WHEN IN FLORENCE

Ciao, I recently visited the city of Florence during a trip to Italy, and I completely fell in love with the place, so much so, I thought I 'd put together a little 'to-do' post. These are all the things I loved the most about the visit, and I want to make sure everyone else that visits the glorious city doesn't miss out on.

BOBOLI GARDENS

Peharps it's me getting older, but sometimes theres nothing I love more than a stroll around some historical gardens, not that I'm into history or anything, I just find the atmosphere so relaxing. Even if the sound of some old gardens and statues doesn't sound appealing to you, the walk up to the very top is worth the view alone. The gardens look over the entire city, you'll be thanking yourself for the trek up the hills afterwards, I promise. 

TRY SOME LOCAL FOOD

Lampredotto sounds as appealing as it looks, it's pretty much tripe on a crusty cob. However, this is Florence's most popular street food, and has been around since the 15th Century. I didn't overly enjoy this, but it was no where near as awful as I thought. I would say this is perfect hangover food, so if you've gone a little too hard on the ol' vino one night, grab yourself one of these and try a taste of Florentine history. 

GIATTO'S CAMPANILE

In total this bell tower has 414 steps, and I genuinely wasn't sure if I was going to make it up those without passing out, go the gym Chanel. My unfit state was no match for my stupidity, as I didn't take a bottle of water with me. But, once I had finished gasping and assured myself that I was actually going to come out alive, I forgot all about the narrow staircases, and gawped at the glorious views. I find it hard to believe that there are many landscapes as glorious as this.

WATCH THE SUNSET

One hundred percent my highlight of my trip. I could do this every night for the rest of my life. 

Walk all the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo (or get a cab if you're a cheat) where you will find a full panoramic view over Florence. Just before the sunset you should find plenty of other sunset viewers, some buskers and a stall selling a variety of beverages (I opted for a small prosecco, obvs) 

There are few amazing things in life for free these days, this is one of them. 

TAKE IN ALL THE ART

Okay, so admiteddly, the only museum we visited over in Florence, was the Gucci museum, and I think in hindsight, it is a big regret that we didn't see as much history as we should have. Florence is home to some of the most famous pieces of art in the world (hello, statue of David) so if you have the time, go check it out.

Chanel x

POSTCARDS FROM FLORENCE

Ah Florence, lovely little Florence. One beautiful city that I was not all that interested in visiting, until I suggested a trip to Venice to my boyfriend, and he was adamant about paying a visit to Florence whilst we were in the country. So, we came to the agreement, three days in Venice, three days in Florence. Deal. So after our two nights up in Venice, we jumped on the train down to Florence, which was surprisingly a lot more easy than I imagined. 

We arrived tuesday evening, and were instantly hit with the tuscan sunshine, a completely different vibe to Venice, but still very chilled out to how I know cities in England. As we arrived pretty late, most place shops were closing up, we walked past a man shutting his shop up with a glass of red in hand, oh the Italians know exactly how to live.

If you're thinking about a city break in Italy, I would urge you with all my might to go to Florence. It's a very artsy place with a lot of character and energy. We spent our days meandering around the streets, eating ice cream and stalking Tom Hanks (Yes really, he was out there filming the new Da Vinci Code movies with Felicity Jones)

We stayed in a lovely little hotel (Hotel Panorama) which I would also recommend for your visit, reasonable price and a fantastic view from our room and the breakfast area. 

I will be following this post up with "things to do in Florence" very soon.

Chanel x