Firenze cara mia!

The first time I fell in love with a boy - or so I thought- I was 10 years old, and 8 years later I fell head over heels for a city.

Quick facts

Closest major cities: Rome is 1.5 hours away by train or almost 3 hours by car. If you are flying from a different country in Europe, Florence has its own airport.

Cheapest path to arrive: From Rome via train costs only €21! (the same route by plane would cost between 115 and €150). All taxis driving from Amerigo Vespucci Airport to downtown Firenze charge a standard fee of €21, which is a very nice price considering the whooping €100 it costs a taxi to Munich airport within a 45-minute drive! However, Firenze also has a tram driving every 5-10 minutes from the city center to the airport, and the cost is 1.50€.

Currency: Euro

Doing a quick search in Google (of literally 0. 46 seconds) of travel guides for Florence, about 17,700.000 results were found. Therefore, don't expect this one to be the 17,700,001. This is not a comprehensive city guide with all of the many things to do, but merely some suggestions.

View of the Arno

Oh, Cara mia!

Thanks to my dad's encyclopedias and books, I heard about Italy's beauty at an early age. Then an older cousin on his student exchange in Europe decided to bring back a cassette from Eross Ramazzoti...and that is about the time when that fascination for Italy became a thing for me.

My dad didn't even notice it but he was "programming" me and my brother to always dream big, and would say things like "Don't worry you will get to see all of these marvels in person" when we looked at pictures of Italian architecture, art, and food too.

So when I was 18 years old and I was able to visit Europe for the first time, Italy did not disappoint. Quite the contrary, Firenze caused such a positive shock in me! It was electrifying! The mood, the views, the art, the food, the wine!

Like taking a deep breath after being underwater

This year I granted myself and the husband a visit to this amazing city. And being quite honest I was curious to know if I would still get the same feeling as the previous three times I was there in my twenties...and guess what! The feeling is still there. Given that life can get stressful, and trying to make the most out of the vicinity of Germany, I planned this trip as a celebration, and once arriving it became pretty much a mental health break I tell ya!

Where to stay? Where to eat?

This time around we stayed in the lovely Il Guelfo Bianco, which has a privileged location, one side is a block away from Piazza San Marco, and the other is two blocks away from the Duomo. In case you need any more convincing, the rooms are chic, spacious, and comfortable, and they include a nice breakfast too.

Several years ago, the teacher from my Italian class, when asked about the local restaurants, suggested for everybody attending his class to go beyond the tourist places, and also try some of the choices from the locals. Among the establishments he suggested was Acqua al Due. We saved this recommendation for the end of our course to go home with a bang...first dinner here and then party all night long at Central. On one of my visits during my student years, I stayed at the Angelica Hotel, a comfortable option with more affordable prices, and also a very good location (right in front of the Linguaviva school where I studied my first levels of Italian),

This year about two decades later - cough, cough- I had dinner again at the Acqua... All the memories! And the dishes were just as abundant and delicious as I recalled. Of course, go with a reservation, otherwise you will only be able to stay if there is room at the communal table, where of course it would be rude to stay to chat and "make after-dinner conversation" since other people could not be received.

For a more casual dinner, since we were fortunate enough to be received without a reservation two days in a row, there is the Canto De'Nelli restaurant, right in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo.

Pictures anyone?

When traveling as a couple, it is quite common to end up with a bunch of pictures with only one of us (since the other one is taking the picture), or to have lots of selfies, that most of the time don't do justice to the background views or to the protagonists.

As mentioned above, this visit was to celebrate a special occasion as a couple, while also checking out my bucket list and having nice pictures from us and the trip. Then why not have a little help and achieve both?

I am not going to lie, I browsed Trip Advisor so thoroughly looking for professional photographers in the area, not only that have nice pictures, but I actually liked their style (not too cheesy basically, we can save that for the pizza).

Pictures used in illustration were taken by Click in Tuscany.

Just when I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I wasn't going to find a photographer with a style that I liked, I came across the guys from Click in Tuscany, and what a good choice it was to hire them!

The truth is that the German husband is not used to these things, and in his mind, it was going to be something super cheesy, uncomfortable, and cringe...but how wrong he was! After convincing him to trust his never-dull wife (that's me), he agreed, and in the end, we both had a great time.

The guys are super nice, have excellent manners since I made the appointment, and are very attentive to my concerns about possible bad weather. The atmosphere was great, and we laughed and talked a lot, we are already thinking about the next trip to Italy within the coverage of the photography services of #ClickInTuscany. Super recommended!

In vino veritas

Once in Tuscany, a tour of the vineyards of Chianti and San Gimignano is a must. On the internet, you can find plenty of packages of different durations, and on these tours, you can taste not only the delicious #Chianti but also the most delicious olive oil you have ever tasted.

Museums deserve a whole separate article, so I will address them another time.

For now...that's all folks!