What can be said about Florence, its great and its a nightmare all at once. It's thoroughly obvious that this city has the been the crossroads of Italian culture for centuries. The city was founded by Caesar in 59 B.C. as a retirement place for his soldiers and has been thriving ever since. The Middle Ages saw the rise of the infamous Medici family. They left an irrefutable mark on the city with all the buildings built for the family and all of the art work they had commissioned by the greats of the Renaissance. There are amazing buildings everywhere you look and, unfortunately, tons of tourists standing around taking pictures of them. I guess we are as guilty as they but we can pretend we're not. Right? We checked into our hotel and set off for a great view of the city.
The first building we came across was the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. The building dates back to the 13th century and took around 100 years to complete. Credit for the design is given to two friars, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi. Unfortunately, the inside was closed so we decided to take a walk along the river and make our way for the Piazza Michelangelo. Of course, looking at the map, we had no idea that the Piazza was high up on a hill. The hike wasn't too bad and the view at the top was great.
Along our walk, we were struck by a long line of classic looking cars that kept stopping in the street. There was a guy dressed like an policeman from earlier in the 20th century and the cars would stop and people would give him some kind of gift before continuing on. We watched the spectacle for a bit but the cop eventually collected his prizes and walked off. Further down, we crossed the Arno River on the Vecchio Bridge. The bridge is an old stone bridge with tons of shops built into it. They were originally used by butchers but the modern shops are all jewelers and artisan stores, although those are rare. The bridge dates to the mid 14th century as the previous two were swept away by floods. We walked across the bridge and tried not to bump into all of the tourists everywhere. We passed a monument dedicated to Galileo Galilei that sits at the base of the hill up to the Piazza. From the top, we were able to get a good view of the city and the surrounding area but, unfortunately, the cloudy, rainy weather did not want to cooperate with us.
After visiting the Piazza, we headed back down the hill and across the river to the famous Santa Croce Basilica. It is the largest Franciscan Church in the world, has 16 chapels with tons of fresco paintings, and is even rumored to have been built by St. Francis. It, like everything else we would soon learn, cost a lot to get into. When I say a lot, I don't mean 15 euros or anything like that but seven to eight euros a go and tons of places to see adds up quickly. We purchased our ticket and walked through the church. The first thing that is striking about the church is how white it is and the dark wooden ceilings. The tombs of many famous people like Galileo Galilei and Michelangelo(pictured above) are found in the Basilica.
We ended our first day of walking with a stroll around the main square, Piazza del Signore, and an attempt to visit the Uffizi Art Museum. We had to wait in line for quite a while, 45 minutes, just to get to the ticket counter. We met a nice young couple who had decided to honeymoon in Italy. I know it sounds romantic to take a honeymoon to Italy but the idea of standing in tons of lines for long waits and being constantly surrounded by tons of tourists and places that are losing their charm doesn't sound fun to us. The girl seemed to be going along with the idea because he wanted to see all the buildings he studied in school.
Our second day in Florence, we went for some long walks. We headed up to the Accademia to see the famous statue of David. The museum is small and full of boring old paintings. It was established in 1563 and has seen many of the famous names of the Italian art scene throughout the years. They are strict about not allowing people to take pictures in the museum. Of course, tons of tourists think they can get away with being sly and taking phone pics but they never escaped the view of the two guards watching the statue. From there, we headed back to the Piazza del Duomo. The Cathedral was the only building that offered a free tour. The inside was dark and cold. There were paintings all around the walls and the painting of the dome is amazing. To get up to it costs eight euros. The cathedral was finished in 1436 after the church officials commissioned a new church to be built on the site. The dome is the biggest octagonal dome without support structures. The outside is a beautiful green and marble color scheme and could use a deep cleaning. After the duomo, we tried out one of the Medici houses. The insides are ornate and very ostentatious with lots of ceilings paintings and gold trim painting like you see below.
We spent the rest of the day waiting in line to get into the Uffizi. We've heard its one of the most popular art galleries in Western Europe. It was built in the 16th century and has, like most things in Florence, ties to the Medici family. It was built for Cosmo Medici as a place for court magistrates. The building makes a U shape and is lined with art galleries featuring work by most of the major Renaissance painters. One of the oddest things was how they had some of the museum's at another gallery and wanted to offer a discount to see them with your Uffizi ticket. So you have to pay double to see those pieces. They better be good. We finished our night with a pizza and caught a train the next morning to Rome. From Rome, we flew back to Madrid and thus ended our Christmas vacation.
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