We are three mums taking our three teen daughters (who are best friends) to Florence for 3 nights in April.
Whilst it's easy to plan gallery and museum trips, we are looking for things that will appeal to teen girls. They are 13/14.
Suggestions welcomed!
Cascine Park.
Rent bikes (or roller blades) at the RollerClub (at the “Le Pavoniere” swimming pool complex) and spend the day (Or just a few hours) biking around the largest park of Florence.
Boboli Gardens
walk around the most beautiful park in the city. The gardens are part of the Palazzo Pitti, the Medici’s residence (also the Royal Palace when Florence was the Capital of Italy in 1865-1870). 4 museums are inside the palace.
Duomo
Climb the cupola or bell tower of Santa Maria Del Fiore Cathedral (aka the Duomo)
Mercato Centrale di San Lorenzo
Spend the morning shopping and tasting new flavors at Florence’s most famous market.
Adding to Roberto's list:
Have them read "A Room With a View", then catch the bus up to Fiesole to explore the old city - 5 miles and a world away from Florence in the valley below. Take the short hike out to Monte Ceceri to see the spot where Leonardo and his crew performed the first experimental test flight 400 years before Kitty Hawk.
Take the train to Lucca for the day - rent bikes and ride the 2.5 miles along the walls of the ancient city, explore the town, have lunch and a gelato.
Train to Pisa to join the pilgramage to Campo Santo and the Tower.
Short train trip to Montacatini Terme, explore the pretty little town, have a spa day in Belle Epoque elegance, then take the funicular train up to Montacatini Alta for lunch.
I treated my teens like adults. They were exposed to history, art and culture and grew up loving it all. They all still love to travel.
We did a bike tour for a few hours that was great fun.
My kids loved climbing up to the top of the dome of the Duomo.
Boboli Gardens, and the Belvedere Fort that is on one edge). In addition to great views of Florence, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were married there (if that would matter to them)
Here's some things young teenagers might enjoy in Florence:
The Palazzo Davanzati (Museo della Casa Fiorentina Antica) is a 14th century townhouse you can tour to see rooms with furniture, painted “wallpaper,” kitchen tools, tapestries, bathrooms, interior courtyard, ceramics, lace, and other domestic objects.
Artist Clet Abraham cleverly alters the street signs in Florence and if you look, you can spot them while walking around. His workshop in San Niccolo is just off of Piazza San Niccolò. You can buy prints, stickers, postcards, etc. of his work. Throughout Florence there is also other street art that is fun to see.
See the view of the city from Piazzale Michelangelo or the even better and much less crowded view from the San Miniato church uphill. There are stairs up from the San Niccolo district or buses as far as the Piazzale.
The very readable and compelling “Diary of Florence in Flood” by Kathrine Taylor is an eyewitness account of the 1966 flood. There are photos and videos of the flood online, and on various walls in Florence there are markers showing how high the floodwaters reached at each location --- I believe the worst flood depth was 22 feet. Wikipedia says that the flood “killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. It is considered the worst flood in the city's history since 1557. With the combined effort of Italian and foreign volunteers alike, or angeli del fango ("Mud Angels"), many of these fine works have been restored. New methods in conservation were devised and restoration laboratories established. However, even decades later, much work remains to be done.”
The Benozzo Gozzoli chapel in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi is a tiny jewel of a room where you could easily spend half an hour looking at all the details of clothing, animals, horses, flowers, etc. Binoculars are not a bad idea.
The lovely Cappella Tornabuoni in the church of Santa Maria Novella was painted by Ghirlandaio and his workshop in the late 15th century and shows many examples of Renaissance clothing and life. Again, binoculars.
Have an aperitivo sitting outside in two different-but-facing bars, moms on one side of the square, girls on the other. A real aperitivo, not a pub crawl.
There are 2 Brandy Melville stores in Florence, lol. I have 2 teen daughters and didn’t know that BM originated in Italy, even though it’s very California. 🙄
Mine will shop both I’m sure
There are some amazing ideas here thank you so much!
What do ALL teenage girls love to do? Go shopping. For fun, they’re not looking for churches, museums or parks. Let them wander through a large department store, gaze at the displays at some of the luxury fashion and jewelry stores. Here’s a link for a window shopping tour in Florence!
Take a cooking class!
Philip’s reply reminded me that Florence is famous for beautiful “ florentine” paper. There are some small shops that specialize in stationery and other objects made from that, many of them very inexpensive. I should think the girls would enjoy a visit to one of those shops to buy gift items for themselves and friends.
