Author Topic: Trip in Florence / Italy  (Read 1586 times)

Offline Decar

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Trip in Florence / Italy
« on: September 09, 2017, 08:51:41 AM »
I've been away last week on a holiday to Florence (Italy).

In Florence there is a very large Duomo, which is famous for being the largest brick built dome in history.  It took almost 140-years to build too!  Climbing to the top was quite a feet, almost as difficult as queuing for a ticket so you could join another queue to book your ticket to join the queue of people ascending the dome the next day.

I thought I'd share some information of the boardgame shops I visited during our trip, so any future travels know to pop-in, or duck-out of visiting them.

There's a relatively large shop, just off of one of the many side roads, a stone's-throw, from the Duomo.  I should clarify that's a stone's-throw from the bottom of the Duomo, not the top!  'Stratagemma' has a range of touristy knick-knacks, but a sizable collection of modern-boardgames, RPG source-books and a library for playing games.  Carcassonne was present, in the form of spin-offs and a few expansions.  I shared the image of the latest Big Box on the appropriate thread.  I was happy to see a selection of GMT and Victory Point games were also present, these are often difficult or expensive to locate.  They also had some rarities, like the Deluxe Edition of Puerto Rico.  I'd say the prices were a little expensive, but not extortionate for a FLG in the very centre of a large city.  I briefly spoke to an employee, who was very happy to take orders and ships things all over the world.  If you're visiting Florence I'd recommend popping into Stratagemma and spending a few minutes looking around.

We later had a day trip to Siena, which is famous for it's town square and Duomo.  Tucked out of the way, down a side street that managed to sell us 2 stale sandwiches and a can of coke for 21€, we found 'Gio & Co.'  This was more of a toy and comicbook shop that also sold a few boardgames, and probably made it's bread selling Magic the Gathering cards.  It was small, pokey and dingy.  The two guys working there didn't say a word to us..not even Ciao...the only Italian I mastered the use of while in the country!  Not much to talk about here unfortunately; if you happen to be in or near Siena, I'd not bother.

Lastly, we decided to visit Arezzo.  It turns out there isn't much to see in Arezzo, other than another Duomo they decided to put on the top of a hill.  It was also stupidly hot when we were there, so we didn't find the energy to explorer.  The ancient amphitheatre was closed..and to be honest I live about 10 minutes for a very nice one.  We parked our car on a street corner and happened, by chance, to walk past a game shop, which was going to open after the afternoon siesta, giving us time to explore the city before popping in on our way home.  'Game Academy' is a franchise of shops local to the region.  They also seem to be very very big on the comicbook front, but they did have a relatively decent collection of games although quite small.  The shop was spacious and clean, they also appeared to have a games library, which contained the Around The World Carcassonne games.  There was one member of staff we could practise saying 'Ciao' to as well.  It seems they also have a shop in Florence, although it is north of the historical centre.  If you're visiting Italy, I would check to see if any of the towns you're visiting has a 'Game Academy', there are over 30-stores in the franchise; but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to visit one if there was pizza or gelato to be had elsewhere.

That's our boardgaming summary of our trip to Florence.  If you're visiting the area soon, I hope it's helpful!

Ciao!

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3544.0


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