Thursday, March 28, 2024
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City Districts

A description of the main Florence districts…

Breakfast: Volume Piazza Santo Spirito, 5/red, 50125 Firenze; Tel: 055 238 1460I have a hunch that just walking into Volume makes you instantly cooler. The busy bar is filled with students, young people, regulars that have been...
My two weeks in Florence is nearly over and I didn’t think there would be anything left to enjoy; that was until I found myself at the Piazza della Repubblica!Piazza della Repubblica is a fantastic...
Old Bridge Firenze Italia
The Ponte Vecchio is a lovely, but extremely touristic, bridge in Florence, Italy. We'll make sure you don't get caught in its traps and end up spending way more than you need to for much...
Marco (the founder of studentsVille and native Florentine), and I (project manager and American living in Florence) put together a list of the best of the best of Piazza Signoria - everything you need to...
At the heart of this district lies the magnificent Piazza Santissima Annunziata, a beautiful space dominated by the presence of the elegant SS.Annunziata Church. This church originally stood outside the second circle of city walls. Between 1444 and 1481 Michelozzo, Pagno Portinari and Antonio Manetti (with suggestions from the architect Alberti) remodelled it into its present form.The facade has a portico that rests on Corinthian columns and the central portal leads to the Chiostrino dei Voti (1447), a scenic space with lunettes frescoed by Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, and Andrea del Sarto (1511-1513). Also to be admired is Volterrano's magnificent coffered ceiling (1664)... What we're saying is, if you live in this district you can't miss a visit to this church (come on, we're not asking you to go to Sunday morning mass!...)
San Lorenzo, for the Florentines is synonymous with 'market'. The biggest open market of the city is, in fact, located here. In the colourful and noisy San Lorenzo market it's possible to find a wide choice of leather jacket and bags, jeans, t-shirts, shoes…everything of reasonably good quality and at reasonable prices.Even if you don't plan to spend hours shopping we suggest that to visit the market all the same, just to enjoy browsing. Naturally, watch out for pickpockets here.
Piazza Santa Croce is an excellent example of a quintessential 'Renaissance square', where perfect and impressive architectural geometry has been designed around the life of the community and its citizens. Here man is not dominated by the church and architecture but is, rather, at the center of the scene. Piazza Santa Croce, almost all year long filled with hundreds of tourists, represents the natural landmark for all the area, either by day or by night. Due to the beauty of the piazza, its monuments and its main streets, Santa Croce is one of the major tourist centers of the town. It's important nevertheless to point out that the district.....
Sant'Ambrogio is definitely one of the most liveable neighborhoods in the city. From this district it's only a ten-minute walk to all the major monuments, squares and museums of the city. And yet, due to its location just outside of the most heavily-touristed areas - it hasn't been overrun by mass tourism.Along the streets of Sant'Ambrogio it's still possible to meet many 'real Florentines' - walking, shopping or simply chatting on the stairs of a church, on a park bench, in a market, or amidst the narrow streets. Almost all of the area's streets are closed to traffic and this makes the district even more attractive for both tourists and residents. One of the most representative monuments of the district is the beautiful synagogue located in Via Farini, built in 1882 by Florence's Jewish community. Also interesting is the simple and harmonious Sant'Ambrogio Church, located in the most lively square and representing the heart of the district.
This is the university district, where the seats of all of the most prestigious faculties of the city's university: fine art, literature, and where all of the university facilities, student residences and student cafeterias are located.For this reason the district is very lively and full of cheap restaurants, good pubs, and very good aperitif bars (where students and tourists can have a dinner at the price of a drink!).
This is the neighborhood of the central railway station, the congressional palace, and the main international expositions and fairs...That's why here you'll find the highest concentration of traffic, tourists, businessmen, immigrants, residents, taxis, tourist buses, fast food and pubs (Fiddler's Elbow, The Chequers, The Dublin, The Joshua Tree, Stregatto, Trip Per Tre, Birreria Centrale) in the entire city center.If you decide to stay here keep in mind that the district is very busy, chaotic and dirtier than the rest the city. However staying here has several advantages:

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