Love it or hate it –  it’s Valentines Day in Florence, Italy and ‘love is in the air’ (at least I think it’s around somewhere). Most Italians I know aren’t a huge fan of this holiday and many actually think it’s “cool” to hate it but nevertheless it has gotten some increased fan-fair in recent years. I am sure you have seen the abundant ‘fixed-price’ menu at many restaurants where you can share a spaghetti-string like Lady and the Tramp or fight over the last bite of pink tiramisu. I’ve never been a fan of these menus to be honest since it means that I might get stuck pretending to like crostini toscani (liver pate on Tuscan bread).

 Date or no date, who really cares – just use today as an excuse to partake in some well-earned vices:

Here are just a few ideas of how you can celebrate America’s biggest day of guilt-trips exported world-wide.

• Drown yourself in chocolate at Piazza Santa Maria Novella at the chocolate fair/fieraciocciolata. I walked by the piazza the other night for a wine/chocolate tasting and snapped the above photo and marveled at how calm this market was at night. Since the chocolate fair will be open until the 17th – bring your loved one or just take yourself to sample some of Italy’s artisan chocolate creations. I am a huge fan of the chocolate & nut covered bananas [insert awkward joke]. 

• Take part of a worldwide Flash Mob in Piazza della Repubblica at 3pm. On their official site you can see the dance {try learning some steps before you go!} and if you are in the center you would be foolish not to stop by and check out what will surely be pretty cool. Why are they doing this? To promote awareness of violence against women – which is unfortunately all too common the world over. Offical site and RSVP deets here. 

• Visit a museum, 2 for 1 tickets! Obviously you can just ‘pretend’ to be a couple [same-sex pretend couples can be fun too!] and hit up one of Florence’s state museums for half the price. This offer is becoming a cool tradition in the renaissance city. The initiative is actually called “MiBACi” – “Will you kiss me?” Includes entrance to the San Marco museum, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure museum, the Accademia Gallery, the Modern Art Gallery and Palatine Gallery at the Pitti Palace, the Medici Chapels and other state-run sites. You can find the complete list – for locations in Florence and the rest of Tuscany – at the MIBAC official website here.

• Make your own pub crawl. Not an advocate of drunken tomfoolery [did I really just write that?], but if there existed any day worthy of having a drink it’s probably.. Valentines day. Pick a few like-minded couples or your closest single friends and visit 3 bars in a more ‘adult’ version of a beer crawl. Recommended after a good carb-laden dinner of course. For wine bars, pubs & live music check out these venues or if you just wanna DANCE, here are some awesome places.  If you like interesting cocktails don’t forget about Art Bar and Surf Ventura. Don’t drink? No worries, there are plenty of late-night places to get a macaron, coffee, tea or a soy chai. 

**Here is my February list of events which has more details about many above ideas or some fun events after v-day. Check out this funny blog post about Valentine’s Day in Italy and what Florentines seem to think about it.