Getting Lost in Florence

For the most part, during my travels I have avoided doing any extensive planning when it comes to sightseeing- getting lost in a city gives you a much better feeling for what the place is really like. Of course I still try and see the main sights, but if you walk around long enough you are bound to stumble upon both the famous attractions and the hidden gems.

Florence has been no different, and I have to say it has been a delightful place to get lost. For some reason my sense of direction here has been completely off, which has been such a blessing the last few days. My first half day here I took care of some business (I did laundry!) but the next day I hit the streets and ended up in some beautiful places. First I decided to try and get a little outside of the city, so I headed across the river and up a little hill to an amazing viewpoint, seeing a city from above will never get old. Up from the viewpoint there was a beautiful cemetery with even more amazing views, and wandering through the graves was truly peaceful. I am constantly amazed at how artistic and detailed European cemeteries can be, especially because there is rarely anyone around to appreciate all of that beauty.

From there I slowly made my way back to the city center and had a wonderful lunch, pasta in Italy will have my heart forever. On my way I came across many of the big attractions of Florence, my favorite being an old bridge lined with shops that is the only original bridge remaining in the city. I came back here so many times because the whole area on the waterfront here had an amazingly romantic feeling, I will never get enough of looking at that bridge. Especially as I stood there watching the sun set and the city light up, purely magical.

Over the rest of my time in Florence I also visited a few of the local markets, one of which has a boar statue in front. Legend has it that if you run the snout of the boar it ensures you will return to Florence one day, so of course I had to do it. I also came across the Duomo quite a few times, and it is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The detail on the outside is spectacular and the inside is incredibly peaceful for being full of tourists. There are so many stunning churches throughout Italy it is hard to keep them all straight, but Florence does house some really special religious places.

The main square in Florence is really interesting as well. It has a replica of the statue of David, and well as an impressive outdoor statue exhibit- which is particularly cool because it is free and the art is really beautiful. Although really all of Florence is beautiful.

The most important thing I did while in Florence was eat as much gelato as possible, it is quite possibly my favorite thing about Europe thus far. And now I am off to one more town in Tuscany before heading to Rome!