I know you might be thinking: Julia, seriously? A post on Florence? You’re not even there anymore!

Well, my close friend Naomi is over in Europe and last week she messaged me saying she was in Florence and asked me where she should go. Later that night I had a dream I was back there roaming around the streets and since then I’ve really missed it. And alright, alright, I will admit- I have a bad case of the travel bug. Also, I finally got my last roll of film that I shot there developed and it’s honestly so nice to see the photographs. A lot of them were taken on my very last day when I was there by myself (I wasn’t on the group flight). I feel a bit of sadness looking at them. A large part of it is because I felt so happy and confident when I was there and since being back, I’ve hit a bump. Okay a really big bump, especially now that school is over. So I’m just trying to do little things that make me feel good and happy -as we all should!

And what makes me happy? Blogging, looking at these old travel pictures, coffee, and treats like gelato. I realized that I didn’t share about some of my favourite spots in Florence in any of my travel posts, so why not do it now!

Coffee

I’m not a “coffee connoisseur” so I thought Starbucks was all that and a bag of chips, and beg my pardon if I sound like a snob now, but I had the best cappuccino in Italy. You could go anywhere and it’s just so damn good.

If I was feeling ~fancy fancy~ and really wanted to treat myself, I went to the Gucci Museo to do my homework because 1) it was super close to where I lived 2) Palazzo Signorina is a wonderful view 3)Getting a confirmation text from Gucci to use the wifi is pretty damn cool.  Getting a cappuccino from the Cafe will most likely be the only “high-end” thing I will ever purchase (cuz let’s be real #brokestudent).

Jasmine Green Tea, because I was feeling under the weather.

Cappuccino, it was so tasty!

Carolyn, when we were working on our final presentations.

But another great place was “Twinkly Lights Cafe”  (near the Bargello) it’s not actually called that, but as you can guess they had pretty lights at their window. I always passed by this cafe on the way to supermarket. Their hot chocolate is rich and creamy- it’s definitely different from home because it’s thicker. You are literally drinking hot chocolate and they have really good crepes, all reasonably priced. It’s small, there isn’t internet, but the scene was a mix of foreigners and locals.

Lia and I being all fancy at the cafe (shot on her camera)

Inside Twinkly Lights Cafe

The place where all the study abroad students go (it seems) is ITIT Cafe. There’s internet, their iced coffee is great and it’s close to the bus stop- Piazza San Marco. One of the happiest moments was when the barista spoke to me in Italian to ask me my name and they wrote it “Giulia” aha.

Gelato

Learn from my mistake, do not buy gelato near the Duomo, it’s way overpriced. My friend Lia and I didn’t realize after we got our gelato it was going to cost the equivalent of $10 CAN…EACH! Our go-to from then on was Festival del Gelato and there’s one near the bus stop that had the richest chocolate gelato without breaking the bank (again at Piazza San Marco but I forget the name). Anyway, Festival del Gelato had so many flavours, it’s in the historic centre and a little bit hidden, but the prices were great and so was the service! Also, I don’t have any pictures of gelato because I was too busy shoving it in my face ahha- it melts quickly!

Of course, I’m sure there’s more coffee and gelato gems but these were just my go-to’s. Hope you enjoyed this post 🙂
xx

Julia

All photos on this site are mine unless otherwise stated.