MAPPING TUSCANY

I may not be religious, but I totally worship the Todo Modo bookshop in Florence for its beautiful interior design, central location - a ten-minute walk from the station and Ponte Vecchio - and the cafè hidden among shelves and plants hanging from the roof. UqBar serves some of the best lunches to be had in Florence - especially for people who'd love to forego the usual Tuscan fare for a delicious miso soup . But Todo Modo does another thing well. The shelf-filled spaces in the back can be turned into a small theatre which makes for a great event space among all the books. I had my Across the Big Blue Sea book presentation there and was back last month for a Storytellers night - the first event of a great new series.   Linda and Steve, the team from the The Beehive Hostel in Rome have decided to take their storytellers nights to Florence, and Todo Modo has agreed to host them. Whether residents or just travelling through, English speakers will have great fun...

Queues, overpriced gelato and queues again. Florence can be tiring. Let alone with kids. But exploring the Florentine Renaissance dream can also be lots of fun thanks to the many educative and inspiring guided tours - especially with kids. With a playful and less intellectualizing introduction to Italy's art, history and cultural heritage everybody has a better time, the adults too.  The most knowledgeable person I turn to when planning a day in Florence with children is Molly McIlwrath. As a licensed tour guide with a five year old daughter she knows from first hand experience what will work for families traveling with kids, and - maybe even more importantly - what definitely won't.  Molly explaining the techniques in Luigi Mecocci's wood carving studio in Florence Avid reader and creative mind at large, Molly is also involved in the planning of hands-on activities in some of Florence best museums and art schools (many of them are available in English thanks to t...

Recovering in the shade (photo Flickr user Toby Leah Bochan) Florence with children? Visiting the city of the Renaissance with a bunch of unruly kids sounds like your worst nightmare? I’m with you: art, culture and Tuscan wine and food make of Florence a perfect adult only destination.  But then,  the most vivid memory I have from my last child-free visit at the Uffizi isn't of Leonardo da Vinci or Botticelli, but of myself downing over-prized espresso at the museum café in a desperate attempt to get over last night's han gover . In this sense Florence in the company of a few inquisitive kids seemed like my last resort to skip the wine and see the art instead.  Once we'd decided to bring the kids, the question was how to go about it. FIRENZE CARD: SKIP THE LINES AND ENJOY THE ART WITH THE FLORENCE MUSEUM PASS If you have three days in Florence there is no better way to see frescoes, paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance masters than with the...

Bronzino's famous portrait of two members of the Medici family: Eleonora di Toledo and her second born son Giovanni Exploring Florence in company of children isn't always fun. If you ever tried to steer a pram through the Renaissance city, you know what I'm talking about. But luckily, being in Florence with kids also means discovering things you wouldn't have gotten to as an adult only traveler. The Palazzo Vecchio family museum is a good example of this.  The civic museum in Piazza della Signoria is on the to do list of a never-ending stream of tourists. But to truly appreciate the countless rooms, stunning frescoes and centuries of history, you best book one of the guided tours especially designed with kids in mind.  Intrigued by all the tours Florence's family museum organizes, our group of old and young ended up joining  Life at Court . This interactive tour starts  off in Palazzo Vecchio's magnificent Sala dei Cinquecento  and make...

Tyrannosauras rex on the look out for its next pray. Yeah... I've sworn to myself that this blog would focus on Southern Tuscany, and on Southern Tuscany only. And as I'm never slow to break any good resolution I ever came up with, here's a post about Florence. It's Natural History Museum just didn't seem to get enough exposure on the web without me.  Right now (spring to autumn 2012) the museum sports a show on dinosaurs . Preferably you visit the museum once it is over. No, it isn't badly done. Not at all. It just had the same effect on me as Steven Spielberg's dinosaur movies. Unlike E.T., I still haven't been able to watch Jurassic Park in one go (and I'm normally not one to fall asleep during movies) . I can see that the  dinosaur triology gets five star votes from people who live on dinosaurs ,  but does it really work for anybody else? And it's not just me. Whilst my kids ask for mercy when I frighten them into sleep with sto...