Florence is the most surprising city we visited on this journey through Italy. I really didn’t expect to like this place as much as I do now, I guess it has something to do with the fact that there are so much art and history in the air, on the wall, and everywhere around you. Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and it also the most dense in population in the region. It is a center of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is also considered the birthplace of the Renaissance. One of the families that has ruled over this place is the famous Merdici family, one of history’s most important noble families, it is also the Merdici family descendant who donated the Uffizi Gallery from their “personal family collection” so we get to see some great original art from the time of the Renaissance. There are 2 popes from the Merdici family in the 16th century, they also have 2 princesses (who married kings). They are also reponsible for many of the current invention of their time, for example, they brought forks and knives over to France when Catherine de Medici married king Henry II. The Merdici family is not only influential politically but also financially, they commissioned works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli, names we are all familiar with to this day.
Our Florence tour guide was a elegant lady who studied art history in Florence, she took us inside the Uffizi, which literally means office, (rumored to have some sort of untimely strike going on the day we visited), and showed and explained to us the two most important pieces of art: The Birth of Venus and Spring both by Sandro Botticelli. The Uffizi is physically linked by a bridge hallway called the Vasari Corridor to the city center Palazzo Vecchio, also made by and for the Merdici family so they don’t have to go outside when they wish to cross from the town hall to their office.
We also visited Dante‘s old home and church, which is also made famous by the recent novel of Dan Brown. Dante’s description of Inferno was more than historically improtant to his future generation of artists and poets, he inspired and molded art in all forms by writing the Divine Comedy, so much so that one of the painting in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican drew the inspiration of Dante.
Of course, you can’t miss Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower), also called Il Duomo di Firenze, when you are in Florence. This is hands down my favortie and the most impressive cathedral I’ve seen in Italy, and we visited quite a few. It was beginning from 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Camio and completed structurally in 1436, then you do the math, that’s 140 years. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival facade. I would have love to go inside, but apparently they only allow a set number of visit everyday and those tickets are almost unobtainable. But hey, more reason/excuse to come back next time!
Ohh yeah, there’s also the Ponte Vecchio spanning at the narrowest point of the Arno River.
