A Florence You’ll Not Find in Guidebooks, Florence, Italy (B)

I must confess: my story with Florence was an inconditional love at first sight -and I still feel the same way-, so I probably cannot be unbiased when talking about it.Florence doesn’t need to flaunt about its architecture or artistic richness. Florence just “is”.

It is the everlasting imprint of the Medici, the omnipresent legacy of Dante, Boccaccio, Michelangelo, and Donatello, and the cradle of the first artistic steps of a young Leonardo da Vinci.It is the very place where the Italian Renaissance -perhaps Europe’s richest cultural period- began, and the home to some of the biggest churches in Italy, from Brunelleschi’s famous Duomo, to San Lorenzo, Santa Maria del Carmine, Santa Maria Novella, or -my favorite- Santa Croce.And it is also the foreseeable scenario where countless number of tourists swarm through the streets attempting to fulfill their almost endless list of historic places to visit. Yes, of course I will recommend you to visit the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio, the Galleria dell’Accademia, and most of the places mentioned in any city guide you have checked. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).