Florentin is a neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, which is located in south Tel Aviv and to the east of Neve Tzedek. Florentin is a blend of urban contrasts where you find small workshops adjacent to residential buildings, young residents beside elderly residents, the immigrants and the indigenous.
Many old buildings are mixed with colourful constructions in the neighbourhood, not to mention the Bauhaus architecture-styled buildings in various stages of disrepair. Indeed, many of those buildings are undergoing restoration and maintenance, reacquiring their past beauty. Florentin is one of Tel Aviv’s most fascinating and enchanting neighbourhoods. Even though it is not renovated like Neve Tzedek; nevertheless, Florentin is not less charming than other Tel Aviv’s areas. Designed with a minimalist style, with the purpose to be a modest working-class neighbourhood, during the years, Florentin drew an increasing population of those who preferred to keep that lifestyle. The inhabitants participated in business, worked in workshops and small industrial plants.
Nowadays, most of Florentin’s residents are migrant workers who live in old buildings, with some of the older residents who remained in this urban area. Many students and young citizens have recently relocated to Florentin because of its unique character, vibrant nightlife, and reasonable rent. Indeed, Florentin has a very diverse population, traditionally featured by impoverished workers with an increasing number of youthful and yuppies. Even nowadays, Florentin remains an old Tel Aviv neighbourhood that didn’t experience the same large-scale upscaling as its adjacent neighbour Neve Tzedek. During the years, Florentin became an artist district with the creation of art centres and galleries. It is an iconic and symbolic area of south Tel Aviv. It is a beautiful area where to have long walks, which is pretty different from the modern style of Tel Aviv, and it is becoming more and more popular for its reputation in Tel Aviv nightlife.
Florentin During The Daytime
Florentin is an active and hectic neighbourhood in the morning where clothing merchants, upholsterers, shoemakers, and bakers sell their products in their wagons; meanwhile, furniture makers and carpenters work in the back alleys. An incredible number of laboratories are in the narrow streets, some of them are ancient, and others have opened recently. Different products feature each Florentin street on sale; for example, Wolfson Street is well-known for chandeliers, Matalon Street for household goods and Kfar Giladi for custom-made jewellery.
Day and night, Florentin stimulates your senses. A well-known pathway is Vital Street, which is the heart of Florentin’s nighttime activities with many corner bars, cafés and clubs bustling with fashionable youth, music and chattering overflowing onto the street.
General Information About Florentin
Florentin is a neighbourhood constantly evolving, drifting away from the emargination since it became one of Israel’s most important artistic centres for its lively and vibrant art and alternative culture. It is not only a symbol of south Tel Aviv, but in general of the city, and it is an enthralling area to walk through, pretty different from the modernised Tel Aviv. Florentin’s lifestyle is very distinct and opposite to most places of Tel Aviv, which tourists visit, still keeping its industrial zone traits. Nowadays, it is a crossroads of garment streets where merchants sell clothing, artisans manufacture customised furniture, and businesses come from across Israel to purchase specific merchandise. The Levinsky Market is filled with small stores selling international food specialities such as Turkish, Greek and Romanian products, besides cheeses, dried fruits, kosher meats, and spices. Florentin is at the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa around Rehov Salome.
Florentin Nightlife
By night, Florentin changes his character from a place of hard work to an area of loose freedom. Little bars sell cocktails, and peoples flow over the sidewalks for pizza and falafel. This bizarre neighbourhood became one of the most popular areas in the pulsing Tel Aviv nightlife. It is a neighbourhood which is totally full of contrasts in many ways that give it a really unique peculiarity.
History Of Florentin
Florentin’s eccentric reputation is due to a mixture of contrasts such as poverty and wealth, hard work and fun, instability and permanence, with all these features being linked to its history.
In the late 1990s, a partial restoration took place in the area Florentin. During the period of partial restoration of Florentin, a community of artists and designers grew and created trendy business spaces starting from scratch employing spaces in neglected buildings. Ever since, Florentin changed progressively, becoming an area full of bars, restaurants, and trendy shops that crowd the neighbourhood’s streets, with nightclubs and live music venues in place of abandoned warehouses and basements. This transformation shaped Florentin into one of Tel Aviv’s most popular points, not only for the artistic crowd but also for the mainstream.