florence in five days

This post is photo heavy - and I still plan on a couple more posts later with more photos. Five days gave us plenty of time to capture the beauty of this city, and this is just the best place to share it.

Florence is home to the renaissance and we learned an incredible amount about art in this city and saw some of the world's best! I don't have photos of the galleries because those sorts of things you just have to experience in its entirety. Stunning architecture and art filled our days, and thanks to the help of audio apps we really felt like we made the most of each day. Some days in this city we even walked over thirteen miles! The Firenze card gave us access to absolutely everything and we tried to hit every church and museum.

We arrived in florence on a Sunday afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we began exploring immediately. We stopped for delicious pizza and hiked up the hill to view the city from above at Piazzale Michelengelo.

Our itinerary is definitely for the ambitious, we were completely exhausted at the end of each day. So exhausted in fact, that we had planned a day trip to Siena on day 5 and couldn't because we were tired and we still had more that we wanted to see in Florence. Jake and I had read a lot of history of this city beforehand, so we were fascinated by the churches and museums. Plus, Florence has the best food. Pasta, pizza, Florentine steaks - delicious!

In between the main sites listed below, we explored most of the day people watching and stumbling upon new places.

Day 1 :

Dinner and then hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo

(arrive at least an hour before sunset for the best views, it gets crowded!....we arrived 2 hours before)

Day 2:

Wine tour (full post here)

Day 3: "Art Day"

Morning walk around the duomo and surrounding areas before heading back to our hotel for breakfast
full post here
Uffizi Gallery
(the best Renaissance art collection)
Academia Gallery
(where David statue lives and many unfinished Michelangelo sculptures)
Galileo's Museum
(his fingers are here!)
Baboli gardens and museums associated with the Pitti palace area
(Royal apartments, costumes...there's like five museums inside)
San Marco
(Savonarola's stuff left here and the works of Fra Angelico)

Day 4: "Church day"

Duomo and the museums
Baptistery
Santa Croce church
(all of the main families in the city had a beautiful cathedral they paid for, filled with art, and were buried in)
San Lorenzo church
Santa Maria Novella church
Medici Chapels
Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Day 5:

Rick Steve's Renaissance Walk
Palazzo Vecchio
(where city council was)
Bargello Museum
(Michelangelo's statue collection and some Donatello)
Piazzale Michelangelo
(a 15 minute uphill walk for a view of the entire city)

I know this post would be more helpful if I could outline the must-sees of the city. I just can't. Pick up a book or watch a movie and go take everything in. The artwork is unbelievable, the architecture is jaw dropping, imagining the critical events that took place at the churches or on the streets is such a unique experience, and you really can't miss anything. The city played a critical role in the renaissance, the church, modern accounting and finance, government, and the events that happened here changed the church forever.