Beating the Heat in Florence

Posted by Rebecca Ford Jul 23, 2008

Summer in the city – and the temperature’s rising. In Florence the other week it was well over 30 degrees C for days on end. Even the locals were complaining. Too hot to be on holiday – let alone working. But I’m currently writing a new guidebook to Tuscany, so I had no choice but to get out and about. Mad dogs and English guidebook writers go out in the midday sun.

Florence is a small city, nice and compact and easy to explore on foot. But it was so hot it felt as if it had expanded to the size of London. Getting up early is essential to beating the heat. Luckily the main museums open very early – about 8.15 am, so you can enjoy some of the main attractions before the mercury rises.

However, I had one nice surprise. The euro is currently so high, against both the pound and the dollar, that visitor numbers are down. And this meant that, whereas it’s usually difficult to enjoy sights such as the Uffizi gallery because of the huge crowds, everywhere was much less frenetic than usual. I even had the convent of San Marco, with its wonderful frescoes by Fra Angelico, to myself. Well worth the discomfort of the searing heat.