenirs and exchanging little talks while waiting in a kilometer line to enter a museum.
Ok, that's it. I hate Italy, I hate Florence, shouldn't have come here. At all. I'm done for today. - my first thoughts about the city.. (sorry, Firenze!)
It's absolutely impossible to see anything while trying to walk on the street without being pushed by other people. I'm literally talking about not being able to walk. Let me just not mention seeing anything and forget about taking photos. Thanks Italy, you're doing it wrong. (Now I actually understand those articles about Venice, that wants to decrease number of visitors).
But... there's a way to sightsee and enjoy it!
What would you rather see? Piazza filled with tourist which looks pretty much like this:
Or.. beautiful monuments and the spiritual city which seems to be abandoned and only some locals and hanging around, which looks like this:
I think your answer is same as mine.
Key word: after midnight!
Tourists are gone, streets are empty and people who had been drinking outside have already entered the clubs. You can come close to anything you feel you want at the moment, feel it and experience a vibe the city is offering (and believe me, tourists are completely killing the spirit).
Sounds pretty obvious but as long as you're outside during the day, you won't be even able to think that streets can look differently. And they do, during the night.
So if you're conciderin visit in Florence, don't forget to grab a bottle of vine, take a walk though the city and end up climbing to Piazzale Michaleangelo to admire night panorama of one of the art capitals in Italy.
If you find it helpful, you know what to do! ⬆️⬆️
Thanks & see you soon!
Love, Lonia.
Great post!
Thank you! It's always motivating to see positive feedback!
Great post and I totally agree with you. I was a little underwhelmed by Florence and the selfie stick waving hoards of tourists definitely didn't help. We had to queue for over an hour to get into the cathedral and then another hour inside and by the time we reached the top it was dark! What are your thoughts about Bologna? I thought it was a little dull during the day but the nightlife was incredible
Bologna is way more calm, compering to Florence but still, of course there is a lot of damn tourists. About nightlife - 100% agree. It's a student city, really popular among Erasmus students, so nightlife is, as you said, incredible!
But in Bologna other thing amazed me. If you go up to the hill (Via de Casaglida) there's an amazing old (kind of ruined) palace. Absolutely abandoned and from there you can see beautiful view of all the city and, what's more - the whole area, which consists of marvelous hills. It has stolen my soul, literally ;) I'll try to write an article about it if you're interested?
Smile! :)
meep
This place? If so I went there too! Would still be interested to read your post about it because it's been a while since I went, and I can't remember much about it now.
If I'm not wrong, the photo you've posted it's the place called: Santuario Madonna di San Luca and it's not the place I've mentioned 🤔.
But as soon as I'm back home (I have more photos on my PC) I'll post a photo of the place I'm talking about - unfortunately I don't know the name :(
Ah yeh that's right! Shame I missed the mysterious abandoned palace when I was there
@captaincanary this is what I was talking about :)
(photo was taken in the evening )
Ah I see! Thanks for sharing the photo, I definitely didn't go there. Looks like an interesting building though. Shame it's abandoned because there is a lot of potential there
Great post. I like Florence a lot it was my first trip to Italy :)
By the way great strories :) followed
Thanks! I'll try to keep it up that way ;)
Florence is truly one of a kind. A great city to explore. love your night photos.
Thank you! Truth is I'm moving in there in 2 months :)
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Nice pictures and very good write up. I love Italy and Florence was my favorite (after venice) :)
Thank you! I haven't been to Venice yet (I know, it's a shame..) but I'm planning to visit before this year ends ;)
Thanks for a comment and nice words, it motivates me to keep writing!
Congratulations ! Your post has been highlighted in the Daily Travel Reports
Omg, thank you!