Everywhere in Florence you can meet famous museums, ancient churches and wonderful bridges. All the most renowned attractions are within walking distance.
But our city has lots of treasures hidden behind thick walls, inside museums that are less known but not less fascinating than the others.

We have to admit that unfortunately, Florence is usually seen as a long series of clichés: going walking along the river towards Ponte Vecchio, the candlelit dinner at Piazzale Michelangelo and the visit to the house of Beatrice, the woman that inspired all the artworks of Dante.

Sure, all this stuff is beautiful and interesting, but as a local, I feel like I have to give some advices to all our guests, in order to discover that our city is so much more than this. It is full of extraordinary and off-the-map places.

For example, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (the Factory of the Semi-Precious stones), proud watchdog of semi-precious stones since the Medici Family ruled Florence.

A life long tradition

If you are visiting Florence with your partner, the Opificio is a not to be missed attraction. Especially if – just like me and many other Florentines – you are fond of unique and little known places.

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure is a purely Florentine excellence, because it was funded by one of the Signori of Florence: the Granduca Ferdinando I de’ Medici in 1588 subsidized the foundation of a lab specialized in the art of inlaid semi-precious stones.   

At the factory, expert artisans invented the complex technique of the “commesso fiorentino”, a kind of perfect puzzle made of a combination of inlaid pieces of marble and semi-precious stones. They were able to create astonishing figures, humans, sceneries with clear profiles and hues. A particular effect very close to painting.

A present and past art hero

For over than 3 centuries, the prestigious factory formed artisans that created true artworks to adorn the villas and residences of noblemen in Florence and all around the world.
Later on, the factory became an important restoration laboratory for top-notch works of art.

Today the people that work here are the best you can find and the Opificio is the most important restoration institute in the world: the restorers worked on the Cross of Giotto, the Pala di San Zeno of Mantegna, Alchemy by Jackson Pollock and La Visitazione of Luca della Robbia.

Young restorers and students from all around the world try to spend some months at the Opificio to learn the best techniques of this art.

An exhibition about the Twentieth Century

If you are staying in Florence these days, I recommend you to spend some time at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and its Museum. On display, there are the Medici Collections, the tools and instruments to make the commesso fiorentino and the exhibition The Twentieth Century of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

Until the 4th of May, 2019 you can have a look at the recent history of the factory, especially the artworks made with commesso fiorentino technique during a competition of 1953.
As a fond of arts Florentine, I was really moved by this exhibit and I ended up falling in love with the inlaid stones I could see.
Falling in love is definitely the right word to describe this world, a strong feeling that you can perceive all around you in this place.

A magic and unique place, perfect to be visited by couples, even better if you are coming on Valentine’s Day.

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There are so many things to do and attractions to see in Florence that you are spoiled for choice!

Among the historic buildings and the ancient Medici palaces, the most famous museums and cathedrals, not to mention the alleys of the historic center and the Lungarno full of sun.

The exclusive shopping is waiting for you in the boutiques of Via de 'Tornabuoni and Piazza Strozzi, for an espresso with a touch of elegance, the historic cafés of Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza della Signoria are the best choices.

However, if you visit the city with the eyes of a Florentine, you will soon recognize green treasures of unexpected beauty next to mighty walls and Renaissance coats of arms. The monumental gardens of Florence are precious gems, mosaics of nature to explore with slowness and wide-open eyes.

The most famous garden: Boboli

Everyone coming to visit Florence has certainly heard once about the Boboli Gardens... it would be strange otherwise! Due its central position, within the museum complex of Palazzo Pitti but accessible from other points in the city, and the sculptural masterpieces housed inside, our most noble garden is probably the best-known one. Precisely thanks to its lucky position, Boboli is ideal for tourists taking a break in nature while working their way between one museum and another.

Florentines love it the same way, or even more: I personally like to take an hour or two a week, in the spring, to stroll among gushing fountains and stone allegories. The Medici family created the Boboli Gardens in 4 centuries of constant work and I thank them every time for such a gift.

Immerse yourself in this open-air museum with curiosities and you will be amazed by the Fountain of the Ocean by Giambologna, Buontalenti’s Grotto and the eighteenth century Kaffehaus.

Embrace the city at the Bardini Garden

Not far from Boboli, there is another garden worthy of a visit (but also more than one!): the park of Villa Bardini. Inside, you will feel in a small eighteenth-century court, surrounded by English gardens, neat flowerbeds and refined statues. Intense spots of color and very sweet fragrances come from blooming wisteria.

But what I appreciate most here is definitely the view: with its terracing, the garden ensures an overall view of the city center. In a single glance, your eyes embrace Brunelleschi's Dome, the noble profile of Palazzo Vecchio, the frenetic riversides and the solemn Church of Santa Croce.

The most romantic gardens: Iris and Rose

If you are traveling in couple, you can’t beat a stroll in the Rose Garden, in my opinion. The atmosphere is impalpable and magic, due to the gentle slope of Piazzale Michelangelo, the terrace overlooking the city and the sweetest scents in the air. From May to July, in fact, the fragrances of more than 350 species of roses bloom, giving all their essence. Treat yourself to a very romantic walk, among enchanted petals and the sculptures by Jean-Michel Folon. You will not regret it!

The Iris Garden too is entirely dedicated to a flower, the lily, symbol of our city. The flowering season of this flower is brief, so the park is open less than a month a year, from 25 April to 20 May.

At other times of the year, it can only be visited by appointment. If you stay in Florence in springtime, I really recommend you to take some time to breathe deeply the indescribable fragrances of this garden.

The green outside the city center: the Cascine

The Cascine garden is a bit far from the center, but you can easily reach it by public transport and is definitely worth the trip. Vast and well kept, it was designed by the Medici and it has long been the main park of the noble Florentine family.

Nowadays families, couples and lovers of running and cycling come here, especially during weekends. Looking for a little escape from the city, the Cascine Park is one of my favorite spots. This is the largest Florentine public park, 130 hectares of leafy trees and green meadows where you can run or lie in the sun.

Stroll through the internal avenues, admire the ducks and herons on the Arno riverside or treat yourself to a sandwich on the grass. Breathe deeply.

September in Florence means many things: we come back from summer holidays (in Italy we traditionally leave in August), schools and university courses start again, the city begins to change colors and purifies itself from the heat. Tourists and Florentine families appreciate this month to discover the attractions making us famous in the world.

I personally love September and the sparkling air blowing in the streets, I think it’s the perfect time to walk around in the historic city center. And to fall in love every time with a different, hidden corner. Or a museum far from the bustle, nestled in the urban landscape, almost invisible to cursory glances.

Our city hides many gems of art, collections of unexpected beauty to admire without haste. Today, come with me in the alternative Florence museums, ideal to visit in September.

The Stibbert Museum and its weapons

On top of a gentle hill away from the center of Florence, a refined villa became a museum thanks to the generosity of an intellectual, Frederick Stibbert. Son of an English soldier and a Tuscan woman, he was born in Florence but was educated in England. He came back here in his early twenties and decided to reside in a villa, built by great Florentine artists.

The Stibbert Museum, a city property at the death of the owner, today collects fifty thousand objects, the result of Stibbert's two greatest passions, travel and collecting. The most fascinating section is the one dedicated to the armory: if you love armors and fights you will have pleasant surprises. White weapons and firearms are set next to each other in the European and Islamic armories of the museum. Costumes, porcelains and refined paintings complete the exhibition tour, in itineraries immersed in History and Beauty.

Leaving the museum, take a stroll in the Stibbert garden, designed as a nineteenth-century English garden, with small temples and neoclassical architectures, caves and fountains. Have fun catching the unusual and characteristic details ... there are plenty of them.

An art gallery inside the blue: the Bardini Museum

Like the Stibbert Museum, the Bardini Museum owes its origin to the passion of an Italian collector. Stefano Bardini, a passionate of arts and a painter, soon discovered his real vocation: trading ancient objects and artifacts.

If you love Greek and Roman civilizations and you are fascinated by non-traditional spaces, this museum should stand on top of things to see in Florence.

The building is located in San Niccolò district, in the Oltrarno area, but it isn’t don't easy to find: if there were no signs, you would have some problems to identify it. The palace itself boasts a fascinating history, it was built in 1237 as a church and convent to celebrate the peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. In 1775 it was converted into the Palazzo dè Mozzi, then acquired by Bardini.

The collector gathered here ancient objects, artifacts, sculptures and paintings, all set in an ideal scene: the intense blue walls bring out the whiteness of the marble, items from different times and styles combine with unnatural but perfect harmony.

Do not expect a canonical museum: take your time to recognize aesthetic languages ​​and guess the chronology of the works. It will be a new and pleasant experience, I promise you.

Even here ... leave yourself some time at the end of the visit! Stroll around the Bardini Garden, one of the most evocative and well-kept in Florence. The city view is extraordinary.

The Horne Museum, a house-museum

In Via de ’Benci, very close to the lively Piazza Santa Croce, lies a residence, vestal of the Florentine Renaissance. The Horne Museum is the precious legacy of Herbert Percy Horne, London architect and intellectual who chose Florence as his home in 1911. The building he purchased was restored taking inspiration from a noble Renaissance residence.

At his death, the furnishing of the rooms was completed, according to Horne's desires. The current collection contains paintings, sculptures, ceramics, goldsmith's and everyday objects, furniture and fabrics. The entire heritage dates back to the period between 1300 and 1500.

Visiting this museum is a special experience: you are in a house, an environment embodying the memory of repeated gestures, an intimate routine, a rarefied atmosphere. But at the same time, you walk slowly in different eras, among artifacts of incredible charm. A journey into the Florentine Renaissance, with a British touch… irresistible!

Natural History, the family-sized museum

The Museum of Natural History of Florence is one of the oldest in the world: most of its collections are due to the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. He sponsored the sciences and the Specola Museum, whose collection of fossils was the first nucleus of the current Museum of Natural History. The other "father" of the museum was Filippo Nesti, a Florentine scholar who gave a complete overview of fossil vertebrates.

The current exhibition is a plunge into the entire Italian paleontological history, an encyclopaedia following evolutionary criteria: from the first micro-organisms of 3.5 billion years ago to the appearance of mammals. I like to come back here from time to time, I believe that the passing of the ages and the changes of our planet - and of living species - is a warning to keep in mind, because the journey up to now has been complicated and millennial.

This museum is particularly suitable for families with children, who remain captivated by fossils and rocks never seen before. If you travel with the little ones, take half a day to slowly enjoy a museum interesting for all ages but especially for them, usually intolerant of "traditional" museums.

Winter is about to give way to spring, which is now upon us. With the arrival of summer, the air becomes lighter, longer days and more relaxed faces, while flowers begin to bloom and dress in the best clothes that nature offers them. A real sight and smell, delighted by pleasant and seductive perfumes. Florence in spring offers a postcard show, thanks to incredible works of art to be admired in all their splendor on lovely spring days.

The favorite destination of the season is the Officina del Profumo di Santa Maria Novella, which in spring shows itself in all its splendor, thanks to the seasonal products that ensure a riot of delicious fragrances on the nose of each person.

Officina del Porfumo of Santa Maria Novella, a bit of history

Also known as "Pharmacy" and "Antica Spezieria", the Officina del Profumo is located in via della Scala 16, in a portion of the convent of Santa Maria Novella. It is considered the oldest pharmacy in Europe, given its period of uninterrupted activity that has lasted for over four centuries. Its longevity also ranks it among the oldest shops of all time in the world, which is why a stamp celebrating its historicity has been dedicated to it. Already in 1831 we find traces of its existence: in fact, the sale of disinfectant rose water, especially in times of epidemics, by the Dominican friars of Santa Maria Novella, the first owners of the building, is documented. The modern structure dates back to 1612, when the friars also carried out the spice business. In 1866 it became property of the municipality of Florence, before being rented by Cesare Augusto Stefani, whose heirs still manage the business today.

At the heart of perfumes

No longer a pharmacy, today the Officina del Profumo is a perfumery and herbalist's shop, where you can appreciate a rich variety of perfumes. The environment is made suggestive by the considerable amount of decorations and sumptuous furnishings, made in different periods and by the collection of scientific material such as thermometers, mortars, scales, measuring spoons etc., which strongly nourish its charm. The Sales Hall, originally one of the chapels that made up the convent, is a gift that the wealthy florentine Acciaioli family made to the community of Dominican friars of the time. The frescoes found on the cross vault were made by Paolino Sarti and represent the four continents, which are called to represent, in a metaphorical key, the world fame of the Pharmacy and its products. To the right of the Sales Room you enter the Green Room, once used for the reception of special guests, who were served some specialties of the pharmacy, such as Alkermes, China or chocolate, a drink that was then very fashionable. The Antica Spezieria room, once reserved for sale, now houses large quantities of rare and fragrant spices. The vaulted ceiling, built in the eighteenth century, has a rich decoration consisting of fantastic animals, sphinxes, dragons and golden eagles. The Sacristy and ancient production laboratories now used as a museum complete the picture of a unique structure of its kind, where it is possible to experience the explosion of the scent of flowers in spring in an amplified way, thanks to a rich selection that will satisfy all tastes.

Easter in Florence, where to spend it

Sunday 19 April is the day on which Easter is celebrated this year. Florence is undoubtedly a splendid setting where to live the Easter holiday and Easter Monday, thanks to the wonderful works of art of the city, depositories of timeless charm and beauty. The appointment with which the celebration of Easter kicks off is the well-known burst of the wagon, which takes place every Easter Sunday, at around 10 am. Born more than 300 years ago, this tradition sees the so-called "Brindellone" as its absolute protagonist, a 9-meter-high wagon that is pulled by oxen from its warehouse, located in Via Il Prato, to Piazza Duomo. Here, during the mass, around 11, the Archbishop of Florence lights the "Colombina", or a rocket in the shape of a dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit) that reaches the "Brindellone" to set it on fire, thus triggering the fireworks uprights on it. According to tradition, if the "Colombina" returns to the altar, it will be a good omen for a positive and lucky year. The spectacle of the fire of the wagon leaves tourists and Florentines open-mouthed every year, who always respond in large numbers to the rite of the Easter celebration.

MIDA, the International Craft Exhibition of Florence

From the 25th of April to the 1st of May the 84th International Craft Show in Florence will be staged at the Fortezza da Basso, which welcomes many visitors every year. Artisans and artisan enterprises will exhibit their works, imbued with a sense of variety, richness and quality that will well illustrate the dynamics of a sector that is both hereditary and innovative. The exhibition hours are from 10:00 to 22:00. The inauguration is scheduled for Friday 24 April from 15:00 to 22:00.