Exploring Florence: Culture, Food & Shopping

Words and photos by Olivia Waldron, who studied abroad with ASA in Florence during the spring semester of 2025.

Florence was the perfect home base for study abroad! Whether it was sunny or rainy out, there was always plenty to do!

If the weather was poor, one of my favorite things to do was to visit the Odeon to do work and study. Another perfect idea for rainy days was museums. My favorite museum is the Accademia Gallery, which includes the famous Statue of David. Another one is the Medici Chapels, which includes the prettiest room I’ve ever stepped foot in and was super worth the visit!

If it were a perfect sunny day, I loved visiting the Boboli Gardens, but I loved the Bardini Gardens even more, which isn’t talked about as much. The Bardini Gardens were beautiful, especially when the wisterias were in bloom, and there’s a place at the top overlooking the whole city where you can get drinks or just sit and watch the world go by.

A good thing to know when visiting these gardens and museums is to make sure you have a photo of your student visa, and then you get €2 entry!

My absolute favorite thing to do on a warm sunny day was to go up to Piazzale Michelangelo, especially for sunsets. We would bring snacks and drinks, sit on the steps, and enjoy live music, which was there almost every day.

In terms of food, you can’t go wrong with any place you visit; the food will be incredible everywhere. A couple of my favorite restaurants included Gusta Pizza (best pizza I’ve ever had), Trattoria 4 Leoni (I could eat their baked lasagna every day), and Trattoria Zaza (so cheap and so authentic). Pino’s Sandwiches was my favorite lunch spot as it’s family-run. The sandwiches are incredibly cheap and huge, and always hit the spot. The absolute best gelato place was Rivareno, where I would either get Stracciatella or Banana. Another amazing gelato place is called Carabe, and in the warmer months, they sell granitas, which are these amazing slushies made with real fruit. If you love cannolis, try Gino’s Bakery, which sells the best cannoli I’ve ever tried!

Now, in terms of shopping, Europe in general always has the best shopping. My favorite stores for clothes were Brandy Melville, as they had cute Firenze merch, Subdued (a little more expensive), and there’s thrift stores on many streets with amazing prices and clothing. The leather markets saw me numerous times as well, as the leather goods were my favorite thing to shop for and purchase. I purchased a bag that I used for school, a smaller bag, leather keychains, and a golf ball holder for my dad and brother. My favorite leather market was the one by H&M, however, I loved shopping for jewelry at the one by Medici Chapel. The jewelry there always had amazing prices and was so cute. There are also random markets on certain days of the week in different places, which were always so fun to visit and look around.

I was in Florence for four months, and I never ran out of things to do or sights to see.

I am forever grateful to have lived there during my time abroad!!

Thanks Liv!