It may be colder than I personally like in bella Firenze but that doesn’t mean that there is a shortage of activities going on around town. Besides the ever famoso carnivale all over Italy, there are many things to do if you would rather stay in Florence, including overdosing on hot chocolate and getting in touch with your “cultural self”.
After work last night I happened to wander through the chocolate fair currently going on in Piazza della Repubblica ( last year it was held in Santa Croce ) and the smell of chocolate that was radiating through the piazza , was simply DIVINE. Among the various stands are numerous choices to satisfy any chocoholic’s craving including the classic cioccolato caldo/ hot chocolate, chocolate fountains, special choco designs, a “ciocco bike”, and of course truffles.
Info about this years fair:
Runs from the 10-19 of February , hours are Mon-Thur 10-20.00, Fri-Sun 10-23.00. website is here
What to do on Valentines Day this year whether your in love or not? How about visiting one of the state museums with a friend for half the price? Yep this 14th there is a new initiative for couples ( or any two people looking to go ) to visit any state museum for the price of just one ticket. Why not grab a hot chocolate at Piazza Repubblica and then head over and discover your artistic side. The official museum site is here.
I also noticed after posting about carnivale in Italy that there is a medieval carnival in Calenzano which is about 30-40 minutes outside of Florence. I posted the program pdf below ( in Italian ) . The event takes place on the 6th of March ( a sunday ) and a procession of around 500 locals around the Calenzano area will enter a “time machine” that will arrive at Piazza Vittorio Veneto around 14.00 to salute the voice of the puppet/king of carnival , whose effigy which will then be burned at a pyre around 18:00. There will be games/ races/ competitions to compete for the famous “tower of gold”. All of the info is here
enjoy your February, stay warm and choco-satisfied…hopefully tomorrow me, t-man and the Italian fam will head to Vallombrosa to check out the famous abbey and explore the gorgeous forest and perhaps see some snow. We all feel the need to search for some considering the dubious snow-promising weather reports that haven’t delivered so far. Liars! 😉
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And don’t forget our special Uffizi Valentine’s Day tour 🙂 It is a special tour among art and love, discovering the most passionate romances in history and how the most famous painters in the world depicted them.
http://www.florenceinferno.com/valentine-s-day-tour/
that is pretty cool!
Thank you 🙂