Yab

Yab was my favorite place to go on Monday nights! Not many places in Europe have good and updated hip hop but Yab does! Get to know the promoters and they'll hook you up! The only reason this place doesn't receive 4 stars is because I had my wallet stolen here. Be careful. It can happen anywhere which is why it didn't stop me from coming back here on Monday nights. They have a cover charge of 10 dollars but it comes with a free drink. Sometimes they have you pay at the end so don't lose the ticket they give you or you won't be let out unless you pay a fee.

If you must go, then it's best to go to Yab on a Monday night (hip-hop). The club is large and filled with mostly American women studying abroad and Italian men preying on them. You will see the occasional professional soccer player there accompanied by their entourage. Depending on the night, who is at the door, who you are with and how everyone is dressed, you may have to wait in a long line to enter. There are far better places to go out in Florence, but this is the quintessential club in one of the most tourist-filled Italian cities.

Depending on which night it is, YAB can be great and can be awful. I some times love hip-hop night and sometimes I don't. I feel like it more depends on the DJ that evening. Personally, I loved Thursday and Friday nights, but that just might be the raver in me. The sound in there can really get a person moving if you're passionate about that kind of thing as am I. I DEFINITELY recommend if someone is going to go that they go a little later in their evening instead of making it the start-off point because everyone else has the same idea. It is VERY VERY VERY crowded, you won't even be able to dance. I recommend going around 10 or 11ish in all seriousness, because people start to go other places and you get more room to breathe and not have some creep-o dancing on you. But other wise, great clubs, great drinks.

Yab has been around forever and has not changed at all from when I first started frequenting it in 2006. Monday is hip hop night, Wednesday is for the university students, and Saturday is (while unspoken) for underage girls and the older men who like them. The diversity of music and crowds it manages to pull on various nights of the week is one of its biggest draws. However, it can also easily fall into the negative stereotype of an Italian nightclub with sleazy older men and innocent young girls and/or tourists. In the summer, it can also get incredibly hot and stuffy. That being said, nights are Yab are almost always a guaranteed good time - just make sure you choose a night that suits your interests and mood. Warning: many foreigners find it difficult to understand the ticketing policy at Yab. The ticket they give you at the entrance is good for one drink, so you must show the ticket to the bartender to get stamped. For each following drink, they stamp your ticket again, but these drinks you're going to have to pay for at the end of the night at the "Cassa." There, you show your ticket and they charge you according to the number of stamps you've acquired throughout the night. Lose your ticket and you have to pay a hefty fee to exit the club!

Yab is famous and everyone who has visited Florence has been here and in the summers hip hop night is a big thing. The place is nice but it gets very hot in the basement and its hard to have a good time when its that hot. The Italian man problem is very big here as well where Italians come to pull foreigners. I feel sorry for the blond girls who get harassed by every Italian guy in a fifty food radius. Its good hip hop music and Yab is a good club but its easier if you go knowing what its like.

After our first Monday night at Yab, it became a tradition for the summer. We made friends with some Florentine promoters, which gets you around the steep cover charge. Prepare to get sweaty and pay more than you should for drinks, but if you're in the mood for a hip-hop night out, Monday nights have great music, a good crowd that mixes the locals with the study-abroads and tourists, and enough white trousers to make the dance floor glow in the dark.