{"id":2537,"date":"2010-01-18T13:30:14","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2020-10-21T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T06:53:11","slug":"strange-eccentric-florence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/","title":{"rendered":"Eccentric Attractions in Florence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Internet, a modern marvel. From my apartment in Houston, TX, it has provided me with research and contacts for a first-time visit to Florence<\/strong>. It helped me discover the website you’re reading and through a generous offer, an invitation to guest blog about my travels and preparations as a result of conversations with website founder, Alexandra.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Galileo
Galileo museum houses the scientist’s middle finger!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The undeniable beauty of Florence is on display in gorgeous photos posted on Flickr and described in assorted blog posts around the Internet.\u00a0 It’s a piece of cake to find office travel guides and comprehensive reviews online (Fodors, New York Times, Lonely Planet).\u00a0 Google searches with “My Florence trip” will find visitors raving about personal trips to the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi.\u00a0 And, for centuries, traveler have visited the Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Galleria degli Uffizi, Boboli Garden and Pitti Palace. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But there is also the weird traveler<\/strong>, one who skews away from the average, who’s fussy inclinations leave them dissatisfied with the straight and narrow and looking of the unusual and odd.\u00a0 There are resources for myself and those who like their city’s served with a side of the eccentric.\u00a0 London has Quirky London Tours and the newly published Secret London: An Unusual Guide, collaborative travel site Nothing to See Here is international in scope and everything the fifty state’s have to offer can be found on Roadside America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no “Not For Tourist” guide to Florence, and since the best sources of such attractions often come from locals, my lack of language skills keeps me from reading any websites other than English ones.\u00a0 In the hunt for the offbeat,\u00a0Atlas Obscura<\/a> is a good starting point for Italy on the whole. \u00a0“A compendium of this age’s wonders, curiosities, and esoterica… with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist.”\u00a0 Dylan Thuras and Michelle Enemark, of Curious Expeditions<\/a> also travel the world, “devoted to unearthing and documenting the wondrous, the macabre, and the obscure from around the globe.”\u00a0 Between the two websites, they have unearthed intriguing Florence destinations like the oldest still-operating pharmacy in the world, Galileo’s middle finger, and\u00a0La Specola<\/a>, “the largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world”<\/p>\n

Lastly, I have to add the Casa del Formaggio<\/a>, a destination with a sense of humor and lacking in some taste.\u00a0 With even the author of the post unsure of where he found it, the House of Cheese might put me on a wild goose chase through Florence.\u00a0 And often the best places are the one stumbled upon while trying to arrive somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Robert will be happy to know that there is also a Casa del Prosiutto, which is a simple, cheap restaurant in Vicchio about an hour’s train ride from Florence (but don’t try to get to the restaurant from the train station by foot). A display of prosciutto greets you at the door and you can have your cured meat sliced and slapped onto bread. Sadly his visit is in the winter, and without a vehicle, or else I’d suggest the Niki de St. Phalle Tarot Card park in Maremma, about which I will write this summer.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Readers – can we help Robert by suggesting other weird, odd, obscure things to do in Florence?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Robert of Neon Poisoning, who is looking for weird things to see in Florence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[601],"yoast_head":"\nEccentric Attractions in Florence - ArtTrav<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eccentric Attractions in Florence - ArtTrav\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest post by Robert of Neon Poisoning, who is looking for weird things to see in Florence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ArtTrav\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https\/\/facebook.com\/arttravcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-18T12:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-21T06:53:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/museogalileo-700x456.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest_Post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@arttrav\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@arttrav\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest_Post\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest_Post\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26b56a6242fec08f805cd65aff29ac31\"},\"headline\":\"Eccentric Attractions in Florence\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-18T12:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-21T06:53:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\"},\"wordCount\":589,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c018af7844e33e94807101ca6432b808\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/museogalileo-700x456.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"unusual\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Florence\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/strange-eccentric-florence\/\",\"name\":\"Eccentric Attractions in Florence - 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