Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/679293
I had exactly a day to follow the summer crowds around the historic downtown, and it was all I needed. Standing before Michelangelo's David in the Galleria dell'Accademia, and admiring a few da Vincis and Botticellis at the Galleria Uffizi, I felt I was getting to know the city. Now, years later, I'm back. It's autumn, and a handful of tourists wielding selfie sticks are on the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge as I check into Portrait Firenze, a boutique hotel virtually across the street along the Arno River. Two and a half days is a typical length of stay for visitors to Florence, I'm told, and it's all I have. But on this getaway, I'm determined to avoid the obvious attractions. CROSS OVER TO THE OTHER ARNO Instead of a traditional bus tour, I hire Gio- vanni Fattori of Florence by Driver, who picks me up in his golf cart and we start by zipping across Ponte Vecchio to Oltrarno— "beyond the Arno." Carpenters, mosaic makers, sculptors, goldsmiths and other artisans live and keep tiny shops in Oltrarno, an epicentre of Florentine craftsmanship since the Middle Ages. It's on the Arno's less touristy, more residential south bank, a neighbourhood that outsiders have recently begun to discover. I stop at the showrooms of Riccardo Barthel, an upscale kitchen-design business within an old apartment block. There's a mesmerizing Italian-Vogue-meets-Restoration-Hardware SPRING/SUMMER 2016 DREAMSCAPES 53 THE OTHER SIDE OF FLORENCE BY SARAH STAPLES TOP: To get oriented in Florence (and snap some great cityscapes), head to the outskirts of the city, high up to the lookouts of Piazzale Michelangelo (pictured) and Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte. ABOVE: Tourists taking selfies are a regular fixture on Florence's most famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio. Sarah Staples MY FIRST TRIP TO FLORENCE WAS A SHORE VISIT FROM A CRUISE SHIP.