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When a true Florentine wakes up, he just thinks about one thing: coffee and breakfast. For those who love sweets, the best place to have a typical Florentine breakfast is at Giorgio, a patisserie in Soffiano, Florence. There a “pasta con crema chantilly”, a typical pastry filled with this delicious cream, combined with a cappuccino is a must.
It’s quite far away from the city centre: about 25 minutes by bus, but it’s worth the trouble!
From Piazza San Marco, it is enough to take the bus line 6, get off at “Di Scandicci” bus stop and walk for about 200 meters.
The bus ticket costs €1.20 in a Tabacchi, €1.50 on mobile phone and €2.00 on board. It’s 90 minutes valid.
Once had a breakfast, maybe while reading a newspaper, the True Florentine on holidays goes in the city centre to meet his friends or to make a tour.
If he needs to buy some food he goes to the Mercato Centrale, which is a market located in Piazza del Mercato, in the old centre. There you can find fresh fish, meet and vegetables and fruit as well.
Another typical market where you can get the groceries is Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio, which is a bit smaller but there are high quality brands of food.
It’s located in the city centre in Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti.
If the True Florentine doesn’t need to buy some food, maybe he would like to do some shopping.
If you are looking for something really elegant or sophisticated and money are not a problem you can go in Via Tornabuoni, in the centre, where you can find the most famous Italian and foreign high fashion brands, like Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Burberry etc.
Otherwise you can find some cheaper local shops scattered around the whole city centre. I can mention a famous shop called Sandro P, in Via Tosinghi 7R, near Piazza Duomo, where you can find both casual and elegant clothes. Even if the price is lower than the famous international brands, the quality is very good: it’s Sandro the one who sew and create the clothes.
Now it’s late and the True Florentine is hungry: he wants to have lunch.
He hasn’t been in the Oltrarno yet, so it could be a great chance to go on the other side of the Arno, the river that divides Florence in two parts. Oltrarno means beyond the Arno and it’s located in the south side of the city.
It is part of the old centre and it’s famous for the typical Italian restaurants called Trattoria. A famous one is “Il Guscio”, where the customers are Italian people and tourists from all over the world as well.
The address is Via dell’Orto 19, San Frediano (the name of the quarter)
The menu offers a typical Italian homemade meal, so you won’t find any pizza there. For lunch the prices are very good, while it is quite expensive for dinner.
To check some reviews visit TripAdvisor.
After lunch it’s time to digest, so the True Florentine may want to stroll around his beautiful city. He starts from San Frediano, he walks straight until Piazza del Carmine where there is an old church open to public. Then he goes on and ends up in Ponte Vecchio, where the oldest and most famous jewelleries of Florence are located. He crosses the bridge and he’s in the city centre again. He crosses Piazza della Repubblica and turns left, to reach Piazza Duomo. If he keeps walking he can arrive in about 15 minutes to another nice quarter near the centre. It’s called Le Cure. It is very quiet and it offers a nice park called Area Pettini where you can find either young guys playing football or adults who wants to relax reading a book or a newspaper.
At 6 o’clock it’s time to eat a good ice cream! Fortunately there is Badiani, the oldest ice-cream parlour in Florence. It’s located in Viale dei Mille. Its typical flavour is “Buontalenti”.
Now it’s time to go home, take a nap and get ready to go out!
For those who love happy hours, in summer the Easyliving kiosk is the best place to go. It’s on the river side, in Piazza Poggi.
It’s a nice place to have dinner as well and spend there the whole night: it offers music, drinks and sometimes cool events for all ages.
If it’s winter you can taste a very good pizza near Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio, in a restaurant called “A Casa mia”, which is very cheap. Another good Pizzeria is Pizza Man, in Via dell’Agnolo 105, near Piazza Santa Croce.
