FLORENCE
- Josephine
- May 4
- 6 min read
Quick Fun Facts:
Birthplace or cradle of the Italian Renaissance
Ruled by the wealthy Medici banking family
Center of Medieval trade and finance
Located on the Arno River
The UNESCO, a UN agency, has created a list of all arts in the world, and 60% of items from this list are actually in Italy.
A bit of history:
How Florence has grown throughout its history:
800-300 BC Etruscans lived for 500 years.
59BC Julius Cesar was the ruler of Rome
476 End of the Roman Empire
1248
1400 Renaissance (rebirth) began in Florence, art, architecture and science
1500
1861 Italy becomes a unified nations under King Victor Emmanuel II
1865-1870 Florence was the capitol of Italy, later moved to Rome
The height of building was determined by how much money the owner had. Consequently, walking down the street and looking up, one can see the varying amounts of income. Three floor buildings beside four floor or even two flours. Stairs entering in a house were always made of stone so that enemies could not burn the wooden stairs. The horses lived on the main level, while the owners lived on the first floor, and the servants on the top floor. Taxes were based on the width of the façade facing the street so many houses had a narrow façade with an incredible depth.
For wandering in the Center Storico (Historic Center), don’t miss:
There are no words for the Piazza del Duomo and Santa Maria del Fiore
getting a guided tour is worth it as well as to get a description of the Duomo inside
Walk along the famous Villa dello Studio:
Visit Zecchi, an art store where Michelangelo bought his art supplies!! (so much good stuff to see on this street)
Don’t miss the photos of celebrities
Make sure to buy a pack of beautiful Florentine paper with wax drawings to bring home
Further down on this street is a leather goods store called Brunelleschi
And Vecchio Lotto, an antique store worth wandering in
If you keep walking on this street and take a left, you’ll get to a bookstore and café
The Paperback Exchange, Anglo-American Bookstore (i bought Braiding Sweetgrass here)
Coffee or lunch at the La Grotta Toscana
Visit the Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio for a taste of local Italian life:
This is the second famous market after the main Florentine market, where the locals buy their food.
Start early in the morning
Marvel at the tomatoes & fresh produce
Buy a few pieces of fruit to snack on during the day
Coffee at Café Cibreo around the corner
At the end of our three-hour tour, as she launched us out on our own, reminded us, “keep looking up!” Too often once people are tourists on their own, they begin to only look at eye level as they enter and exit and small stores. Looking up we saw and learned the history of shutters. Before glass, windows in buildings were covered with a block of wood. However, during the Crusades, when the Florentines were conquering the Muslims in Persia, they noticed that there were slats in the shutter, which let in light and air throughout the day and night. Their conquests helped improve the housing in Florence. - my mom Martha
Visit Museo di Bargello and Palazzo Vecchio
Paying the extra 5 Euros for a person to guide 5 of us through the secret passages of the Palazzo Vecchio, where the Medici family stored their treasures was worth it. Our English-speaking guide Giacomo made the people of the Medici family come alive, particularly Cosimo I, who was a power and prestige lover to his son Lorenzo who was shy and just wanted to be a quiet researcher in a chemistry lab, a quirky collector (does anyone you know have a collection of bezoars, a tennis ball size ball of indigestible material from the stomach of animals, sometimes called hairballs?) and artist, and not a leader of Florence, Italy.
Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts and supported artists by the names of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli.
Palazzo Vecchio
The Old Palace is a famous landmark in Florence and a symbol of political power – first for the Republic, consisting of 500 representatives and then for the Medici Dynasty which lasted 100 years. The Republic consisted of governmental representatives from the kingdom who lived at the palace and wore red robes with hoods which was the traditional business attire. Fun Fact: Dante, who is known as the father of the Italian language, was also an elected government official is often depicted wearing a red robe with a hood.
Walk along the Arno river and cross at Ponte Vecchio
Side quest: take the Dante train from Florence to Ravenna
Who was Dante? And what do you see and hear on the train?
A restored historical train from Florence, where Dante was born, for three hours to Ravenna, where Dante died. Along the way, we learned a lot about Dante, who is considered the Father of the Italian Language.
Dante was born in Florence in 1265. As was customary in that time, he was betrothed to Gemma, a girl from a wealthy family at the age of 12. Even though he had fallen in love with a girl named Beatrice, he married his fiancé Gemma at about age 20.
Dante, who is considered the Father of the Italian language, due to his political beliefs was exiled and thrown out of his favorite city of Florence. He roamed the Tuscan and Emilia Romangna countryside. Though we were not allowed to exit the train, we stopped in the four towns important during his wanderings: Borgo San Lorenzo, Marradi, Brisghella, and Faenza. Taking the train allows you to see beautiful views of the Italian countryside.
In Ravenna
Buy tickets ahead of time for the famous Byzantine mosaic exhibits located in seven churches
Make sure to not miss the small rectangular mosaics on buildings indicating street names
If you can, talk with artists and workers in mosaic stores who are keeping the tradition alive
The workers were completing a mosaic for a custom floor designed by a customer in India. It was fascinating to see the stacked three feet by three feet completed squares which would be transported to India with directions on how to put the mosaic puzzle together.
Have the most magical lunch at Antica Tratorria Al Gallo 1909
Following lunch you can have a dessert and coffee in their beautiful backyard garden that is truly magical, I never wanted to leave
We not only had an amazing lunch, with purple pasta with made with a fresh blueberry sauce, but afterwards the waitress kindly asked if we wanted to sit in the garden and enjoy a Caffe’ and dessert, of white divinity like cookies. We finished our wine, drank our Deka coffees, nibbled on the cookies, and thought we were in paradise. It was exactly what we needed and made our day in Ravenna complete with happy memories. - my mom
Where We Stayed (a unique art residency outside the main city):
Since we visited during my father's sabbatical year, we were able to stay at a large artist residency as part of Sabbaticalhomes.com, called Residenza del Palmerino (their new website: https://www.palmerino.org). So, sadly this would not be an easy place to stay at as week-long guests (most stay at least 6 months) but it's worth describing and showing a few photos of.
Information from their website on the Residency Program:
"Open year-round, our Residency Programme can be of varying lengths depending on each participant’s creative project and Il Palmerino’s availability. They can last from one week, to three months, or personalized. There are no particular preclusions concerning art work or scholarly research studied or produced during one’s residency, because the association believes in the heterogeneous and multi-disciplinary nature of knowledge and artistic media.
We offer support to our resident artists and scholars by providing information on where to find materials and how to establish contact with the Florentine art scene, or by organising presentations and internal discussions or events with other guests. We also help foster external events with the wider Florentine community, and often facilitate exhibitions and conferences at the end of one’s residency, or organise visits to other events or locations that are relevant to the research in progress."
Pretty unique!
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