Entertaining your children

When you have found a Florence apartment that is ideal for your entire family and everyone has arrived and settled in, you are then ready to enjoy the city. But for many of the younger tourists the attention span for fantastic paintings and statuary can be limited. The appreciation of world class shopping and cuisine may not be fully developed either. So what is there to do for the youngsters that have seen their share of Madonnas and utter the dreaded, “Mom, I’m bored.”

• When booking your Florence apartment if you saw the maps outside of the historical centre you saw vast stretches of green. Florence has parks and gardens everywhere. The two most popular gardens for kids are Boboli for the older kids and the Horticultural Gardens for the younger. The Horticultural Gardens have a special play area designed expressly for young children.


• If your children are inclined towards swimming there are quite a number pristine public pools that also attract many local children. The pool in Cascine park is the most popular. Any time between May and September the weather is usually ripe for a day soaking up sun and playing in the water. And with entrance fees of about 6€ for the entire day, your wallet can breathe easy.


• At night you can take them to an English language movie at Odeon Cinema in the historical center. The offerings are generally PG so are suitable for most ages, and the films offered will vary by night. Much more entertaining for the kids than TV and the popcorn needs no translation.