Free wi-fi access
by MissThing606
if you bring your laptop tod Florence, there are plenty of places to access to access free wi-fi
remember to take your ID with you, to sign up.
Moyo: (santa croce) - Via dei Benci
popular cafe bar on Via dei Benci - serves food all day (wifi is switched off at 7pm, just before the cocktail hour) the staff are normally quite nice but the service is not always smooth.
Nai'ma: (uffizi)
quiet cafe bar just behind the uffizi gallery.
Luna Rossa: (Santa croce) Via Giusseppe Verdi,
cafe bar on Via Giusseppe Verdi, by Santa Croce. Very pleasant staff.
Negroni: (San Niccolo area) Via dei renai
This bar is quite polular in the evening, and quiet in the day time. they have seats outside under a canopy.
High bar: (San Niccolo area) Via dei renai
this bar has a bit of a pub atmosphere, popluar with tourists and students.
A less crowded museum is the...
by Barbara2
A less crowded museum is the Florence Science Museum. It has very interesting exhibits on display. One is this Armillary, used to calculate the positions of the planets in Ptolemy's day. I'd seen pictures of this apparatus in my science books but was absolutely floored by the actual size. It looked so small in the textbook.
Looking for famous people's houses
by Jefie
It goes without saying that a city of such historical and cultural importance as Florence should have a long list of notable residents. One thing I enjoyed doing as we were walking around the historic centre of the city was to look for markers indicating when someone famous had lived in the house. Dante's (Via Santa Margherita, 1) and Michelangelo's (Via Ghibellina, 70) were easy to find since they now house small museums dedicated to their former residents. There were two other houses I was very happy to find on my own, and there actually is a connection between them. The first was that of English poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning at No. 8 Piazza di San Felice, across the street from Palazzo Pitti. Elizabeth came to Italy in 1846 with her husband, the poet Robert Browning, and she lived there until her death in 1861. There's a good chance that Elizabeth Browning's famous poem "Aurora Leigh" was written while she lived in Florence, and it also seems likely that Robert Browning's poem "Andrea del Sarto" was written in that house. And this of course brings me to No. 22 Via Gino Capponi, the house where the "faultess painter" lived at the beginning of the 16th century while he was working on his frescoes at the Santissima Annunziata Basilica. It was after reading Browning's poem that I first got interested in the works of Andrea del Sarto, so to see the houses where both men lived was a nice bonus to my trip to Florence.
The Mall in Florence
by mariocibelli about I Gigli - Centro Commercaile - Sesto Fiorentino
The Gigli is a mall located about 20 minutes from the train station in the suburb of Sesto Fiorentino. It has about 100 stores and a huge Pathe multiplex cinema. The larger stores include the Panorama Hypermarket, Universo Sport (sporting goods, great store - smaller boutique style shop located next to the Duomo), Coin department store, Leroy and Merlin home store and Media Worls electronics. It comes complete with a large food court and Irish Pub.
While many might argue that you don't come to Italy to go to a mall, but I beg to differ, it is one of the few times that you wil be in a total Italian environment as all the shoppers are Italian, nice way to eacape the tourist masses in downtown Floville (Florence).
The mall is open from 0900 to 2200 from Monday to Saturday.
Pizza on a budget, away from the crowds.
by Larinka about La Pizzeria
If you can find this place with the confusing building numbers in many of Italy's streets, then you may be visiting several times. Florence has such a huge choice of places to eat, some dissappointingly poor value for money, it made a change not to feel ripped off when the final bill arrived. With great pizzas at around €7.50, or Toasts (small tomato free pizzas like exotic cheese on toasts) for around €5, and the fact that it was away from the main tourist trap so it was less crowded, we visited several times. All the pizzas looked good, but for a quick snack the Roquefort and mushroom toast with a mixed salad went down well.
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Chianti Wine Tasting
Santa Maria Novella, Facade
Ponte Vecchio
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