Nathan in Florence

I am Nathan and seven years old.  This is a blog about my adventures in Florence, which is one of my favorite cities.

First

A nice first thing to do when you are in Florence is to go up to the Duomo — which is the most beautiful place in all of Florence.  It has the second biggest dome in the world.  The biggest is in Rome and is at St. Peter’s.

The Duomo itself is the largest interior space in the world.  A joke that somebody said about building the dome of the Duomo — because you see no one knew before how to put such a large dome on — well, someone said : “what if we fill the Duomo with dirt, and then we put the dome on top ?”  The others then asked : “how shall we then get the dirt out ?” And the first one said : “we’ll put gold coins inside of the earth.”  And the other said : “how will that work ?  We will just lose money.”  And the first one said : “everyone will go and dig out all the money, and of course then also the dirt.”  They of course did not actually do this.  Anyway, where do you think they would possibly get all that dirt ?

What to do if you want ice cream and you are in Florence

It is rather hard to find ice cream that is good in Florence.  Or you buy huge monster ice creams that burst out of their containers and that are all sorts of hideous colors or you buy Ben and Jerry’s which is an American ice cream company that has just opened in Florence and I do not recommend one little bit or what I recommend — the only thing to do —  you can get good ice cream from Perchè no!.

Museums

As for museums I recommend the Museum of the Florentine House, that is quite nice, with all sorts of bedrooms and chamber pots and trap doors and a pulley system for water that goes from the very very top (five big stories high) all the way down to the well.  They have nice big rooms with painted parrots all over the places and little corner rooms that are simple little bathrooms.   You must be here in the morning if you want to see the very top floor which is where the kitchen is.  I won’t tell you much about the kitchen because it must be a surprise. The Museo del Opera del Duomo is a fantastic place  I like it for all its statues and tiny mosaics.  On the second floor they have two sculpted choir lofts of singing children.  One of them has children in perfect order, no one running or making any chaos.  Opposite there is chaos everywhere, everyone running, some instruments being broken.  The second seems like it has glitter on pieces of the marble, but the first doesn’t.   Which do you like more ?  Please tell me.

Restaurants

Good restaurants are a little bit easier to find than good ice cream.  Slow Food is of course what you are looking for I hope.  One restaurant that is very good is Acquacotta.  At Christmas time there is a little Christmas tree that the owners are always decorating.  There is a nice little girl who does the decorating and she has a very nice mother who is the waitress and owner and she is always going into the kitchen and coming to your table to see if all is right.  It is a very peaceful restaurant. The tastes and the smells were superb and I wanted to stay and stay.

Trattoria Cibreo is another fantastic place.

It has just one room, and everyone is there, with very nice waiters that are always making up jokes.  Bring a toy with you and show it to the waiters, especially Fabio (below)  — you will see why.

It is snug and warm, with homemade desserts, and they will bring you surprises to eat.  I said that I didn’t want a primo but they just knew that really I would like something small so a tiny delicious thing appeared not on the menu, and in fact it was just what I wanted.

Francesca

Francesca is our guide for Florence.  She is a very very nice guide. I think that she might be the best in all of Florence. She is very pretty and she’s got a very nice husband who’s named Roberto. After you’ve had a tour with her you can go with her to have an ice cream at Perchè no! She is funny and nice and full of real stories that make Florence interesting.

The day before you leave

A nice thing to do the day before you leave is to go to Pasticceria 2000. Pasticcieria  2000 has all sorts of fantastic biscuits.  If you are not too rowdy especially, the owner, who is very very nice, will give you three biscuits and maybe a few pieces of something else special.

This is the pasticceria I have given my Prize to in all of Florence for the very best cantucci which are hard, crispy almond delicious biscuits that you can dip in wine if you are grown up or if you are a child you eat just like that.

This is very sad day, because next day you will be gone.  But a nice thing to do before saying goodbye is to visit the children’s toy library, where they have all sorts of games that you can play with.  If you are over the age of 8 you won’t like these toys so you should instead stay at your hotel and start packing.  Be sure not to forget anything, mi raccomando !

I hope you will enjoy your trip !

Nathan