Today we ventured several hours north to the city of Florence, or Firenze as it is known in Italian. We had been warned about the difficulty driving and parking in Florence, so we identified a parking lot on the city outskirts with nearby public transportation to the city center. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the parking lot we discovered it was closed for renovations. Carol quickly found an alternate parking lot just outside the restricted driving zone near the city center and Dave battled the traffic to get there. One of our guide books described driving in Italy as a blood sport and our experience getting in and out of Florence support that assessment. Dave handled the driving well and noted that if you disregard all traffic rules and assume everyone else will too, it becomes a lot more manageable. Never the less, we made it to an underground parking lot within walking distance of the downtown sights we came to see.
Our first stop was to buy Firenzecards for everyone. Firenzecards are essentially prepaid tickets for nearly one hundred sights and museums in and around Florence. They also give priority access to many of the sights and probably reduced our time waiting in line by two or three hours.
Next, we ate lunch at a small café where Carol had a wonderful pasta with zucchini flowers and saffron sauce.
Then we headed to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower) or the Duomo, as it is normally called. Duomo comes from the Latin word for house and is the Italian term for a cathedral, or house of God. Construction of the Duomo of Florence was started in 1296 and finished in 1436. The impressive dome is actually constructed as a dome within a dome providing a crawlspace in between for eager tourists to ascend to the cupola. We climbed the claustrophobic 463 steps from the church floor to the top, emerging exhausted, but grateful for the amazing views of the city.
The Duomo of Florence was truly an imposing and impressive sight. The white, green, and red marble façade was added between 1876 and 1887, and is much more ornate than the muted interior. We climbed up to the top of the dome which is about 375 feet above street level and towers over the rest of the city.Most of the climb was in narrow stairwells and crawlspaces. The one exception was along a catwalk just below the inner dome affording a close up view of the fresco by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari of the Last Judgement.The views from the cupola were amazing. This view to the east shows the impressive bell tower and gives some sense of how much the dome towers over the other buildings in the city and people down in the piazza.This view to the south shows the Palazzo Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery in the center which we toured later in the day.This picture was taken after we partially recovered from the exhausting climb and could manage smiles again.The Piazza della Signoria is the historic center of Florence. The Palazzo Vecchio (center) has served as the palace for the ruling families of Florence as well as its town hall. Several prominent statues line the piazza, including a replica of Michelangelo’s David.Michelangelo’s David stood outside the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio from 1504 to 1873, when it was moved to the Accademia Gallery. In 1527 a bench was thrown from a palace window during a riot and broke David’s left arm off. This replica was put in its place in 1910.Carol poses in the first courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain in the middle, Plutto with Dolphin, has water piped from the Medici palace located across the Arno River to the south.We continued to the Uffizi Gallery just south of Palazzo Vecchio and passed this performance artist. His name is Tommaso and has been playing Cupid for more than a decade.Today, the U shaped building has large halls (shown above) adorned with roman sculptures and many side rooms with an impressive collection of renaissance art.Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera from 1482. It is described by Giorgio Vasari as “Venus as a symbol of spring, being adorned with flowers by the Graces.” (Vasari was born in Arezzo and painted some of the dome fresco in the Duomo) Fun fact: almost 200 species of flowers are included in the scene.This is Botticelli’s more famous painting, The Birth of Venus, from 1484. The colors were more muted than the Primavera, but still very striking.This marble sculpture of a Wild Boar is from the first century AD and is a Roman copy of a Greek bronze original. Upon seeing it, Carol and Dave both starting singing the opening lines of the Hogwarts school song from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling; “Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts”. We easily amuse ourselves.The Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge over the River Arno in Florence. It was destroyed twice by floods and rebuilt in 1345. The bridge was originally lined with butcher shops, although they have been replaced with high-end jewelry shops. In 1565 Cosimo I de’ Medici (who initiated the Uffizi) had Giorgio Vasari build the Vasari Corridor above it so the Medici family could travel privately between their palace across the river and the Uffizi.Doni Tondo, circa 1508, is believed to be the only movable (i.e., not on a wall or ceiling) painting by Michelangelo. It features the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with the infant John the Baptist (the patron saint of Florence).Perseus Liberating Andromeda by Piero di Cosimo, circa 1513, was a favorite of ours. Everything about the painting seems original. One amusing detail is all of the instruments are unplayable as they are missing strings or sound boxes.Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch from 1506. In this scene, Mary watches an infant Jesus touching the goldfinch held by an infant John the Baptist.Francesco Raibolini’s Madonna and Child with St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua, circa 1500. We couldn’t help but not the uncanny resemblance between St. Anthony and Jude Law.Finally, the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Girolamo Genga, circa 1515. The description in the Uffizi caught our eye as it pointed out “The soldier’s gaudy costumes suggest that the painter has a certain familiarity with the theatre.”At the end of our Uffizi tour we emerged onto a terrace looking north at the Duomo we climbed earlier in the day.Our final stop in Florence was the Galleria dell’Accademia, the home of Michelangelo’s David. He is truly beautiful and impressive. He was originally intended to be displayed on the roof of the Duomo so his proportions are adjusted slightly to appear appropriate if viewed from below.Visitors can walk around the pedestal to view the David from all angles. We spent about a half an hour walking around, discovering and admiring all the intricate details.We quickly viewed a few more paintings and sculptures in the Accademia and, as it was a few minutes before closing, we skipped the final gallery to make a quick exit through the gift show where we noticed a somewhat irreverent magnetic dress up game for Venus and David.On the way back to our car we stopped for a second gelato treat. During the drive home Carol discovered that the one room we skipped in the Accademia contained the oldest piano forte in the world Mannaggia!
