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If I had to summarize our experience of Florence in a single word, it would have to be “OVERWHELMING”. Florence’s City Centre must have the highest concentration of art per square meter in Italy. At every turn you make, you will come across some incredible piece of art. It is truly quite remarkable. To really see the best sights, I would guess that one would need at least 3 to 4 days to be able to enjoy it.

We had a one day field trip, and we were quite aware we had to plan accordingly. So, we sat town with the kids the day before, and we came up with the following plan: Duomo + cupola as we arrived, followed by the Uffizi Museum to close the morning; lunch; Cappelle Medicee + Church of San Lorenzo in the early afternoon; then free time to wonder around the street markets as we walked toward Ponte Vecchio; ending the afternoon on a Specialty Chocolate shop another faculty tipped us about located across the Arno river at the Oltrarno neighborhood. But this is Florence, and the surroundings were so beautiful, we didn’t even do this much.

The school charter buses dropped us at the Ufuzzi around 9:30am, and we were given tickets for the museum with an 11:00am entry time. So far so good…With an hour and a half to kill, we decided to head to the Duomo, as planned. However, we never got further then Piazza della Signoria. As you walk toward the piazza from the Ufizzi, you are greeted by a huge statue of “Hercules and Cacus” by Bandinelli (1533), and as you walk around it for a better view, you are then greeted by a full size replica of Michelangelo’s statue of David, soaring 17ft high – the original one is now displayed at the Academia. You take a step back, look around, and you realize that you now have the Pallazzo Vecchio (Florence’s political heart-beat) as the background, the Neptune Fountain by Ammannati (1575) to your left, and the amazing Loggia dei Lanzi (1382) to your right. And that’s when you start to feel overwhelmed. The Loggia alone displays the famous Cellinin’s statue of Perseus (1554) holding Medusa’s head (our favorite in the piazza), the equally famous The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna (1583), plus several other ancient roman statues. Needless to say, instead of rushing, we took our time at the piazza, and “rescheduled” the Duomo visit.

The Uffizi Museum is, rightly so, one of Florence’s main sights, and I was glad it was part of the field trip’s program. However, it is also quite large, and with two kids and a tight schedule, we were forced to stick to the main displays: Caravaggio, Vasari, Pierro della Francesca, Botticelli, Titian, Rafael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci – I must mention that Chloe especially liked Botticelli’s “Primavera” (1480) painting, while Lorenzo preferred the “Medusa” painting on a shield by Caravaggio; and they both enjoyed a roman statue of a “Boy Removing a Thorn from his Foot”. Time well spent.

Since the lines for the Duomo were still pretty long, we headed for the Cappelle Medicee, by the Church of San Lorenzo, the parish church for the Medicci Family. Now, we have talked to Lorenzo about the Medicci Family since he was a little boy — first to let him know how we came up with his name, and more recently about how the Medicci family was a major influence and sponsor of the arts in Florence. Needless to say, he got all excited to see that Michelangelo had designed the Cappelle and created the statue decorating the tombs of Lorenzo Il Magnifico’s family. We also spent some time admiring the Cappella dei Principi, the main dome of the Church of San Lorenzo. Unfortunately the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, adjacent to the church, was closed. So we weren’t able to see the famous staircase also designed by Michelangelo.

After San Lorenzo, we had a wonderful lunch at a slice of air-conditioned heaven: mixed salad, pizza, picci, and a fantastic house chianti. (The chianti was so good, we brought some back to Cortona). After lunch, we walked around the open market, bought a few gifts, and headed toward the Duomo.

We have learned by now that the lines are much smaller in the afternoon than they are in the morning, and we were able to get into the Duomo rather quickly. (Although it would have been worth the morning wait.) It is another one of those places one must see and experience, and that I simply cannot describe on a post. It is massive, with extremely intricate marble inlaid floors, huge frescos by Vasari and a beautiful sanctuary. We truly enjoyed it.

We finished the day by climbing the 463 steps leading to the top of the Duomo, which is still the tallest building in Florence. It was a bit crowed at the top, but the vistas of the city were incredible. We took our time at the top. In fact, we almost missed our bus ride.

Florence is indeed a special place, and it is famous by merit. We really enjoyed our day, but as you can see, we barely scratched the surface of what it is still there to be seen: the Academia, the Ponte Vechio, the Church of Santa Croce, the Baptistry, Palazzo Pitti, etc, etc, etc, and of course, the specialty chocolate shop. They will all have to wait – hopefully not too long.