24 Hours in Florence
Obviously twenty-four hours in Florence is not enough, but it is just enough to catch some art, see the famous naked man, and enjoy a Florentine steak with a 26-year-old bottle of red!! 
** And don’t forget those ancient wine windows! Found a few and one that was actually in operation! **
An ancient Florentine tradition: Buchette del vino, or wine windows, are a peculiar feature of Florence. They are little windows with inscriptions on the walls of some local nobles’ palaces. They have been used for hundreds of years to sell wine in a fiasco (glass bottle) without having to open a shop and avoid paying taxes. These wine windows also posed a useful anti-contagion way to sell wine during the epidemic of 1630-1633. And more recently, during the days of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. When restaurants, bars, and gelateria began reusing these ancient buchette del vino to sell their products, just like 400 years ago.
Galleria dell’Accademia: the art museum best known for Michelangelo’s sculpture “David,” but is also home to other sculptures and collections of paintings by other Florentine artists, mostly from the period 1300-1600.
Il Latini: One of the best local restaurants with an amazing experience! (They even had a wine window in the front!) This place was so cozy, complete with cured hams hanging from the ceiling and an amazing waitstaff. The waiter would even talk to me in Italian and then English for Steve. This was the absolute perfect place for our first Florentine steak experience, and Florentine experience in general. We got so much more than we bargained for!!
Basilicata of Santa Croce: Santa Croce is home to almost 4,000 works of art ranging from the 13th to the 20th centuries, and it houses the tombs of the great and the good.
The Renaissance was a period that exalted man’s ability to forge his own destiny and it was the moment when Santa Crcoe, an important focal point for the community, witnessed the erection of the monumental tombs of two Chancellors of the Republic, Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppini, in celebration of their civic virtues, extolling them as models of inspiration for every Florentine…
This ideal also influenced the later monumental tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo, Alfieri, Foscolo and Rossini and the monuments to Alberti, Dante and Florence Nightingale (to mention only a few). Santa Croce is thus a “lieu de mémoire” that transcends purely local interest because these figures can be a source of inspiration for anyone and everyone. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “When I walk in Piazza Santa Croce, I feel as though it isn’t a Florentine or a European church but a church built by and for the human race as a whole”.
https://www.santacroceopera.it/en/themed-tours/santa-croce-masterpieces/
Lindsay View All →
Our roots will forever be from here, America, born and raised. Yet, life requires us to move more frequently than we care to count. Whether living stateside or abroad, you can always find us traveling somewhere. We scout out places that you only think you can dream of one day seeing and we seek out those that aren’t found in guidebooks. We then bring them to life here in our travel memos, so hopefully, one day you too can visit them or at least be able to live vicariously through us. This blog isn’t just about crossing off places from a bucket list. It’s about absorbing and learning how other cultures grow and fit into the same world that we do. Life is short and the world is big. Enjoy and get out there!
American Roots. Traveling Boots. 