In June 2020,
I decided to travel to Florence in Italy
immediately after the country had reopened its borders.
In this video, I want to show you what traveling
in Italy is like now, and show you my top 15 things to do
in Florence during the new normal.
And here we are this is Piazza Della Signoria,
the very heart of Florence.
I'm so excited to be here.
I love this city.
I love this square.
It's absolutely amazing that I'm back here.
The Piazza Della Signoria has been the center of local life
in Florence since the 13th century.
It's main landmark is the Palazzo Vecchio,
Florence's city hall.
Next to the entrance of Palazzo Vecchio
there are two statues,
one of Hercules by Bandinelli
and a copy of the world famous David by Michelangelo.
Then here on this side is the Loggia dei Lanzi
which is basically an open air gallery
with Renaissance masterpieces.
And you can see here usually these restaurants of course
will be filled with tourists, but they're closed
and there's no one there,
just a few locals hanging out on the Piazza.
After a bit of research,
I found a traditional restaurant that was open.
This is panzanella.
It's a Florentine salad that's made with bread.
And this is probably the most famous dish for Florence
it's Bistecca alla Florentina.
It's a massive T-bone steak as you can see, grilled, wow.
Can't wait to try this.
Florence at night is just so beautiful, incredible.
Let's head out and discover Florence.
After buying my tickets,
I went to visit one of the most famous sites of Florence.
The Duomo is the most iconic landmark of Florence.
It's construction was began in 1296
and took almost 150 years.
The cathedral is most famous
for the distinctive red tile cupula
and it's pink, white and green marble facade.
So we are inside the Duomo now.
Into this magnificent church and they have a solution here
to guarantee social distancing that I've never seen before.
So basically you get this little thing here,
this little box that you have to wear around your neck
and if you get too close to someone,
it will start ringing to tell you
that you need to keep the distance
of one meter 50 or two meters.
So this is pretty cool.
A very interesting solution.
I've never seen anything like this before
during my new normal travels.
This is what it does when you get too close to someone.
Next to the main building of the cathedral
are the elegant campanile, the bell tower,
and the battistero, the baptistry.
The battistero is most famous
for its precious decorated doors and its interior
gleams with Byzantine style golden mosaics.
After my visit to the Duomo,
I walked over to the Uffizi and was a bit surprised
to see that no one was waiting in line.
The Galleria degli Uffizi is home
to the greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art
in the world.
Some of the highlights of the collection
include Botticelli's The Birth of Venus,
Botticelli's Spring,
Michelangelo's depiction of the Holy family,
Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation,
and Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch.
The architecture of the building
is just as dazzling with long corridors,
a beautiful ceiling and amazing views
of the Arno river and the Ponte Vecchio.
Most of the collection was originally in the possession
of the powerful Medici family who ruled Florence
for several centuries.
And we just left the Uffizi, wow.
So if you're into art, this is of course a must see
and the experience is so different
because there's almost no people.
I had some parts of the museum
almost to myself, pretty incredible.
All right, it's time to go for a little walk.
We're gonna hike up a hill close to the center of Florence
for amazing views and it's going to be really cool.
And we made it.
This is Piazzale Michelangelo and the views
I think they're definitely incredible.
The spectacular Piazzale Michelangelo
offers one of the best views of the city of Florence.
Just like the Palazzo Vecchio the center,
it features a copy of Michelangelo's David.
The square is particularly impressive in the early evening.
This is an amazing spot to watch the sunset, so romantic.
After taking in the sunset views
I took the bus to get to my next destination.
It was quite a bus ride, felt more like a race.
And of course, masks are obligatory on the bus.
All right, now that we survived the bus ride
let's continue on to the osteria.
This is prosciutto con melone, ham with melon
it's so delicious.
It's a Tuscan specialty.
Here we got another great traditional Tuscan dish,
spaghetti alla carrettiera.
They're slightly spicy and super yummy.
You can tell they're very fresh spices, so good.
And a dessert, this is the torta della casa.
It's really cool they have these pine nuts.
This is so so nice.
I highly recommend the Trattoria da Ruggero
it was one of the best meals I've had in Italy so far.
Check it out when you're in Florence.
I've been joking with my friends at home
that I'm kind of doing the eat part
of the "Eat, Pray, Love" movie with Julia Roberts
at the moment because the food that I'm having
on this trip is just outstanding.
As I walked back home towards my hotel,
I passed another famous site of Florence.
This is the Palazzo Pitti,
another art museum we're just passing on the way home.
Palazzo Pitti was commissioned by the wealthy banker
Luca Pitti in 1458.
It later became the home of the Medici
and in 1865 the palace sheltered the Italian Royal family
when Florence briefly became the capital
of the newly unified kingdom of Italy.
Today, the palace is an important art museum
and the Boboli gardens right behind it
are one of the most beautiful parks of the city.
After a short walk, I arrived at the next site.
So we're now crossing Florence's most iconic bridge
it's the Ponte Vecchio, that means old bridge in Italian.
And this bridge is especially famous
for the jewelry shops on each side.
As its name suggests, the Ponte Vecchio
is the oldest remaining bridge of Florence.
Its current form dates back to 1345.
Butchers and tanners initially occupied the shops
on the bridge, but in 1593 the Medici banned them
from the bridge because of the bad smell.
And since then only goldsmiths and jewelers
are allowed to open shops here.
Good morning.
It's a beautiful if somewhat cloudy day in Florence,
and we're gonna discover some more of the major attractions
of the city today.
I started my day by visiting the Galleria dell'Accademia.
All right so we're about to meet
someone extremely famous now, world famous even.
I'll give you a little hint.
He's a guy about five meters tall and incredibly handsome.
Want to know who it is?
Well, take a look.
Michelangelo's David is the most famous statue in the world.
It was carved from a single block of marble
already worked on by two sculptors,
the subtle detail and unparalleled perfection of this
enormous work of art is breathtaking.
Michelangelo's David was first revealed to the public
on Piazza della Signoria in 1504
and Florentines immediately adopted David
as an emblem of power, liberty and civic pride.
The Galleria dell'Accademia also houses
Michelangelo's unfinished prigioni statues,
a collection of plaster models and paintings
by Florentine artists of the late Middle Ages
and the Renaissance.
All right, here's an important lesson
that when you're visiting museums during the new normal,
always make sure you check the opening times beforehand
because I did and that's how I knew that this museum
Galleria dell'Accademia will only be open until 2:00 PM.
So unfortunately some museums have really random opening
times at the moment or they close super early.
So always make sure to check first before going.
That way you'll be spared some bad surprises.
After a quick lunch break
with a tasty tomato and mozzarella sandwich
I continued my exploration of Florence
with the Museo delle Cappelle Medicee.
This place is the Cappella Medicee
and it's some of the strictest safety precautions
that I've seen so far in Italy.
I basically look like I'm about
to take someone's kidney or something.
I'm all dressed up like a surgeon
with the gloves and everything.
All right but now we're going to visit the Medici Chapels.
The Cappelle Medicee or Medici Chapels are the final resting
place of 49 members of the Medici dynasty.
I first visited the dark and imposing Cappella dei Principi
and then continued to the Sagrestia Nuova
which is most famous Michelangelo's statues
of night and day and dusk and dawn.
(gentle music)
All right let me take off my surgeon outfit
and the gloves and everything.
So yeah, well worth a visit actually,
much more impressive than I thought.
The Cappelle Medicee incredible they're so beautiful.
I walked over to another one
of Florence's most famous sites.
The Basilica di Santa Maria Novella
is the oldest great basilica of Florence
and hosts a multitude of art treasures
behind its colorful Renaissance facade.
Some of the most impressive masterpieces inside the church
are the frescoes by Ghirlandaio in the Capella Maggiore
and the luminous painted crucifix by Giotto.
After visiting the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella,
I decided to relax a bit at the Giardino Bardini.
This 17th century garden features
beautiful views of Florence.
It's an extremely picturesque place
with marble statues and several fountains.
Next, I walked over to the Gelateria La Carraia
which is one of the best ice cream shops in all of Florence.
This Gelateria is so popular they have to come up
with a system where you have to draw a number
so that they know which place in line you have.
I just got out of the shop
and that's also why I'm wearing the mask.
And I got the ice cream and it looks amazing.
Let's see what it tastes like.
Yeah I would say that shop highly highly
deserves its reputation as the best ice cream shop
in Florence it is incredibly good this ice cream, wow.
One of the things that are really nice about visiting
Florence is that it's city is so walkable so
you can basically walk almost to any site on foot
and it will usually be faster
or just as fast as taking public transport.
So that's a great advantage
if you want to come visit Florence.
I went briefly back to the apartment to change before
going out and now we're going to head out to a part
of the city with lots of bars to have a few drinks.
So we're now in a part of town that's called Santa Croce
and there there's the Via dei Benci
which is particularly famous for bars, restaurants
so let's check it out.
This is a very interesting poster.
It says Florence is being reborn
and people only saw the city from the windows
for two months and now they're able to go outside again.
And time for the most typical Italian drink
this is a Spritz Aperol.
That's absolutely delicious.
Prosecco mixed with Aperol and a bit of water.
It's so good.
I've never been to this part of Santa Croce
I must say it looks super nice.
There's so many cool restaurants around here.
I decided to have dinner at Osteria Pizzaiuolo.
And of course since we're in Italy
it's really time to get a pizza now.
I got one of my personal favorites the pizza diavola.
It's hot salami and in this case it also has olives.
That's some really good pizza
and it has a typical Italian dough
which is kind of really, really thin,
almost melts in your mouth, delicious.
And this delicious pizza only cost 9.50 including water.
So that's really not expensive at all.
It's about $11 so great deal at the Pizzaiuolo.
This Pizzaiuolo pizzeria was really good
but as you can see behind me,
there's so many restaurants in this street.
I'll put the link in the description
so you can find the street easily.
It looks great and there's only locals.
So those are my recommendations for Florence.
What are yours?
If you're from there or if you've been there before,
please make sure to leave tips and advice in the comment
box below this video.
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