Corinna B January 21, 2016

10 Things You Absolutely Must Do When You Are In Florence

Florence is one of my absolute favorite cities in the world. It doesn’t matter how many times I go to Florence, I always discover something new. I never get bored with Florence, and I never feel like I’m done. Florence is magic.

I’ve spent a great deal of time in Florence over the past 10 years. I’ve been to the all the main tourist spots (multiple times!) but I have also explored the city from one end to the other. Along the way I have discovered some wonderful secrets in the city on the Arno.

Most tourists miss out on some of the most amazing things to do in Florence, so I have made you a list of 10 items that you need to add to your travel itinerary.

I am always asked about my favorite restaurants and shops in Florence, so I have added an option for you to get a PDF of my Secret Florence at the end of this post.

Here are 10 things that you absolutely MUST do when you are in Florence:

1. Go For An Early Walk.

Get up early (at least once while you are there) and go for a long walk.

Florence gets so packed with tourists during the day and into the night that it becomes almost impossible to get one on one time with her statues, her famous doorways, the great piazzas. During the day you can hardly ever snap a photo without other travelers getting in the way.

But in the early mornings the streets are empty, and she is all yours.

2. Eat Cinghiale

One of the local Tuscan delicacies is Cinghiale, or wild boar.

Every restaurant serves it, made to their own recipe, and it’s fantastic.

3. Visit Santa Croce Church

Florence is full of amazing churches with amazing art, but to me Santa Croce is one of the most spectacular.

Santa Croce Church in the shadow of the early morning

The art inside Santa Croce is considered to be some of the most impressive church art in all of Florence. From Giotto’s fresco cycles to Cimabue’s breathtaking Triumphal Cross, the art in Santa Croce is spectacular.
It is also the home to Florence’s most impressive tombs, and has memorials to Michelangelo, Rossini, Dante Aligheri, Ghiberti, Galileo and Machiavelli. Largely overlooked by tourists, the church at Santa Croce is an absolute must.

4. Get Up High

The Duomo seen from the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio on a misty, moody December afternoon

Whether you choose to climb the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo, or perhaps the vastly fewer stairs to the top of the Palazzo Vecchio tower, get up high and take in the mesmerizing view of one of Europe’s most magnificent cities.

5. Take Long Walks At Night.

Just as early morning walks are a must in Florence, so are long evening walks after the sun has gone down.

One of the great loves of my life lives in Florence, ( if you are going to fall in love, it might as well be with an Italian, right?) and for many years evenings in Florence were synonymous with long strolls around the city, taking in all the incredible palazzi and churches, the magnificent doorways, the statues, the very essence of Florence, bathed in the moonlight.

As beautiful as she is by day, Santa Maria Del Fiore (the Duomo) is just mesmerizing by night. In fact Florence is pure magic by night.

6. Look Up

While taking night time strolls you have the opportunity to see frescos and incredible ceilings hidden to you during the day, but visible by night when people turn their lights on. When we would be out at night (and still even now, as the dearest of friends) he always tells me “Look up!” as we walk by breathtaking frescoes on the upper floors of the various palazzi, scattered everywhere in the city.

7. Take A Tour Of Somewhere Special

When I was in Florence this past December I was incredibly lucky to have a private tour of the secret passages and hidden rooms in the Palazzo Vecchio. It was so awe-inspiring that I immediately promised myself that every time I go back to Florence I will take a little tour of some place special. This medieval city is so full of hidden corridors and passageways, there is art up in the rafters, there is art inside the walls. It’s rich history of intrigue and treachery and treasures means there are endlessly fascinating secrets to be discovered. The perfect way to experience them is with an art historian filling you in on all the stories, bringing them to life for you.

8. Eat The Best Sandwich Of Your Life

A couple of blocks from the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi on the Via Dei Neri you will find Osteria All’ Antico Vinaio

It is super easy to find because they have a trattoria on either side of the road, and until late each night there are always locals spilling out onto the sidewalk with giant focaccia sandwiches in one hand and big glasses of lusty red wine in the other, while their brethren queue patiently in lines that weave down the street, waiting for as long as it takes to get their turn at the counter. I guarantee you will never have had a sandwich quite like these before!

You can custom order, but I learned from the people waiting with me in the line and the others having spasms or gastronomic delight as they leaned against the walls or sat on the curb eating their panini, that the way to tackle this beast was to order from the posted list of favorites. (90% of the patrons were all ordering the same thing, so I figured I would just have what they did. Perhaps one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made.)

This is no nitrite, no nitrate, no Monsanto, fresh, local, real food.

You won’t find anything as crass as a soda fountain here but you will find a selection of local red wines that they sell by the bottle or by the glass.

And just how much do you think the best sandwich of your life will cost you? €5. It’s the bargain of the century!

9. Explore Oltrarno

Literally “the other side of the Arno”, there is so much to see when you cross the river. You have the big sights, the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, Piazzale Michelangelo and San Spirito with its Brunelleschi designed interior, but you also have endless medieval streets full of antique stores and local artisans. As you wander through you’ll find fewer and fewer tourists, which means the price of everything goes down. It’s easy to spend days on end losing yourself in Florence’s neighborhoods – there is so much to discover.

While wandering find your way to Santa Maria Del Carmine. The Cappella Brancacci houses a renaissance fresco cycle that changed the course of western art. Begun by Masaccio and Masolino in around 1424 and finished 50 years later by Filippino Lippi, this cycle uses a then revolutionary technique employing single point perspective. Look to the upper left entrance pier to Adam and Eve and notice the dramatic way their bodies reflect a light that seems to emanate from within the world of the painting, but outside the frame. It is magnificent.

10. Buy Leather

Florence is world famous for it’s amazing leather goods.

If you are not shopping at the Gucci and Prada price point, then this is the city for you! You can buy beautifully made leather bags, belts, luggage, wallets and jackets all over Florence, especially at the San Lorenzo market, but you have to either know what you’re buying, or who you are buying it from to make sure you are getting good quality and not a Made-In-China rip off.

For years and years now I have been buying leather goods from my very dear friend Jimmy Ahmed of Jimmy’s Leather Collection. I’ve sent so many people to Jimmy over the years, and everyone is always super happy to have gone there. Read more about buying leather in Florence here

Bonus

I’m giving you a bonus tip, because I can’t refine it down to just 10 tips…

Eat Panforte

Panforte with coffee makes for a perfect mid-morning snack

This is actually a Sienese delicacy but you can find it all over Florence. Not a bread, and yet not quite a cake panforte is a divine flourless combination of nuts, dried fruits, honey and spices. My favorite type is Mandorlata. You do so much walking all day every day in Florence, it’s easy to justify a small slice with your morning cappuccino.

Secret Florence

If you would like to know my favorite restaurants, rooftop bars, a secret jeweler who designs for Dior but who also sells to regular ladies in the know at sensible prices, even a Medici perfumer, I have a Secret Florence PDF that you can download and print.

Get your Secret Florence PDF HERE

Glam Italia! How To Travel Italy (Secrets To Glamorous Travel On A Not So Glamorous Budget — My international bestseller Glam Italia! How To Travel Italy: Secrets To Glamorous Travel (On A Not So Glamorous Budget) is available worldwide on Amazon.com Click the link and get your copy today!

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Corinna B January 31, 2021

Sustainable Travel: How To Be Part Of The Solution In 10 Simple Steps

Mass tourism is completely untenable.

Beautiful cities like Venice are being destroyed by mass tourism.

If one good thing comes from the world being shut down due to the pandemic it could be the realigning of how we travel so that when the world does reopen, maybe this time we can get it right.

Mass tourism causes irreparable damage on many levels but the three most pervasive are: environmental damage, social and cultural damage and economic damage. As much as you may think several thousand people dismbarking from a cruise ship boosts a local economy, guess what – it doesn’t. In fact it does the exact opposite.

This post is the final in a series about sustainable travel, what it is and why we need to be part of the solution.

What Is Sustainable Travel?

Before you start thinking Sustainable tourism is about driving a Prius and eating vegan food let’s look at what it really means. Sustainable travel means developing ways to travel that don’t harm the natural and cultural environments, that minimize the negative impact of tourism and ideally are beneficial to the places we are traveling to. The idea is to keep everything in good condition for future generations to enjoy.

10 Ways You Can Become A Sustainable Traveler

We can make a huge difference by just making a few simple changes in the way we travel. Here are 10 simple things you can do that will make you part of the solution rather thn part of the problem.

1. DON’T Book A Cruise!

The cruise industry is one of the worst offenders in the mass tourism game. Cruises have a massive negative impact on the oceans and the ports they arrive into.

Cruise ship leaving Venice. During the tourist season there will be 5 ships per day in port in Venice. That’s 20,000 extra people decending into a very small town that is extremely environmentally fragile.

The influx of multiple thousands of passengers is bad for the environment, bad for local culture and bad for the local economy.

Here are eight places being completely ruined by the cruise industry:

Venice
Barcelona
Dubrovnik
Santorini
Mallorca
The Great Barrier Reef
The Galapagos Islands
Bali

You can read more about cruise ships damaging impact on the environment here

2. Be Aware Of The Trash You Create

When thinking about the impact you have on any place you travel to, any city, town, village, beach, national park, at all times be aware of the amount of trash you are generating and leaving behind. Even if you are putting it in a trash can or dumpster.

The worst offenders are single use plastics, like bottles of water. Choosing to use refillable bottles or refilling the one bottle can make a huge difference.

Crowds on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas. Imagine if each of these people purchased 2 or 3 bottles of water. Where does all that single use plastic go?

Also think about the amount of trash your food choices create. Making an effort to only eat sitting down in a restaurant/café/food bar can eliminate the trash created by the packaging for fast foods. Try keeping all your trash for two days – you will be amazed at how much you generate! Try imagining that volume of refuse multiplied out by the number of tourists in that town that day. For example if you are in Venice and buy 3 bottles of water you may not think that’s much waste created, but multiply that out by the 20,000 passengers from the 5 cruise ships in port that day and you start seeing what a huge deal that really is.

3. Avoid Major Chains

Outside of your home country or traveling to the U.S or U.K avoid staying at major chain hotels. When you book with a major international chain approximately 16% of your nightly hotel fee won’t go to the local economy, it will go to the conglomerate. Booking a local hotel keeps the money in that specific town.

The same applies to your dining choices. Avoid the major U.S fast food chains – you didn’t travel across the world to eat McDonald’s and drink Starbucks. Eat at local cafes and restaurants where the food is locally sourced and prepared by locals and where all your dollars are going back into the local economy.

4. Book Direct

When you book a hotel reservation (or any reservation) through a third party booking service like Booking.com or Hotels.com 25% of the value of your booking doesn’t make it to the local economy. Find out what the price is with the consolidator then call the hotel and ask them to match it. 9 times out of 10 they will, and now once again you are putting all the money back into the local economy.

5. Choose Less Traveled Locations.

The Greek island of Paros is ***much*** less touristed than islands such as Santorini and Mykonos.

Rather than choosing the most touristed places for your vacation, choose a place less traveled. Rather than Santorini choose one of the hundreds of equally beautiful Greek islands that don’t get cruise ships. Instead of Barcelona venture to one of Catalonia’s equally magical smaller coastal towns. Seeking out smaller, less touristy locations helps dilute mass tourism.

If you must go to (a.k.a. don’t want to miss) the most touristed cities and islands try to go during the off season when then are fewer people around. I love Barcelona but only go between November and March when the cruise ships aren’t running.

6. Get Off The Beaten Path

Florence streets — Florence on a super crowded day. There were literally thousands of people about 500 meters away, yet we had the city to ourselves.

This goes with number 5. Even in the big cities you can still get off the beaten path. Avoid the areas that are full of tourists and explore some of the lesser known sights. You’ll have a much more enriching and fulfilling experience. My rule is spend 25% of your time at the big sites and the other 75% at lesser known, lesser visited places, or “off the beaten track”. Of course you have to see the Colosseum in Rome – it would be madness to miss it. But then go explore the less visited sites and you will fall in love with the Eternal City.

7. Support Local Artisans

Rather than shop in high street stores which you have at home anyway, or buying junky trinkets in made in China souvenir shops, support local artisans.

In a random little town in Tuscany we found this local artisan with her loom, making beautiful hand designed pashminas, scarves and knitwear.

Apart from helping keep the crafts and cultures alive shopping from local artisans significantly impacts the local economy.

We bought pieces both for ourselves and for gifts to take home. There were six of us and we equalled her entire month in sales. Always support the local economy.

8. Check Your Sunscreen

Believe it or not something as simple as your choice of sunscreen can have an environmental impact. Sunscreen gets into the ocean and other waterways when you swim or shower it off. You don’t need to be vacationing near the coral reefs for your sunscreen to have an impact.

In 2015 scientists estimated that annually 14,000 tons of sunscreen wash into the world’s coral reefs.

Coral reefs are being destroyed by pollutants.

Some of the most common sunscreen ingredients, oxybenzone, octinoxate, nano zinc oxide and nano titanium dioxide can harm both sea creatures and coral reefs. The damage is significant enough that some places are banning sun tan lotions containing them. In 2018 Hawaii banned the sale of sun tan lotions, sunblocks and suncreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate.

For a list of easily available and affordable reef safe sunscreens click here

9. Travel By Train

Trains have been shown to be the most environmentally friendly mode of travel. Where possible use trains to travel through Europe rather than cars or planes. Using car only on the days you can’t get places by train has a significant impact on the environment.

10. Choose Your Animal Experiences Carefully

Animals shouldn’t be used for entertainment and should be able to live with as little human interference as possible. If you need to see animals in the wild take your tourism dollars to wildlife sanctuaries and refuges and marine conservation projects.

Kim Kardashian with elephant — Kim Kardashian said this was at an elephant sanctuary but sanctuaries don’t ride elephants and don’t use ropes on them. This poor animal was being abused.

Be aware that animals are mistreated and abused in the name of tourism. Don’t take an elephant ride – riding elephants can be extremely harmful to them and the process for getting an elephant ready to be ridden is inhumane. (Rescued elephants go to sanctuaries to escape a life of being ridden and abused.)

Avoid all experiences where animals are not behaving naturally. Also be aware that animals are being torn from the wild to be made available for tourists to take selfies with.

Want to know more? Listen to the Any Given Runway Podcast episode where we talk about sustainable travel and how you can make a huge difference by doing very small things. You can check out the webpage here

Join the Corinna B’s World newsletter and get secret Italy travel tips in your inbox twice each month! You can join the list here.

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Corinna B December 1, 2020

Fascinating In Florence On The Untold Italy Podcast!

Florence is one of the most well known and well loved cities in the world. Famed for being the home of Italian Renaissance art, adored for its picturesque medieval historic center, coveted for its mastery of Italian leatherwork.

Florence is also a city that in the last few years has suffered from massive tourist overcrowding. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the busloads of tourists, unless of course you know where to go to avoid them. I’ll give you a heads up – there is an entirely different experience awaiting you just a few meters away from the crowds!

During my years of leading private tours through Florence I’ve learned about really amazing places to visit and things to see and do in the renaissance city that are only a stone’s throw away from the crowds yet feel like you’re in a different world.

I was so lucky to be invited onto the Untold Italy podcast to talk about my secret Florence. In the podcast we talk about everything from the Medici to the best places to try artisan gelato, where to go for an aperitivo, churches you had no idea you wanted to see, and some of my best tips for experiencing the real Florence, the Florence you will fall madly in love with.

Check out the podcast episode here.

If like me you are aching for Italy but stuck at home because of the pandemic, Untold Italy has a member site called Untold Italy Insiders where every month you have a cooking lesson with one of Italy’s most famous chefs, a wine class with a sommelier who will make your heart flutter, lessons from private tour guides, live question and answer sessions, and help planning your dream trip for once we can fly the friendly skies again. There is much more available too. You can find out more about Untold Italy Insiders here.

Best Florence Travel Guide Book — *Glam Italia*! 101 Fabulous Things To Do In Florence

If you want more insider secrets to help you explore the magic of Florence and discover roughly 100 incredible things to see and do that the bus tours don’t know about, almost all of which are hiding in plain sight, right under your nose, check out my best selling book Glam Italia! 101 Fabulous Things To Do In Florence. Available world wide on Amazon.

Here are 10 things that you absolutely MUST do when you are in Florence:

1. Go For An Early Walk.

2. Eat Cinghiale

3. Visit Santa Croce Church

4. Get Up High

5. Take Long Walks At Night.

6. Look Up

7. Take A Tour Of Somewhere Special

8. Eat The Best Sandwich Of Your Life

9. Explore Oltrarno

Related Post: How To Order Coffee In Italy

10. Buy Leather

Bonus

Eat Panforte

Secret Florence

You may also enjoy:

What Is Sustainable Travel?

10 Ways You Can Become A Sustainable Traveler

1. DON’T Book A Cruise!

2. Be Aware Of The Trash You Create

3. Avoid Major Chains

4. Book Direct

5. Choose Less Traveled Locations.

6. Get Off The Beaten Path

7. Support Local Artisans

8. Check Your Sunscreen

9. Travel By Train

10. Choose Your Animal Experiences Carefully

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