Our European Holiday Day 4 - Florence

Today we fell in love with Florence. It is such a beautiful place. We love the art, architecture, and people of this city. This is truly an amazing city.

We started out today with a tour. Once again we went through the company Walks of Italy. This was by far the best tour of the trip. That is not to say any of our other tours were bad, this tour was incredible. We met our guide near our first stop, the Galleria dell'Accademia. Our guide was Theresa from Austria, she told us she did not need a card or the last name because she is the only Theresa from Austria who gives tours in Florence. At first, we were a little bummed we did not have an Italian guide, but disappointment soon faded when we recognized she was an awesome guide.

The Galleria dell'Accademia is a museum that is really built around one piece - the David. Our guide did a fantastic job of preparing us to see this masterpiece. She helped us get into the head of Michelangelo and to understand what drove him. We were one of the first groups inside so it was relatively uncrowded (at the end of our tour we were given 5 minutes of free time in the gift shop, which Alison and I used to run back into the museum. It was so packed you could hardly move around any of the artwork). We slowly made our way around David. Our guide explained the history of this statue. It was originally intended to go atop the Duomo, but when it was finished they decided to place it in the town square. After many years (and a couple of lightning strikes and a bench falling out of a window on the statue) they built the Galleria dell'Accademia to house it. This piece of art really moved me - more than anything else I have seen. We took a lot of time to walk around the David and to really notice the little details. The look of concentration on his face, his finger and toenails, the sling wrapping around his back, and the veins in his hands and feet. More than any other statue we have seen Michelangelo brought David to life. I feel lucky to have had so much time to marvel at his masterpiece.

After our focus on the David we spent a little time working our way back through the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the prisoner (or unfinished works) that are housed in the museum. These were meant to be part of a huge funerary monument to the Pope, but the Pope had Michelangelo paint the Sistine chapel instead of working on his monument, and then the Pope died. These works provide an opportunity to see the process Michelangelo went through as he brought forth his creations out of marble.

We left the Galleria dell'Accademia and headed toward the Duomo. The Duomo is amazing, our guide told us that it was built because the proud Florentine people wanted to have a better church than their surrounding neighbors. They succeeded - it is truly breathtaking.

We started our exploration of the Duomo in the baptistry. This was the place where all Catholics in Florentine were baptized up until the 1960s. This included some pretty prominent individuals, including Dante. It is a very beautiful building, with the final judgment depicted on the ceiling. Alison pointed out that it is not hard to see the potential inspiration behind the Divine Comedy when we look at this ceiling. An anti-pope was also buried in the baptistry. He was elected to be Pope during a time of great dissension in the Church. No single cardinal received enough votes to become Pope. Instead, each region had its own Pope. Hence, he was not really legitimate. However, he made one very important move during his time vying for leadership of the Church. He involved the Medicis in the financial matters of the church and thus cemented their power. His dying wish was to be buried in the baptistry and they made it happen.

Our next stop was the Duomo museum. This museum had many fascinating items. One very interesting item was the Gates of Paradise crafted by Lorenzo Ghiberti. These gold doors took him nearly 30 years to craft. They have 3D gold images of some of the most significant old testament stories. The images speak for themselves, but on them, he even inscribed the words - this is a masterpiece. Other interesting items included relics (such as the alleged finger of John the Baptist), a carving of Penitent Magdalene by Donatello, and Michelangelo's second-to-last sculpture. His second to last sculpture was a Pietà which was mostly finished and partially broken by Michelangelo himself. His last wish was to be buried under this Pietà, but this wish was not respected.

Allegedly this is one of the fingers of John the Baptist

Finally, it was time to enter the Duomo. Quite a line had formed to gain access, but our tour allowed us to enter through a separate entrance and skip the line entirely. These tours would have been 100% worth the cost for the time savings alone. In all of Rome and now in Florence we did not have to stand in a single line. We saw many long lines, but we were able to skip all of them. Not only did this tour allow us to skip the line, but once we were inside the Duomo we were able to behind some velvet ropes to explore the less crowded portions of the church. Other visitors had to stay within defined walkways and we could walk around and get up closer to the details we wanted to explore. The inside of the Duomo is a little underwhelming. It was not nearly as decedent as many of the other churches we have seen. Instead, it had a serene beauty. The dome was easily the most interesting part.

After seeing the dome from the ground we ascended to the Duomo terrace for an up-close look at the outside of Brunelleschi’s enormous dome. There were no other groups allowed on the terrace. Right before we went out our guide warned us not to lean over the edge because there really were no guard rails installed to catch us at the edge of the terrace. We stood here next to the dome and our guide explained how Brunelleschi’s, a man untrained in architecture used the example of an egg to convince the powers that be to let him build their dome. To this day it is the largest brick dome in the world and the methods he pioneered revolutionized brick architecture.

At the end of our terrace experience, our guide bid us adieu. She was by far the best guide we had on this trip. We absolutely loved her. It was apparent that she cared deeply about everything we saw today and that it was her passion to help us understand and appreciate the beauty that we beheld. She genuinely cared about each member of our group and wanted to help us become Florentines. I just cannot say enough good things about this experience.

At the end of our tour, we were given the option to continue our ascent to the top of the dome. It seems like we love to climb towers on vacation so we made our way up. On our way, we got to come out right under the inside of the dome. As we climbed the stairs we could also see the space between the inner and outer domes. It was fascinating. At the top were the most beautiful views of Florence. We had heard about the red rooftops of Florence, but we did not really understand it until we saw it for ourselves.

By the time we finished these adventures, we were starving. Our guide had recommended we have lunch at the Mercato Centrale. It was close so we decided to give it a try. It was delicious. Alison had spaghetti al carbonara and I had gnocchi, both were handmade and cooked right in front of us and both tasted divine. It was so good we want to go back and eat lunch there again tomorrow. When we finished eating our pasta we saw a lady making cannoli. We bought one (she assured Alison we wanted two because Alison would eat the one we bought herself). We have both had cannoli before and neither of us liked it. Turns out it was because they did not make it the way this lady did. She filled the crust with fresh cream and dipped it in freshly chopped almonds. It was so good that Alison did want to eat it all herself, luckily for me she was kind enough to share.

We wandered through some shops after lunch. I bought a leather belt. I have needed a new belt for a while and Alison convinced me to buy it. Florence is known for their leather goods. It seems like a good belt. We made our way over to the Medici Chapel (we had passed by it on our way to lunch). We decided to do some other things today so we did not go inside. We wanted to walk over to the Pitti Palace. It was a pretty hot day so before we did we looked for a little gelato shop our guide had recommended. It was so funny she said, I invite you to never eat at a gelato shop with giant piles of gelato. She explained that if they have giant piles of gelato it is because they make too much and end up storing it for many days. The place she recommended, La Strega Niccola, did not have piles of gelato, in fact, the gelato was in little metal cans with lids. You couldn't even see the gelato. It was in fact the most delicious gelato I have ever had. I got a white chocolate cinnamon gelato and savored every bite.

As we ate we wandered the Pitti Palace. We love wandering among the streets of Florence. We passed by the Piazza Vecchio and crossed the Arno river over the Ponte Vecchio bridge.

We found ourselves at the Pitti Palace. It is a vast palace that has housed Medici and royalty over the years. It has now been converted into a museum. We spent a few hours wandering the halls of this opulent residence. It seemed crazy to consider that this was once someone's home. The art was very eclectic. The frescos and ceiling painting was mostly neoclassical (which I very much enjoyed) while much of the hanging art was mainly Renaissance paintings including works by Raphael, Titian, Perugino, Correggio, and Rubens. This was not our favorite artist we have seen this trip and if we came back to Florence we probably wouldn't visit the Pitti Palace again. However, it was a nice way to get out of the sun (it was a hot day).

Our next stop was Piazzale Michelangelo. It is about a mile from the Pitti Palace. The first portion of the mile is a very nice walk along the river. The final portion is straight up steep steps set into a hill. Alison was curing our decision as we walked up the steps (as I mentioned it was a fairly warm day). When we got to the top she begrudgingly admitted it was worth the climb. We had beautiful panoramic views of the city of Florence. It was an awesome place to relax and enjoy this beautiful city.

When we were done soaking in the view we made our way to the Basilica di Santa Croce. This is an interesting church because the front-facing facade looks very similar to the Duomo (the rest of the church does not). Outside the church is a large statue of Dante. Inside many famous individuals are buried including Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Dante. It is a very beautiful church. When we arrived the church was only open for another 30 minutes, but that gave us plenty of time to look around. There is a beautiful art and very interesting funerary monuments throughout the church.

We were once again hungry so we found a restaurant and had dinner. Alison ate spaghetti and meatballs while I had a calzoni, which is really not very much like a calzone in America (I was worried it would be). It was big and had great flavor. I was very happy with my meal choice.

After dinner, we walked along the Arno river by the Ponte Vecchio again and then through Florence by the Duomo. Our day ended where it began at the Piazza San Marco. It was a dreamy day in Florence.