Don't visit Florence before reading this little obvious tip..

~Hey, I've found cheap flight to Italy, wanna go with me?
~What a question, sure! Where to exactly?
~Bologna
~Wow, so nice! We can go to Florence, which is near!
~Deal!

So this is how my first trip to Italy begun. Friend, who I've known for only 2 weeks offered a trip together and I agreed (risky, but fun). My expectations were extremely high. Florence. Art. History. Pizza. Come on, it's a big deal and everyone should visit it and experience at least once in life. I had more or less two weeks to prepare myself for it, so I was trawling internet for tips and I was reading guides to know as much as possible about places to see and be prepared to understand its fully historical meaning. (Seems right, huh?)

Well, it does, until the moment you get there and all you see is tourists with cameras taking photos of everything, buying cheap souvenirs and exchanging little talks while waiting in a kilometer line to enter a museum.
Ok, that's it. I hate Italy, I hate Florence, shouldn't have come here. At all. I'm done for today. - my first thoughts about the city.. (sorry, Firenze!)
It's absolutely impossible to see anything while trying to walk on the street without being pushed by other people. I'm literally talking about not being able to walk. Let me just not mention seeing anything and forget about taking photos. Thanks Italy, you're doing it wrong. (Now I actually understand those articles about Venice, that wants to decrease number of visitors).

But... there's a way to sightsee and enjoy it!
What would you rather see? Piazza filled with tourist which looks pretty much like this:

Or.. beautiful monuments and the spiritual city which seems to be abandoned and only some locals and hanging around, which looks like this:

I think your answer is same as mine.

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Key word: after midnight!

Tourists are gone, streets are empty and people who had been drinking outside have already entered the clubs. You can come close to anything you feel you want at the moment, feel it and experience a vibe the city is offering (and believe me, tourists are completely killing the spirit).

Sounds pretty obvious but as long as you're outside during the day, you won't be even able to think that streets can look differently. And they do, during the night.

So if you're conciderin visit in Florence, don't forget to grab a bottle of vine, take a walk though the city and end up climbing to Piazzale Michaleangelo to admire night panorama of one of the art capitals in Italy.

If you find it helpful, you know what to do! ⬆️⬆️
Thanks & see you soon!
Love, Lonia.