

Florence, Italy Map
To insure that you see as much as possible in the time that you have available, it would be a good idea to have a detailed account of what Florence is all about. There are online sites where you can get advance tickets for entry into various museums, which will allow you to bypass the line of people waiting in line to buy tickets.
Click here to visit the Florence Wikipedia Page.

Ponte Santa Trinita
This is the view of several bridges that cross the Arno River from as we crossed the Ponte alla Carraia. The
first bridge is the Ponte Santa Trinita and the second is the Ponte Vecchio. The City of Florence is
on the left, and the condo we were renting is up the hill to the right.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the most populous city in
Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area. Because
the city center is "pedestrian only", we would typically walk from our condo to the city, crossing
over whichever bridge that would bring us close to our destination.
We picked up our rental car here, as Florence was going to be our "home base" for a series of
day trips in & around this area. We were fortunate to have a condo rental that provided for
vehicle parking, it is not the "norm" and it is seriously difficult to find a parking spot in
Florence.

Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge")
This is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. It was first constructed in 966AD, but has been destroyed during some of the incredible River Arno floods dating back as far as 1345AD.

Vasari Corridor from Palazzo Vecchio to the Uffizi Gallery
The
Uffizi Gallery is a
prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the
Historic Centre of Florence. One of the most important Italian
museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds
a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
The Vasari Corridor is a kilometer long passageway that connects the Uffizi Gallery to the
Pitti Palace. Today,
the corridor still connects the two buildings but it is set up as a small museum separate from the famous Uffizi Gallery.
NOTE: Do not wait until you arrive in Florence to obtain tickets to enter the Uffizi Museum, get your
tickets online (prior to your trip) or you will be standing in line for a while. The Museum limits the number of people inside
and so the entrance line grows quickly. Do a Google search for "Uffizi Tickets",
here is one place.
Uffizi Museum
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Warning: Do not expect to walk up to this museum and get in, this is a very popular museum and it is always busy with a lengthy waiting line to purchase tickets. We got our tickets online before we arrived in Florence and were then able to just walk up (at our assigned time) and enter without standing in line.

Piazza Santa Croce
East of Piazza della Signoria and not far from the banks of the Arno, Piazza Santa Croce is one of the largest squares in Florence. It is located near the National Central Library, and takes its name from the Basilica of Santa Croce that overlooks the square.

Florence Cathedral
Formally known as the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
in English "Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower"), it is the cathedral of
Florence, Italy (Italian: Duomo di Firenze).
It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was
structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
The dome that covers the Florence cathedral is known as the Filippo Brunelleschi’s dome and when
it was designed, it was the largest dome in the world.
Click here to read more about this
huge dome and the problems they went through to construct it. Remember that the Dome construction
began in 1420 and they obviously did not have anything but intellect, pens and paper to design and
build it.

Statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici
Statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici who became head of the Florentine
Republic in 1537 at the the tender age of seventeen and
conquered his way to being named the Grand Duke of Tuscany in
1569.
Click here to read more about this fascinating
person and the impact he had on Italy.

View of Florence from our Condo
This is a view of Florence from the condo we rented. As you can see, the condo is in a hilly area south of the River Arno. This is looking north, and the mountains in the distance are the Appennine Mountains and the Campigna National Park. We drove through those mountains when we drove to Maranello (see the Ferrari Factory section on the trip page).

Hiking up to a local Restaurant
Another view of Florence as Celeste and I hiked up the hill from our condo rental
to a local restaurant. The condo was across the street from The Boboli Gardens, and the
street ("Viale della Meridiana") we were walking on rises up from the Porta Romana and ends near the Forti di Belvedere.
As we walked up the hill, we passed by the Fontana dell'Oceano in the Boboli Gardens and then the Pitti Palace on the left
side of the street. We didn't realize until later, that we could have walked through the Boboli Gardens, as their main
path would have brought us to almost the same destination.

Map Usage
This map was so useful & so necessary, as the Florence streets would often have
roundabouts, and were super narrow! We drove through roundabouts that would have six and
sometimes eight roads that entered the circle. Talk about difficulties in figuring out
right-of-way ! We finally came up with the strategy of "we have good rental car insurance, so we are just going to
push our way into the round-a-bout". If we waited and assumed that someone would let us in, we would wind up waiting
a long, long time.
Florence is "pedestrian friendly" because the historic city center is closed to traffic
except for residents, taxis and buses. Great news for walkers and cyclists, not so great for drivers.


Our Florence Condo
This was the condo we rented in Florence, within walking distance of the Arno River and a mile from Fort Belvedere. Since it was on the south side of the river, we did not get all the tourist traffic from the city, there were only "locals" up here. Immediately below the condo on the Via Romana, was an excellent Espresso Shop that we frequented each morning.
We had our own deck area in the rear, where the washing machine was located. Parking could be a challenge, but it was easy to pickup on the ebb and flow of people looking for parking spaces. Since no one came here except for people that lived here, it wasn't a major challenge to find a parking spot.
The concept of staying in a central place and day-tripping from there, worked so well for us, that we have continued to follow this method on subsequent trips to Europe.
The 2007 Italy Trip Overview & Guide We started in started in Rome, took a train to Florence where we rented a car to see more of central Italy, then took a train to Venice. Click here to read more.
Rome, Italy Rome was our first stop on this trip, and it is a historic and fascinating to explore, click here to read more.
Florence, Italy We took a train to Florence from Rome and then explored Florence, Sienna, Livorno, Pisa and Maranello & the Ferrari facilities there. Click here to read more.
Venice, Italy Turned in the rental car in Florence and took the train to Venice. Click here to read more.
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Note: If you are interested in our European Tips & Warnings, Click here. Or to take a look at our methods for Trip Planning click here.
