The Little Things In Life: Project WWWT Day 22 of 72 Florence, Italy

9th June 2017

Let's fall in love with Florence!

We drove up to Florence and we took the expressway called Fi-Pi-Li. The journey is quite smooth and took roughly 90 minutes drive. Florence is also a ZTL zone hence we could not park inside the town so we looked for a parking space outside the town across the river. We explored Florence by our feet. The weather is milder here than Cinque Terre, likely due to the availability of shades and it being a city as compared to Manarola, a coastal fishermen's town.

First stop is supposed to be Palazzo Pitti as there is supposed to be our parking space but I noticed that I will need to enter a ZTL zone in order to reach there (The detail of Our Misadventure here), so we parked somewhere near the Giardino delle Rose and visited the Giardino Bardini instead without visiting Palazzo Pitti. For family travelling with young children especially those still on a stroller and those whom are travelling with elderly, you will need to walk up slopes in Giardino Bardini to reach the top where you will be rewarded with an elevated view of Florence. The garden is beautiful and there is a terrace on the top where you can enjoy a cuppa with some pastries. There is also a toilet up there and it is free (to my surprise). Oh, there is also a place where you will see a tunnel of purple flowers when you are descending (yes, descending) the garden! But alas, you can only see this in April... The garden costs €10.00 to enter. A stiff price but you will also get to enter the Boboli Garden, Costume Gallery, Porcelain Museum and Museo degli Argenti. We only did the Bardini Garden.
TIPS: You will get elevated view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo too and in my opinion, a better view.

What we are there to see in Giardino Bardini:

*Photo sourced from Tripadvisor via the contribution by one of their reviewer

What we saw in Giardino Bardini:

From the garden, we walked towards the famed Ponte Vecchio and it is bursting with tourists. There are plenty of shops on the bridge as well but as travelling has taught me, shops on or near Point-of-Interests are usually tourists trap be it for food, souvenirs and other trinkets. As a bridge, Ponte Vecchio is interesting although I would prefer the beauty or magnificence of other bridges suchas Tower Bridge in London, Rialto Bridge in Venice etc. but Ponte Vecchio retains this charm that I am unable to express in writing. Perhaps this is what people meant when they say "You will have to experience it on your own".

From Ponte Vecchio, we headed to Piazza della Signoria. The Musei di Palazzo Vecchio is located here and outside the entrance was a replica of Michelangelo's statue of David. As time was not on our side, we will have to settle with this one instead of the one in Piazalle Michelangelo (Also a replica now) and the original status in Galleria del Academia. The Loggie del Lanzi is also situated in Piazza della Signoria and you will find some interesting scultures here as well (free of charge) and you can find some information from Wikipedia here. There is a statue called The Rape of the Sabine Women which looked so similar to the statue of Laocoon and His Sons found in the Vatican Museum. I have a feeling that the former was influenced by the latter.

Although the Cattedraledi Santa Maria del Fiore and Piazza del Duomo was nearby, we did not have much time left as our parking space only allows for parking up till 8PM and we have nearl exhausted our time there which may result in our car being towed away. Overall, I am happy with what we have covered given the short time that we have in Florence and it being a day excursion. If given the time, I am sure I will discover more on the charm of Florence.

While we make our way back to Pisa, we passed by Piazzale Michelangelo and you can't not stop here after reaching here especially not when its about to reach sunset hour. I've got the nod to stop the car so off I go to have a quick tour here. It would be nice if the sun sets quicker but its Summer and I have 2 child travelling with me with 90 minutes of drive away from our accommodation, so I have to make do with what I have shot.