Florence | A Family Travelogue

This Robert Browning quote sums up how I feel about Italy.  Each of my days there is forever engraved upon my heart.  This trip I shared my love of Italy with my children.  Seeing it through their eyes deepened my love and sense of home I have there, Florence in particular.  What I witnessed in the change in Florence since our last visit was a greater sense of the environment, preservation, and tourism.  Since 2011, most of the streets surrounding the Duomo and it’s neighboring plazas all the way across the river to the Palazzo Pitti, have been converted to pedestrian only zones.  Sure you may find a horse or two, and most certainly some bicycles.  But what this means to the city is cleaner streets, less pollution and happier tourists.  What it means to traveling mommas, is one big beautiful historical playground for families.

We arrived in Florence in the evening, after a short cab ride, we were off exploring the city as soon as we could get checked in to out hotel.  Florence is a lovely city by day, but has a sort of electricity by night.  People strolling the streets, eating gelato, watching performers, it is all part of the fun and excitement here.

We scheduled a tour with Freya’s Florence upon recommendation from a friend.  Our lovely guide, Sara, met us at our hotel first in the morning and took us on a wonderful 3-4 hour tour of the city.  she was fantastic with the kids. She brought them Pinnochio pencils and a little guide book where they could fill in answers along the way as we walked and learned.  She told great child-like stories about medieval times, architecture, history, royalty and life. We toured the Palazzo Strozzi and the Palazzo Davanzanti.  The Palazzo Davanzati was a particular hit with my kids as Sara told us tales that gave us a sense of living in Medieval times.

The culmination of the tour was at La Accademia a Firenze where Sara talked with the kids about Micheangelo and The David in such a way that brought both the artist and the sculpture to life.  I have seen David before, but hearing about him through Sara’s enthusiasm, love and pride of Florence made it all the more special.  My oldest is really into art, actually each of our kids (even little miss) are avid museum goers.  The trick is to pick and choose which types of museums to visit.  Modern art museums are more interesting to most kids, they tend to have many different types of mediums, colors, or absences of color.  Museums that are part of a castle or palace are good pics as well as they continue to tell the story and paint a picture of the family that lived there.  We avoid museums like the Uffizi, not because they aren’t exemplary museums, but they tend to be overwhelming.  The Uffizi houses one of the most spectacular collections of Renaissance art in the world.  My kids {and if truth be told, ‘we’} would tire of this type of art quickly.  Forgo the long queues and stick with smaller more accessible art when traveling with kids.

It was a little unusual to have my son pose under a sculpture of a naked man, penis and all.  He had been waiting for this moment since we first began talking of our trip to Florence, the moment he would see Michelangelo’s most acclaimed work.  At least the kid has great taste and it was after all, the most famous penis in history.

I had 3 questions for Sara before we left her:  where to find the best gelato, where to buy the best leather and where to buy the best cashmere.  Her recommendations were exceptional!  We tested a lot of gelato during our stay in Florence and beyond, but two of our favorites were Venchi for THE best chocolate and Gelateria dei Neri. We spent much of our time wandering the streets and people watching.  The kids (and I) were fascinated with the doors of Florence.  They wanted to touch each one and I wanted to photograph each one!  The “other” side of the Arno was equally charming with its neighborhood feel.  Lots of “nonni” to  be found playing bocci ball and sipping espresso or wine.  It had a wonderful feel to it.  If you prefer to be a little further from the center of things, I would recommend staying on that side.  If you prefer to stay closer to the Duomo and other attractions stay on the main side.

Our hotel was the perfect respite from all of our sightseeing, gelato eating, museum going.  The Grand Hotel Minerva had a huge room for the 5 of us.  It was located on the beautiful Piazza of Santa Maria Novella and basilica of the same name.  It’s a lesser known piazza rich with history and close to all the main monuments without being right in the middle of things.  A huge bonus was the hotel’s rooftop pool.  Seriously an amazing way to rest and cool off after a day of walking around town.  The best view of the Duomo and so much fun for the kids to just be kids!  Highly recommend.  You can see more of our travels by following me over on instagram.

Florence Recommendations:

1.  If you travel to Florence in the summer, do not go in August.  Much of the city is closed.

2.  It you travel to Florence in the summer, try to select a hotel with a pool.

3.  Book a tour with Sara at Freya’s Florence for families, worth every penny.

4.  Have your tour guide purchase your museum tickets, it allows you to avoid the queue.

5.  Spend plenty of time across the river.

6.  Visit the open air leather and textile market.  I found my most favorite pashmina in all the world for 25€

7.  Flying within Europe is just as affordable as travel by train and much easier and enjoyable for all.

8.  Make a reservation for dinner at Quatrro Leoni.

9.  Both the train station and the airport are incredibly convenient, don’t bother with a rental car.

10. Let them eat gelato, lots of gelato!