Do People Ever Sleep in Florence, Italy?

From Siena to Florence, Italy 

We went to  our next destination, Florence,  in Italy in the early evening by bus.  The receptionist at the Canon D’oro Hotel in Siena was helpful and friendly. We chatted a little. He came from Cameroon, Africa and studied foreign languages  there at university. This explained his fluency  in English  and Italian. From the hotel in Siena where we stayed only for a few hours, it only took us a few minutes walking to the bus station.  ( My husband really did an excellent job researching all the locations of the hotels, making sure we were not too far from everything.)  The bus was already waiting and the lady bus driver nodded  when we asked if this bus was going to Florence.

Since we were the last two getting on the bus, the only seats left were two bench seats in the middle of the bus close to the door. It was fine with us as this was only a little more than an hour ride to Florence.  Because there was no proper storage space for our two suitcases  on this commuter bus, Stan and I had to hang on to them carefully. The ride gave us an opportunity to see the Italian countryside scenery.

The bus arrived at the Florence bus station at around 8:00pm but everything seemed to have closed there. Fortunately, the bus station was just across the street from the Train Station, we got a taxi from there easily and got to the hotel at around 9:00p.m.

FLORENCE

Florence at Dusk

We stayed at Hotel  Bodoni located very close to the major attractions. Our room was on the first floor but the Reception Area was on the 4^th floor, and each time when guests left the hotel, they had to hand in their room keys to the receptionist. A little inconvenient but nobody seemed to complain.

Ponte Vecchio at dusk - The most famous and romantic bridge in Florence

After unloading our luggage, we went out for a walk.  Florence also has a lot of medieval  narrow winding streets.  We kept walking on one street following the direction with the brightest lights.

  It was about 9:30pm.  In the square, there were people performing mime and drawing quite a crowd; young people sitting on the steps of the church;  patrons filled the outdoor cafés and the restaurants where American jazz music was playing was really busy; hawkers trying to sell their wares etc.

A busy place at that hour in the evening. 

 Musicians performing on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Florence has a number of bridges. Ponte Vecchio is a beautiful covered bridge lined with numerous shops and  houses. It is a well know landmark of Florence.  The view from the bridge is beautiful! It was said that Hitler liked this bridge so much that he ordered to have this bridge preserved while all the other bridges in Florence were bombed and destroyed during Nazi's invasion of the city.

One can see Ponte Vecchio often in postcards, magazines and artwork. It is a beehive of activities at night.

Ponte Vecchio - a very lively and busy place n Florence at night

We liked the ambiance and atmosphere so much that we went back to Ponte Vecchio on our second night in Florence.  There were always musicians performing on the bridge while a lot of young people just sitting down on the curb, hanging out and listening to the performers for hours.

Same thing as in the squares; lots of people were still strolling on the streets late at night. We wonder - Do people go to sleep in this city?

We were tired from the activities and  headed back to our hotel around 12:00a.m. but made the mistake of turning into one of the side streets and had a heck of time finding our way back.





These winding streets were like a maze and you could get lost easily there. A lesson was learned here – Always make sure we could locate the little street on our map before turning into there so that we could find our way back to the hotel.

R.T.  Florence, Italy

Aug. 2012