Anyone have any ideas for interesting & unusual things to do in Florence other than normal touristly stuff?

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WISE OWL

Walk up to Piazza Michelangelo at leisure through the Boboli gardens and watch the sunset, or the shooting stars at night.
Go to the major local market and browse. Get up early and see the beavers swimming in the Arno. If you are there for a long time enrol for a language course at the university. Have a coffee on top of the Uffizi and feed your biscotto to the friendly little birds which will eat out of your hand. Go to the Easter day services at the duomo and see the bull cart procession, the stunning flower arrangements and the dove flying out. Chat up a native and get him to take you to a restaurant patronised by the locals rather than the tourists. If you have money, buy a garden bronze from the foundry near Ponte Vecchio. If you are Catholic go to a service a the convent of the Sacred Heart where the singing is glorious. Walk, walk , walk. The view from Fiesole is quite something too. Do not do Florence in one day, linger and enjoy!

agoseta

In May 1845 John Ruskin prolonged his stay in Pisa in order to draw the early 15th -century Palazzo Agostini on the Lungarno, or river bank, of the Tuscan city. "There is nothing like it in Italy that I know of", he said; and, writing to his father, he added: "They have knocked a great hole in the middle to put up a shield with a red lion and a yellow **** upon it for the sign of a consul, and they have knocked another at the bottom to put up a sign of a soldier riding a horse on two legs, with inscription All'Ussero CafÃ©." The sign mentioned by Ruskin was short-lived, since it was thrown into the River Arno the following year by liberal students who could not even stand the sight of that Hussar. It reminded them of Austrian rule over partitioned Italy; but the CafÃ©, one of the oldest in Europe, is still there. It has been there since 1775, as attested by copies of documents, letters, and contracts exhibited on its walls, which mention the presence of a CafÃ© on the ground floor of the late-Gothic brick Palazzo Agostini in the very heart of Pisa, next door to the oldest hotel in town, the Victoria, patronised, among others, by Ruskin and Dickens, and even by British royalty. Several police reports in the local Public Records Office reveal that for over two centuries this historic CafÃ© has been the favourite resort of radical Mazzinian students and of the more open-minded dons from the nearby University, who used to convene there not only to sip a cup of coffee and play billiards, but also to discuss political issues and comment upon gazette reports on revolutionary movements in the Papal States or in the Kingdom of Naples, then under Bourbon rule, and which had been the subject of Shelley's "Ode to Liberty", or his "Sonnet on the Republic of Benevento". Contraband translations of such works of Byron as The Prophecy of Dante or The Lament of Tasso were also circulated and read in the CafÃ©, and they inflamed the minds of students like F.D. Guerrazzi and Giuseppe Montanelli, who were later to play an important political rÃ›le in the Italian Risorgimento. Other students who were to become some of the most renowned nineteenth-century lyric poets and satirists in verse, such as Giuseppe Giusti, Renato Fucini, and GiosuÃ¨ Carducci - the first Italian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1906 - made their first improvvisazioni in the lively atmosphere of the CaffÃ¨ dell'Ussero, as was the case with Antonio Guadagnoli, who, according to Giacomo Leopardi, had made a fool of himself by improvising playful verses on his own long nose in the Accademia dei Lunatici, the literary salon of Madame Mason, formerly Lady Mountcashel, who had played host to Percy and Mary Shelley, and particularly to Claire Clairmont, during their stay in Pisa. By the turn of the century, this literary CafÃ© had been transformed into a CafÃ©-chantant, and then into one of the first cinemas in Tuscany, only to be restored to its original function at the end of the First World War. In the twentieth century the CaffÃ¨ dell'Ussero resumed its literary and artistic vein, and it was attended by artists like Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist Movement, Guglielmo Marconi, Charles Lindberg, opera singer Renata Tebaldi, and scores of Pisa University students, who were later to distinguish themselves in a variety of professions; some of them, such as Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia, were to win the Nobel Prize, while others would become Prime Ministers or Presidents of the Republic.

CaffÃ¨ dellâ€™Ussero - Lungarno Pacinotti, 27 â€“ Pisa (Italy)
http://www.ussero.com
info@ussero.com

It is a monument to Italian culture in the 1400's Palazzo Agostini, on Lungarno. Its walls are covered with glorious memories from its most famous visitors of the Risorgimento when they were students: Carlo Goldoni, Gacomo Casanova, Vittorio Alfieri, Filippo Mazzei, John Ruskin, Domenico Guerrazzi, Giuseppe Giusti, Renato Fucini, GiosuÃ¨ Carducci, Cesare Abba, Giuseppe Montanelli. In 1839, it was seat of the meetings of the first Italian Congress of Scientists.

lynda_is

If you like to cook, or would like to learn, check out a cooking school in the area. Some cooking schools offer one day classes.

BellaRia

If you really want to see the culture of italy drive out of the city into the farm/mountain areas and just find a small town. If you go into a restaurant or store you will see the little italian lady in the kitchen hehe. The little villiages are where you will find true culture!

Pierre D

For something a little different, take the train to Bologna for a day trip and visit the museum of human anatomy at the university. They have pretty freaky stuff preserved in glass jars there - a two-tongued cow head, twin headed baby, other creepy things in a little room off the main viewing area. Plus a whole room full of wax models that look like real human bodies. If you like that sort of stuff then it's worth the visit. Otherwise there's great workshops in Bologna where artisans ply their trade in shopfront windows - pasta making, violin making. It's all very quaint. Also, being a university town, there's stacks of young people and plenty of music, so you're bound to make great friends.

cathie

take the local train out to the surrounding countryside

Orla C

Hubby and I took the number 1 bus out of the station to the village of Fiesole in the mountains, it was very nice. Of course, the weather has to be suitable for this ... get a picnic together and spend the afternoon at the Roman amphitheatre, it's lovely.

And if you're in Florence and looking for a nice, reasonably priced place to eat, go to Gusto Leo, located at the Via del Proconsolo 8-10, in the city centre. They do really nice meals, and the staff are just lovely and friendly. At least they were to us!

pierluisa

Take a bus to Fiesole and walk around in the hills: it's beautiful in Spring...not so much in winter...
Visit the Palazzo Pitti Gallery...many tourists skip it, but I find it's great.
Go to San Miniato and visit the cemetery: very introspective.
Just walk around the city looking for some little trattoria or vinaino where you can still eat truly typical dishes and drink great chianti.

By the way... I'm sorry to say there are no beavers in the Arno river...what our friend Innocent on line saw were huge rats...I remember seeing them swim from one side of Ponte Vecchio to the other....yuck!!!

Gabrio

Go to the forest, called Il Castagno with agroturism...olives, wine, lambs,potery.

Go to the Cinema Festival near Santa Croce church.

Go to Chianti to taste wines or directly to the Antinory House, near Santa Maria Novella , this is really smart, funny & elegant.

Go skiing in the Tuscany mountains.

Go to Fiesole: visit the Franciscan church & etruscan temple.

Go to the horse races: Cascine Park.

Go to the Opera or theatre releases: T.Verdi or Pergola.

SteveT

Are those beavers in the Arno? I thought they were rats!!!

Why not study Italian at one of the many schools? You can have an intensive course in the mornings and have your afternoonns free for whatever you want to do.

Oh, and take a trip to Volterra. It's a really interesting place and not so touristy as San Gimignano etc

Vagabonda

Take a bus out to Vinci. Where Leonado da Vinci came from.. A couple of museums, one with models of his inventions, fascinating. It's a small hill village and surprisingly untouristy. Surrounded by countryside and vineyards so you might coincide with the grape harvest and new wine! Enjoy.
Go south and visit Florence's rival city Siena. Train or bus direct and easy.

MALCOLM D

not to sure how to reply but what we did when we went to italy was get off the main areas and just catcha bus and go someone will always point you in the right direction back to where you came from but believe me you can see and learn so much it is a wonderfully welcoming country and people will go out of their way just to show you all the wonderous things this historical place has just go take your partner and get out and about i promise you will love it im welsh but if i won the lottery then italy and all it has to offer would be my idea of a holiday home it is awsome and its people are brilliant too have great time explore and come home fullfilled you will i promise

jonny Atlantis

you could trap tourists and sell them into the highly lucrative tame tourist trade, they make great pets!

sueet2b

someone asked that very same question a couple of weeks ago and i gave a long long response, (i live here in florence)

check out the link to read the same answer i gave before:

chass_lee

no sorry

markhatter

scare an old lady?

whistle at a monkey?

get stoned

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