On the evening of our second day in Venice, we left for Florence. Truth be told, we were so fed up with Venice that we left a day early. That night, we got into the train station in Florence and went out looking for the bus that could take us to our hotel. Lo and behold, there are public busses that run in Florence but NO BUS MAPS. That’s right. In June 2010, the city of Florence was out of bus maps. I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a new city and planning on relying on public transportation to get from place to place, a map that shows me which busses go where is pretty essential.
We were in Florence for 4 nights and we never found a bus map. Fortunately our broken Italian (and when I say broken I mean almost non-existant) was able to get us onto the 22 bus which luckily took us in the general vicinity of our hotel. Our solution was to take the 22 bus to our hotel and then back to the city center and to walk everywhere else.
Speaking of hotels, if you go to Florence anytime soon, you have to stay in the “Starhotels Tuscany – Florence.” We got our room for $107 USD/night and it was very clean, the room was nice, there was a gym, and breakfast was free. What more could you want? Granted, the hotel was a 20-min bus ride from the city center but for $100/night, what more could you ask for?
The main highlights of our first full day in Florence have to be seeing two of my favorite pieces of art: Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. When it comes to art, the Italians have got it down.
Highly illegal shot of Michelangelo’s David at the Academia. I almost got taken down by a security guard after this picture was taken. No pictures allowed! Oops!
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery.