Florence - Art, Architecture, and Crowds

Santa Maria del Fiori

Florence, the city of the ruling Medicis, patrons of the arts and bankers.  Here is the location where the renaissance really began.  We rode the train from Camucia to Florence.  It was a ride that took about 2 hours.  We arrived at the Santa Maria Novella Church station which is in the middle of the old part of town. The first thing we planned was climbing the stairs to the top of the Campinile (bell tower) of the Santa Maria del Fiori which has the main Duomo of town.

It was quite a feat for a claustrophobic, acrophobic, klutz to climb 413 steps to the top of a 270 foot tower without slipping once.  I really had to work on conquering my irrational fears to make the climb up, then had to be really careful on the way down so that I did no slip.

Campinile

Below is the best picture I could get of the dimly lit, narrow, steep passageway.  Luckily,  at every landing there was a small window which let in fresh air and let us see out.  Also, there were two large open areas on the way up where we could catch our breaths and I could work on convincing myself that I could keep going.

Stairs up Campinile

Mary at halfway point

Mike with Duomo in background

View of  city from the top

View of Duomo from the top

The upper right photo shows people on the Duomo.  It was 50 steps higher and did not have a very high rail around it .  I enjoyed the view from the bell tower.

 After this climb we went to the Duomo museum.  It contained many of the original paintings, frescoes, and sculptures from the Cathedral.  Many were made in the 1400's and were very striking to look at.  The two things I enjoyed the most were the Pieta by Michelangelo and the Mary Magdalene by Donatello.  Both are pictured below.

Mary Magdelene

Pieta

 Next we walked to the Ponte Vechhio which is the oldest bridge over the Arno River.  It contains jewelry, gold, and silver shops.  This is where the crowd part of Florence really set in.

Replica of Statue of David

Mary in front of Ponte Vecchio

   Above, I am standing in front of the Ponte Vecchio.  Below are three more pictures of the bridge.  Mike is standing at the center section of the bridge.  Notice how green the river is. Yuch!   Mike and I have noticed that most of the streams we have seen are this color which means they are polluted with some type of organic matter (probably sewage).        
                                                 

Notice the green colored river

Mike on the bridge

  After leaving the Ponte Vecchio we had our first store bought gelato.  It was great both because it tasted so good and because it had gotten very hot out.

Doors of the Baptistry

Mary in front of Baptistry

After leaving this area, we walked back to the Cathedral to have one last look.  It is truly amazing and worth the trip to Florence in and of itself. On the doors of the Baptistry of the Cathedral are Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" copies.  The originals are in the museum we visited, but were not available for viewing because they were being restored.  Very disappointing. These two pictures show the copies.  They are amazing.  Oh yeah, and the crowds!

Santa Maria Novella Church

Finally, we made our way back toward the train, stopping on the way to tour the Santa Maria Novella Church.  We didn't go in many of the most popular places like the Accademia or the Uffizi because of the long lines.  None of the places we visited had lines or crowds inside and still had some remarkable art.  A couple of art novices like us can only take in so much in one day anyway.  Inside Santa Maria Novella were frescoes by Lippi and Ghirlandaio that were truly inspiring.  These took many years to complete and were very large.  There also was a painting by Masaccio the "Trinity" that was the first painting to appear 3-D due to perspective.  I have no pictures of these because no photography was allowed inside.  After this we headed home on the crowded train full of tourists and commuters.   Long, but very worthwhile day.  Mike and I have had enough of large cities.  We enjoyed the art, architecture, and history, but hate crowds.  We will keep to the Tuscan countryside until we have to head to Rome for our flight home next week.  Until next time.  Buon Giorno (Good Day)!