There are three or four sights in Florence that have notoriously long lines. The Uffizi (on yesterday’s post) is one, and the Duomo (cathedral) is another. To illustrate how many people are waiting to get into the Duomo, here’s a jog down the length of the line.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
I like to say that there are two IQs of European travelers: Those who wait in lines and those who don’t. Many tourists needlessly wait in lines when there are simple ways to see the sight with no wait. Here in Florence, you can easily avoid lines at the main and most crowded sights in two different ways: Buy the new Florence Card, or call in advance to make an appointment. My camera ran out of memory halfway through this clip; I intended to walk all along the hundred-yard-long line of people wasting time in an avoidable line to enter the Uffizi Gallery. I love the fact that a good percentage of the people entering the museum through the fast lanes (with the card or reservation) have my guidebook…and no one in the long line (with lower travel IQs) has my book.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Florentines love their Chianina beef. Joined by local friend Tommaso, our film crew shot and devoured a great steak dinner in a great steakhouse.
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I struggle to appreciate the beloved Italian firewater called grappa. Finishing dinner at Rome’s Ristorante da Fortunato with a glass, my friend Stefano (who runs Hotel Oceania) explains that his greatest joy is grappa ‘ specifically, a chilled grappa with a Tuscan cigar on his sailboat halfway to Corsica.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Bernini’s Apollo Chasing Daphne (in Rome’s Borghese Gallery) is my favorite statue in the history of European art. View the video below, and hopefully you’ll see why.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.