Beautiful views of Firenze

Piazzale Michelangelo

After finally getting back in Florence after the botched Vespa tour, I still had much to see. I headed to the famous Piazzale Michelangelo (Michelangelo Square) on the hill on the South bank of the Arno River. (sommer a little bit of Geography😉 )

I just aimed towards the hill. There is a bus stop up there, but I found it more trouble hunting down a bus or a stop for that matter that will have me ending up at the lookout than walking there. So I just put one foot in front of the other, climbed a lot of stairs and gawked at some weird street performers on the way.

The view from the top is iconic, and I think that you can’t say that you have visited Firenze without looking out over this old city from there. I wanted to catch the sun dipping, but when a cloud decided to hide it, I moved on to new things in the direction of the gardens. There are a few, but I went into the first one that I found which was the Giardino delle rose or Rose Garden. 

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Giardino delle rose

This is a beautiful garden with all kinds of roses (it’s all in the name) and sculptures and views of the city. I took one of my favourite pictures here and enjoyed the calm and beauty of nature. I did have some trouble getting out though. It was a bit of a maze, but I did not mind at all getting stuck there for a little bit.

Just to the left of the Rose Garden is the famous Boboli Gardens. If I had more time I would have loved to stroll through there. But you need a good amount of time and you have to pay entrance. In the end I was happy with just seeing the smaller Rose Garden, but if I ever get to go back, I will walk further down the road and go see that Boboli Garden and then get that T-shirt😉

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Waking is like treasure hunting

Before my trip, I saw something about an artist and the Florence street signs but forgot all about it untill I saw the first sign. After that first one, it felt as if I was treasure hunting. On my way back home from the gardens, I turned the evening into a search for art. Each traffic sign turned into a potential visual treasure. I found quite a few. It was a delightful search for artistic traffic signs😊. Back home I googled the signs and found the artist was Clet Abraham. He may not have painted all the signs, 1 or 2 did not look like the rest, so there is probably a ‘forger’ running around, but if you are ever there, take a closer look at the signs. I will classify them as a tourist attraction in themselves.

And that was that for Firenze

All in all, Florence was not that bad. I got to walk the medieval streets, learned to make gelato and pizza, met up with South Africans. (You will never know the joy of meeting your own countrymen until you meet them in a foreign country. It is weird when you think of it, but you will never just walk up to strangers back home and start talking to them, but this happened every time that I have met someone from home somewhere else). I got to climb the tower of Pisa, see the Tuscan countryside although not how I had planned to and take in the most beautiful views of Firenze from the Piazzale Michelangelo and the Rose Garden. And although I did not set foot in any gallery, I saw some funky art.

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