Piazza Santa Croce

I'll be honest, I visited after a rough day in Florence. By the time, my buddy and I got to the Piazza it was 4 o'clock of a very long afternoon of walking miles in the hot Tuscan sun punctuated with stops at delicious restaurants, beautiful museums, stocked leather markets and the constant begging of gypsies. Needless to say, I was ready to hop a cab and pass out until dinner. I was dragged along though and ended up in the Piazza. Its quant, not exactly what you would think of when you hear "The Temple of Italian Glories." If I had seen it without reading a tour book, I wouldn't have thought that Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo are buried here. The cloister are pretty but you're not gonna stretch out on a basilica's lawn. Go if you're a history buff and want to pay your respects, but I wouldn't cry myself to sleep if I missed it amongst the rest of Florence.

I was dragged to a Dante reading here and it was painful to listen coz I didn’t understand it. We had some food afterwards though so it wasn’t a bad night. The Italians do this thing where you go for one drink and get a lot of snacks and its a great way to save money. The church is pretty inside but there is an entry fee. I don’t like that Florence charges entry fees for a lot of their churches. Churches should be free. Santa Croce is a nice church inside though and its a nice to see while you’r ehere.

I lived right around the corner from this piazza and, accordingly, spent quite a bit of time here. There’s a nice selection of aperitivo places and bars around here, and on the same side of the church is a more Florentine student-y, less tourist-y vibe. The piazza has pretty cool events during the year—in 2011, all of Dante’s Divine Comedy was read by Italian high school students, and there are markets and expos throughout the year. Since it’s right next to the Arno, it's really nice to have an aperitivo and then go for a stroll along the river.

The perfect place to go out, and a great area for outdoor markets, all backdropped by the awesome Santa Croce. There is always something going on around Santa Croce. The Christmas markets have just been set up, the Florens 2012 display was just taken down, and before that there were Oktoberfest markets; there is a different themed market almost every week. The piazza is a great area because of how open it is and with all the surrounding bars and restaurants it stays crowded day and night. This is probably the best area in the city to go out with the wide variety of options, and further away from the Duomo bars that attract mainly tourists. You will still find tourists and abroad students at Santa Croce, but the whole environment is great and you don't feel stuck at one place because of the streets of fun bars and clubs, or the option to hang out on the stairs outside the church!

The first time I was in Florence, I visited this piazza twice in one day. During the day, we went to visit the church - this is where Michaelangelo is buried. The church itself is beautiful and worth a peek inside. Afterwards, we wandered around the square looking at the shops and the street performers. There were musicians on every corner and all types of other performers. We actually came back to this square later on in the evening, after dinner, to do a little bit of bar hopping. It was early fall so the weather was really nice and we were able to sit outside which was amazing.

This Piazza was a great place to go out to for the night I spent in Florence. The weather was warm, the streets were crowded and the city itself is already enchanting. People are drinking on the street and very friendly. RIght after a few drinks on the steps there are great bars and clubs nearby.