Under the Tuscan Sun
In Tuscany, we stayed in Lucca and Florence, and had the pleasure of driving through Arezzo on our way to Marche. We cover each individually below.
Lucca
On the recommendation of a friend, we had intended to do Lucca as a one or two night trip during our Florence stay, but when we had a small booking snafu between Bologna and Florence it meant we had 3 nights to book in between the two cities. So Lucca it was.
Since we were only staying for a few nights, we prioritized location in our accommodations and scored a perfectly located flat in the historic city center.
This mattered in particular for Lucca because the historic city center is situated somewhat uniquely within a massive wall and greenspace encircling it. This made it more separated from the more modern outer part of the city, and all the more charming and unique.
The city center was small, highly walkable and very unique in its layout.
Our favorite part was the ancient 20 ft high wall that has been converted to a walking/running/biking trail that circles the city center. The entire thing was about 4.2km (2.6mi) (we did a loop one day) and offered great views of the surrounding scenery and easy access to the various parts of the city center.
All and all Lucca was a very charming city, well worth the few night stay. Many people do it as a day trip, but we quite enjoyed our nightly strolls through the empty and quiet streets.
Florence/Firenze
Was Florence beautiful, Yes.
Was it worth going to, Yes.
Was it our favorite. Sadly, No.
This more than any other place we visited in Italy seemed to suffer under the crushing weight of overtourism (but we didn’t go to Rome). We found it a bit hard to see the full charm amongst the touristic chaos, and while we thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks here (made possible only by staying well outside the old quarter) it’s hard to see it as anything other than a tourist stop for us.
We stayed one train stop outside of the main city area in an area called Rifredi. The apartment was very nice and nicely located in a neighborhood with grocery stores abound (which was good since we were there for a while and content with cooking using all of the amazing and fresh ingredients at our fingertips).
The train into the main area of Florence was always quick and convenient and made us able to “stand” the chaos in the central city for much longer, since we weren’t in the thick of it. We weren’t even in Florence during a particularly peak travel time, so can only imagine the crowds during peak summer season.
There was certainly a lot to enjoy in Florence, owed to the well developed tourist infrastructure. We definitely enjoyed our time, here are some of the things we recommend:
We spent a lot of time in the plaza around the Florence Duomo which was great for people watching and experiencing the vibe of the city. We also visited the inside of the cathedral which was free but we did not climb to the top of the dome (a paid attraction) because it wasn’t worth the price in our opinion. As we alluded to in our Milan post, we thought the Milan Duomo was a better value option.
We watched the sunset near Piazza Michelangelo. The Piazza was a very popular spot with many vendors, street performers, and tourists, but we found a rose garden just off the Piazza that we had all to ourselves for sunset. We packed a snack and enjoyed some sandwiches and wine while watching the sun set over the city. Simply gorgeous.
We spent multiple days wandering through the city center, visiting all of the architectural marvels and the famous Ponte Vecchio.
We visited the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze which is home to Michelangelo's famous Statue of David. The statue itself was stunning and worth the trip to experience in person, but overall wasn’t our favorite attraction.
We also visited a very small but interactive Da Vinci museum that had working models of many of Da Vinci’s inventions. It was small, but highly interactive and informative and worth the modest entry fee in our opinion.
Some other things you might do if you visit (which were highly recommended but didn’t check out ourselves):
Boboli gardens
Uffizi Gallery
Palazzo Vecchio (inside)
Arezzo
When it was time to set out for our road trip through Marche, Ryan planned a nice detour through Arezzo. We arrived mid morning and spent the afternoon wanderinggg around the historic city center.
While very similar to other historic city centers we have seen, their central square was quite unique due to the very steep slope it had. We treated ourselves to lunch on the square and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was fun watching people traverse the slope and try not to drop anything for fear of it rolling ALL the way down.
We didn’t spend the night in Arezzo but it was wholly worth our small detour to visit for the afternoon.
Overall, the Tuscan sky is pretty famous. It is what everyone knows and talks about, and honestly we can see the difference. The clouds and colors of the sunset just hit differently there and are honestly worth the hype.