European Circle Tour Part 5: The Endless Beauties of Florence

It's a strange feeling to be back in Florence again, when my last visit here was 54 years ago on a school sponsored trip (I was in Grade 11). You'd think I would want to dive right in as much as possible.

 

But my time this year is limited and I wanted to make maximum use of it. After the day-long side trip to Pisa, I had only one day to give to Florence. Even more so than usual, my walking tour through the historic heart of Florence (actually Firenze) skated over the surface -- not least because I never stepped inside a single building. Just like my visit to Pisa.

 

The game is more than a bit like trying to organize advance reservations for all the most popular rides and attractions at a major theme park. Everybody, it seems, wants to get inside the Cathedral, the Campanile, the Baptistery, the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Palazzo Vecchio, Santa Maria Novella... well, you get the idea. Outside every one of these buildings there was a lineup of people who didn't have the reservations, and were going to have to wait for however long it took.  Standing around waiting is definitely not something I can do very well, so I just prefer to get started and keep on going as long as I can.

 

Again like Pisa, there is an extraordinary amount of science, engineering, and artistic detail to consider in these buildings, so there is no shortage of worthwhile targets for your attention on the outside -- targets which many people may miss in their rush to the interiors. 

With that, then, let's start with the church of Santa Maria Novella. I started there, and with the spacious plaza in front of it, because the principal railway station, "Firenze SMN", is located just a block behind the church, and my hotel was just up the road from the station.

 

Here's the façade.  In common with many churches in Tuscany, not just in this city, this bi-coloured or even tri-coloured marble mosaic gives a striking appearance to the front entrance. The remainder of the church, including its bell tower, sticks to the native orange/brown sandstone.

 

The large piazza in front of Santa Maria Novella is quite the people place, lined with shops, sales booths, and cafés, and often featuring live music and other kinds of shows. That's particularly true of holidays, and my day for touring Florence was April 25, Liberation Day, a major and significant national holiday.

 

 

It's a few blocks straight down a major street to the Piazza del Duomo, and the enormous Cathedral of Santa  Maria del Fiore (St. Mary of the Flower) which is the city's crowning glory and dominant landmark. The enormous dome, designed and engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi, remains the largest dome in existence made of brick masonry. The more you study this massive and complex structure, the more you realize that only a city which could command enormous reserves of wealth could ever build such a sacred edifice.

 

 

Setting aside the sheer size, notice that every inch of the Cathedral, the nearby Campanile, and the facing Baptistery -- all are covered with the mosaic of three colours of marble, and the mosaic continues into the interiors as well.

 

Again, there are little and not so little sculptures popping up in various places all around the three buildings. In this first example, by all means admire the grace of the Madonna and of the angels kneeling to her -- but don't miss the multiple intricate layers of borders, all of different design, around the scene.

One of the greatest treasures of all is the set of gilded bronze panels on the east doors of the Baptistery, the doors facing the Cathedral. These doors are frequently called the Gates of Paradise and it's not hard to see why. The sculpted panels depict ten scenes from the Old Testament of the Bible. The amount of detail is eye-popping.

 

 

How on earth did the sculptor, Lorenzo Ghiberti, fit so much perspective depth and so many people into an all-but-flat work to be cast in bronze? This scene of Solomon welcoming the Queen of Sheba to his court exemplifies, for me, the status of these doors as one of the great miracles of European art.

 

I could easily have spent another hour just roaming around the Piazza del Duomo, but it was time to move on -- just a short walk down the road to the Piazza della Signoria. Here you find one of the older buildings in the centre of the city, the Palazzo Vecchio ("Old Palace"), construction of which began in 1299. It now serves as the Town Hall of Florence.

 

The red chairs and the podium up on the steps are placed there because of an impending ceremony in celebration of the national holiday of Liberation Day, April 25 -- and now you know what day I was visiting Florence. The Piazza della Signoria features a significant collection of sculptures -- some original, some copies of originals displayed elsewhere.

 

 

Many of the sculptures are displayed in the Loggia dei Lanzi, an arcade on the south side of the piazza.

 

 

Walk past the Loggia, and you find yourself in the long narrow courtyard between two wings of the Uffizi Palace, one of the several homes of the famous (infamous?) Medici family. It's now the home of one of the world's truly great art galleries. 

On the left side, you can see the line of people waiting to be admitted. The line ran the full length of the courtyard in the open, then doubled back behind the pillars on the left and ran most of the way back to the entrance. A perfect example of why advance tickets, preferably with timed admission if possible, are an essential accessory in modern travel.

 

At the end of the courtyard, there's a momentary chance for a unique view of the hills across the river, a view which strongly suggests a Renaissance landscape -- until it's spoiled by the construction crane.

 

Step through the arch and turn right. You are on the north bank of the Arno, walking towards the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge"). This famous bridge is perhaps the only surviving example in Europe of a kind of bridge which could also be found in medieval times in London and Paris, and no doubt many others -- a bridge lined with shops and apartments.

 

 

A moment like this definitely calls for a selfie. 

 

The overhangs of the buildings could serve not only for hoisting up goods from boats in the river but also for disposing of certain bodily by-products. It's no wonder that most urban rivers in the Middle Ages were no better than open sewers.

 

Up on the bridge's pedestrian-only roadway, it's easy to believe that you're on  "just another street" until you get to those archways at the middle which give views both upstream and downstream. 

The view downstream is a particularly enticing one, featuring the graceful parabolic arches of the Ponte Santa Trinita. Although the crossing point was far older, this particular bridge was built after a catastrophic flood in 1557. The sponsor? The Medici -- surprise, surprise. In an age when virtually all bridges were built with arches that were circular or segments of circles, these parabolic curves were both startling and elegant. The bridge was destroyed by retreating German troops in 1945, and rebuilt after World War II as an exact duplicate in the exact position as before.

 

 

The top level of the Ponte Vecchio houses the famous Vasari Corridor, which joins the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Palace, and the Pitti Palace on the opposite side of the Arno. It was built to enable the Medici to pass easily and out of public observation between these various buildings, all of which they owned by the mid-1500s. The corridor recently re-opened to the public after a long period of closure.

 

Upon leaving the Ponte Vecchio, you have to walk uphill for a couple of blocks to reach the broad piazza in front of the Palazzo Pitti. At first glance it is far more impressive than the Uffizi as a building. It was left incomplete when the original owner, Luca Pitti, lost his wealth before it was finished. Years later, it was purchased by the Medici and that was when it reached its full stature, becoming their principal residence and housing their vast personal art collection. It is now the biggest single art museum in the city.

 

The Florence of centuries ago, a city of immense wealth, of Grand Dukes, of Popes and Kings and Queens, and of remarkable artists, can still be seen by visitors. What's the Florence of today like? Well, it certainly has its playful side -- as illustrated by this sign outside a cafe on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. 

My first thought was "don't bring these things in here" but then, on second thought, what if the real meaning is "leave your drama outside because you're going to encounter things like this if you come in?" Hmm -- I'll just leave this look at a visit to Florence with that question.