New Year's Eve in Florence
/As our Little Roads readers know, we typically avoid large towns and big tourist hot-spots.
But for the past two years we’ve made an exception to this “rule”: We’ve taken a room at a hotel in Florence with a balcony right on the main Piazza Duomo, to enjoy the chaos and celebrations of New Year’s Eve – but from high above it all.
And we’ve been to this hotel several times before: We discovered the place as a result of a visit the Florence on back in 2007, when we came in from a Chianti agriturismo for a day trip to watch the town’s famous Scoppio del Carro event on Easter Sunday morning. The crowds were insanely thick – we were so densely packed into the piazza that it was impossible to bend my arm to pull out my camera without elbowing several people. (That was back when we didn’t have fancy cameras on our phones!)
We were both stressed by being amongst that many people, and I said “I’m never coming back to this event again… not unless we can stay somewhere like… that!” …and I pointed up to one of the stone balconies on a nearby building across the piazza.
On The ground at Florence’s scoppio del Carro in 2007. (See the balcony in the backgroUnd?)
Fast-forward twelve years: Zeneba actually found the place, available for booking, in 2019. So we rented it for two days on Easter weekend. Quite costly, yes – usually we seek places with a lower price point – but you get what you pay for, and location is key: It was a much better position from which to enjoy that exploding cart!
So last year, we booked at the place again, this time for New Year’s Eve. A trio of friends rented one of the other spaces in the same hotel. The festivities in the piazza were crazy, culminating in a performance by a group playing and singing American gospel. And, of course, fireworks!
NYE above the duomo & Baptistery - with gospel choir ringing in the new year!
The next day, when checking out, we booked it again – and arranged for a couple of friends to join us there for NYE 2025. (Did we mention it’s a 2-bedroom / 2 bath apartment?) It is truly awesome to be staying in the very center of the bustle in a city like Florence, literally across the street from the famous Duomo and Baptistery, during a major holiday. We’re not sure if we’ll make this an annual thing, or if we’ll alternate years. Or maybe we’ll look for a similarly advantageous place in other cities.
But as fun as it is to get high above the crowds, we remain “small-town people”. We have the great benefit to enjoy the fireworks of our own town of Soriano nel Cimino, from the peacefulness of the balcony in our own tiny house. If you walk into town, you can actually get around without bumping into a thousand other people.
And another bonus about our town: Unlike in Florence, civilian fireworks are (to a degree) legal – so we were allowed to launch a little “sky lantern” to make a wish and hope for better things in the New Year.
Hoping for a better 2026!