Sunday aperitivo in Florence at Piazzale Michelangelo

While you are coming up to Piazzale Michelangelo's hill to admire the heart breaking view of Florence, and need a rest, stop a Caffetteria La loggia for a great aperitivo before lunch. For just 9 euros you can have your favourite drink such as italian best famous Negroni Cocktail with the best view of Michelangelo's David and Ponte Vecchio just in front of you. 

And if you are starving... have some appetizers for free! Enjoy those tiny pizzas to pick up with your fingers.

Caffetteria La Loggia Piazzale Michelangelo 

(there's also a restaurant if you want to stay longer)

Every Sunday from April to September.

Aperitivo from 11.30 until 1.00 pm

Lunch from 1.00 to 2.30 pm

Cheap vegetarian brunch in Florence

Last Sunday a friend of mine went to this cozy restaurant in the center of Florence, close to Santa Croce Square. The space is small. It's a sort of a private club: but the entrance fee is included in the 15euros brunch menu.

You can eat as much as you can, choosing between: tasty fried salted pieces of bread ("coccoli"), italian ricotta cheese served with some topping and apples, sweet italian buttery cheese called "burrata", pumpkin vegetarian cakes, pasta salted with red salad cooked in the Guinness beer, spicy vegetarian cous cous, fried spicy aubergines with rice... all served with several types of bread, and american coffee.
Don't miss to taste the desserts: apple crumble, cherry pie, sachertorte chocolate cake.

La Vie en Rose
Borgo Allegri 68r Firenze (close to Piazza dei Ciompi)

Superlative massage at the Four Season Hotel Spa in Florence

I was completely shocked when I received, as a birthday gift, a superlative 75 minutes massage at the Four Season in Florence! I had various opportunity to visit the Four Season in Florence (aperitif, brunch etc), but a visit to the spa was certainly a treat. 

I chose the massage, “Gocce di Luce” with candles. The candle composed by a special butter melt transforming the butter in warm oil used to massage the skin: this oil is composed by avocado oil, coconut oil, Shea butter; the fragrance is sweet oriental- spicy with vanilla tones.

Few words about the atmosphere of this Spa: amazing, warm and a tremendous kindness of the girls who work there. They let you fill up a form, first of all, asking if you want a gentle, medium or strong pressure of the massage then they lead you to the big changing room.

Everywhere all kind of amenities you might need like towels, make up removal, candles, water, fruits, fragrances: a true paradise for women.

After wearing my soft bathrobe I enter my room called after one of the hundreds kind of trees of the garden. It took me just few seconds to disconnect my brain from the rest of the world: the gentle but energetic massage of my back, the legs, feet and the massage of my face relaxed me so much that I said to myself: ”I stay here forever”.

The relax continued also after the 75 minutes massage when I lay on a bed in the relaxing room, sipping a herb tea cup and eating some organic biscuits watching the freezing cold wind bending the arms of the trees.

Other details I appreciated of the spa:

Many objects that you see at the Four Season in Florence are created by Florentine or Tuscan artisans like the alabaster shelf coming from Volterra or the tray and basket coming from a Florentine artisan, but above all, all the spa products coming from The Officina Profumo of Santa Maria Novella, an institution in Florence since 1612 that created only for the Four Season in Florence (no other 4 Season of the world have) the 4 Spa line named after the seasons, like the famous scrub made by the berries of the Tuscan cypress. 

Info: 055/2626 630 - mail: spa.firenze@fourseasons.com

Four Season Hotel - Borgo Pinti Florence, Italy.

You may be interested also in http://lovingflorence.blogspot.com/2008/10/mediterranean-massage-at-urban-spa-in.html