Florence - the heart of Italy

From an 1807 atlas - A General View of the World - I added the heart!

Looking at a map of Italy and comparing it to the human form; Florence is nearly in the right position for the heart. But anatomy aside, it seems also to have been the center of awe and the drive to search out beauty and new ideas, the tripod upon which love flourishes. The Renaissance was born in Florence from a group of powerful personalities who were discontent with the blinkered suspicions of their age and their nurture of inspiring thinkers and artists. Florence is a compact and beautiful old city. It certainly stole a chunk of my heart.

The Lily of  Firenze (Florence)

My earliest awareness of Florence as a place came from my childhood obsession with stationery. I clearly remember a rare trip into Ballantynes (the Harrods of Christchurch NZ) with mum where I saw the beautiful flourishes of pink, green, blue and gold on expensive letter writing packs and the marbled insides of leather bound journals.  This seemed to my small mind the very essence of wealth and instantly struck a shaft of covetousness in my soul. Finding out where this was made put Florence on the map for me.
Unfortunately both my spelling and handwriting were so deplorable that I didn't even ask for them - I would never have dreamed of sullying such beauty with my own writing. While living in Cambridge, M went to a book binding class and made me a beautiful hand sewn, marbled covered journal.  It still lies empty from that same shame. Both of us were keen to go to the famous Florentine paper shops. M to stock up on some more hand marbled paper because the last of the Cambridge family that made it have retired, and me to feel like that giddy school girl again reveling in the beauty of new stationery.

One of the family showing us where they still hand marbled paper for their book binding business. They had run out of posting tubes so we had to track down a normal stationery shop to buy one for the sheets we selected.  

Florence actually got into the pretty paper game late - The Arabs adopted the Chinese art and then when Islam forbade pictorial representations of figures they also made it a crime to damage the marbled paper. The Venetians bought the secrets into Europe.  The lady I spoke to in 'Alberto Cozzi' told me that it wasn't until the late 1840s that the town was flooded with English 'pre-Raphaelites' wanting flowery initials and gothic illuminations. The savvy Florentine spotted a gap in the market and proceeded to corner it. Florence is one of the few places left in the world still producing hand made marbled paper and although the Florentine designs have always been printed by machine - they are still keeping the family businesses afloat.

Find this shop on Via del Parione - cozzi.alberto.sas@tiscali.it - to order online.

There are many beautiful and story filled piazzas but the two competing for center stage are Piazza di San Giovanni in front of the Cathedral(Duomo) and Piazza della Signoria in front of Palazzo Vecchio(Old Palace). Neither of these are the biggest open spaces in town but they have tussled for the power of Florence over the centuries. Today they are both full of tourists drinking in the astounding sights, one to the Glory of God and one to the Glory of Man.

Left: Firenze Duomo -   Right: Palazzo del Popolo / Palazzo della Signoria / Palazzo Ducale / from 1550 Palazzo Vecchio.

The two buildings were designed and began by the same architect - Arnolfo di Cambio. He laid the foundation stone for the Duomo in September 1296, this took over 200 yrs to be complete enough for dedication. The years and changes of design and architects were worth the intricate cladding of green, pink and white marble and the final shape that is said to emulate the form of the lily of Florence. Cambio was also asked to build a town hall for the city by the Priori and people of Florence in 1299. This medieval fortress was completed in only 23 years, the last addition being a huge bell hoisted to the top of the tower.

Front Doors - the original David used to stand here but is now in a museum - this is a 1800's copy.

Left: The Final Judgement in the Duomo's dome, designed by Giogio Vasari but his death prevented him completing them so his student Frederico Zuccari painted most of them, finished c1579.
Right:  Inside the entrance courtyard of the Town Hall. 

Both the Cathedral and the Town Hall were built on top of demolished buildings. The Duomo was built on top of another sanctuary and the Palazzo del Popolo (people's palace or town hall) on top of the family home of the Uberti.  This ensured that they could never live in the centre of Florence again. These rebels of Florence had dared to enforce a dictatorship upon the Florentine! The large square tower from another family's residence was saved and incorporated into the town hall design. The Uberti Palazza was built upon the ruins of the Roman theater which are able to be seen at the basement level of the Palazza Vecchio. (The last of many names this building has been known by.)

M took this from Piazzale Michelangelo
Left: Veecchio Bell Tower,                 Center: Duomo and it'd Bell Tower,                 Right: Santa Croce Bell Tower.

The long market street at the corner of our hotel.  In the green roofed building to the right is a huge artisan food market. 50yr old Balslamic vinegar for as many Euro. magnificent pasta, superb breads and cheeses, cherries, cherries and more cherries.

After turning into Piazza di San Giovanni from many winding market lanes we were all gobsmacked at the sight of the Duomo - appearing in the morning light and stunning us with the perfection of its shape, proportions and mosaic marble. There should be warning signs in all the narrow dark streets full of bling and tourist tatt that lead into the square warning of a 'hit of beauty'. Willow's Italian friends blame all colds and flu on a 'hit of air' and fuss around her with scarves when she doesn't demonstrate the appropriate amount of concern for draughts. The sudden shock of light and beauty of the Duomo across the piazza left me wide eyed and breathless, despite the substatial scaffolding wrapped around the large baptistery in front of us.

A back view of the Cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
The richness of the green and pink marble and the white shine just didn't come out as well in these shots. All the white marble is from Carrara, a town in northern Tuscany.  Michelangelo choose this to sculpt his David and Pieta.

After some time spent failing to capture the whole of it on 'chip'(film is not really accurate anymore) Poss and I went off to find out how much looking inside was going to cost(it is free to go into the Basilica).  Of course there are huge lines to see inside any of the museums and historically significant buildings in the summer holidays. On the way we were accosted by a well spoken young man wanting to fill his English tour (they always make the good looking ones the scouts and the plainer ones the money collectors.) Paying for the guided tour meant we could go straight away, the girls were given cover up scarves and in we trooped. The majority of the interior was surprisingly sparse. Our guide pointed out that the many masterpiece that used to adorn the walls and alcoves were removed long ago to galleries around the city and the world.

These two paintings were excitedly pointed out by our guide as the result of Brunelleschi's discovery of perspective in drawing, he was the architect of the Duomo's dome. The Florentine's decided that with this miracle they no longer needed to go to the expense of sculpture to celebrate their military leaders.  These were considered flat sculptures. Lots of tourists came to Florence to admire this act of sorcery.  Art historians say that Masolino da Panicale - a contemporary of the architect, was the first to produce a painting with proof of convergence to a single vanishing point in  his 1425 'Miracles of St Peter'.  The perspective of my lowly camera shot has skewed their presentation here!

This painting of Dante's Divine Comedy is the only portrait we have of this Italian equivalent to Chaucer.  Dante wrote his masterpiece in the local vernacular which shaped what the Italian language would become. His 'rainbow layers' of paradise promised that a social hierarchy would exist in the heavens just as it did on Earth. Notice Florence's main landmarks on the right - the artist is making the suggestion that Florence is near to heaven. See a much better reproduction of  Domenico di Michelino's painting at this website  http://www.florenceinferno.com/la-commedia-illumina-firenze/
The image is the clearest I could find.

This is the clock in the Duomo.  We were told that it is the only clock in the world to still keep Italian time. (The clocks we are used to - 2x 12 hours from midnight to noon etc is French time.) The end and beginning of the day was considered to be sunset. Every week the clock would be set so that the single hand would point to the 24 at sunset. The bell would strike several times in the hour before sunset warning farmers that they were to leave their fields and secure their animals in order to get back into the city before the gates were locked for the night.

Left: Detail of a window surround.  Right:Inside the Duomo - many walls are left free of decoration.

The baptistry, which was covered in scaffolding, the Campanile and the subterranean digs of tombs and Roman remains all had to be paid for separately or as an expensive combo ticket so we left them for another day.

Left: The Abraham panel of the East doors of the Baptistry.  Right: Lorenzo Ghiberti's gilded "Gates of Paradise".  Michelangelo called them this after a 27 year long effort to create the panels in using the new perspective rules. What I photographed are reproductions - the originals were removed because of  weather damage, they've since been restored and are in Florence's Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce.

It is interesting that Florence gladly accepted the 'Dukedom' of the Medici. When Cosimo made the Town Hall his residence and ruled over the council he quietly changed the Republic to a Principality. He didn't use warfare or marriage alliances but commerce. He made pots of money through trade then squeezed out his rival's earning capacity.

Cosimo  1389-1464                      His Grandson    -   Lorenzo the Magnificent  1449-1492

To the modern day Florentine he is still a hero for the ingenuity of public works and for lifting Florence to compete with Venice for riches. He encouraged freedom of thought and poached clever people from other rulers whenever he heard of them, sometimes without the express permission of the poachee. He established 3 libraries in Florence and had Plato translated from Ancient Greek. He was also an astute general and won battles against Pisa and Sienna becoming ruler of Tuscany and making Florence the powerful capital. (Florentine bread still doesn't have salt in it because salt was the main export of Pisa and the city refused to support or be reliant on their enemy in any way. The only downside of Florentine cuisine!) Somehow the clever Medici managed to hold total control yet win the love and approval of 'their subjects' by creating a haze of freedom within this bubble.

Cosimo had a grandson - Lorenzo, who inherited his father's brief rule and became even more adored by the masses. A rival family, with the blessing and backing of the Pope, attempted to assasinate Lorenzo, to get rid of him and grab Tuscany for the Papal state. Lorenzo escaped this although his younger brother was killed in the attack during Mass in the Duomo.  The citizens hunted down all the assassins and captured them for trial - of course they died a horrid death, the Pisa Archbishop supposedly hung in his ecclesiastical gowns from the windows of the Town Hall.

Famous Artists of Florence.

Instead of taking his revenge against the ambitious Pope, Lorenzo sent some of the city's most celebrated artists, including Michelangelo, to help in the renovations of the Vatican.

In the 'Magnificent' film hall. Poss comfortable in a lily chair; M expressing himself with interpretive dance.

A 'Lorenzo the Magnificent' show was advertised in the pile of tourist brochures I had picked up from the Hotel foyer. It promised an overview of the Medici's Florence which I thought would be useful to help the troop appreciate the other treasures they would be seeing. The €5 film that wrapped all the walls of a large hall told only the good of this Renaissance Duke and none of his dark deeds.

Famous Thinkers of Florence

Lorenzo's eldest son was asked by the city to be their leader upon his death but got kicked out for selling off Pisa and the nearby port, Livorno, to the French for peace. Lorenzo's second son was made Cardinal, at 13 while his dad was still in power, by a grateful Pope. He eventually became Pope himself and was able to reestablish his family in Florence after. The greatest thing about the Medici family is that they saved countless works of art and written treasures from being destroyed by stowing them away in their out of town villas.

Botticelli's two most famous works are hung opposite each other in a gallery in the Uffuzi Gallery. His Birth of Venus makes you wonder if her ever saw the sea - but I do love the colour. Primavera celebrates Spring peopled with Venus, Cupid, the Three Graces, Zephyrus and Flora.  He obviously used the same lady friend as a model for both paintings.  When the paintings were shown she must have become a celebrity.

Friar Girolamo Savonarola

A big Glitch in the Renaissance was a Dominican monk who had a hatred of freedom and beauty. He got a foothold in Florence by preaching against the corruption of the church. The Papacy had recently introduced indulgences - where priests could sell redemption - the bigger the sin the bigger the sum. The business savvy citizens of Florence agreed that this was a dubious transaction and began to take note of Savonarola's threats of hell fire and calls for repentance. He became so obsessed in his own importance that he took control of the city through guilt and threats of torture, even 'prophesying' foreign invasion as he secretly wrote to Charles of France offering the support of Florence  and pleading him to rescue the city from an ungodly Pope.

Many lost their lives on pyres and even more lost their treasures from the 'angels'. Savonarola dressed large groups of teen boys in white sheets and sent them door to door liberating residents of the things stopping them from 'coming to the grace of God'. He staged vanity bonfires where humanistic books, science books, poetry, paintings with any hint of human flesh other than the tortured form of Christ on the cross, were burned to the glory of God. It is recorded that many of the artists who had enjoyed Medici patronage were now seeking the safety of Il Moro's court in Milan. Those stuck in Florence, including Botticelli, threw their own works on the fires to stop themselves being added.  Luckily 'The Birth of Venus' was spared this indignity as it hung in the Medici mansion well out of town.

After being named a false prophet and excommunicated by the Pope, the Florentines happily hung Savonarola up on one of his own bonfires with his two most torturous friar sidekicks (May 1498).  He went to his death praying for the citizens of his beloved city.  A good lesson when a person tries to force others to their warped view of the world - theirs is reinforced and becomes more bigoted as others respond with fear and acquiescence to their violence. But eventually they go too far and the mob will react with equal violence.  Monsters are born from the cowardice and compliance of those around them - observation one of school bullies. (Usually the cowardice and compliance begins with the toddler's parents!)  
It is not known who painted this scene.

Water boy with Dolphin and the lion are in the Town Hall courtyard.

This sculpture of Apollo decapitating Medusa is pretty blood thirsty - blood drips from the broken neck but unlike the myth  - Pegasus does not appear to fly out of it!  The back of Apollo's helmet has a self portrait of the sculptor - cool trick.

'The Birth of Venus' can now be seen in the Uffizi Gallery. Cosimo had this built for the administrators and justice department of his government. The architect, Giorgio Vasari, was also commissioned to build a covered walkway at 1st story level from his new Palace - across the river - through the Uffuzio (offices) to the old palace that was now solely for the use of the city council and city business.

The walkway built so the Medici Dukes could walk from their new palace to the ole palace - now the town hall again and through the justice department (Uffuzio). Left: From the Uffizi into the Town hall.  Right: above the jeweler shops across the Arno River, down the street and into the Uffizi.

Ponté Vecchio (Old bridge) 1345 - The most famous of the 7 bridges across the Arno.

The bridge across the Arno river used to be the domain of butchers but the smell and carnage offended the Duke so much that he ordered them to a new location and awarded the jewelers of the town the prime real estate for their trade. In WWII Hitler demanded that the bridge be excluded from the normal German army policy of burning every crossing behind the retreating army. The frustrated commanders blew a huge, impassable crater in the bank to slow the enemy down. Unfortunately this included the house that Machiavelli had lived in all his time in Florence.

Piazzale degli Uffizi - I joined the queue for the Gallery on free Sunday in front of the red and white pole - the queue went up to the veranda to the right all the way around to the entrance opposite on the left. When I got to the corner left of the arch at the rear I txted Poss and the girls to come back and join me. Poss nearly missed the txt and Petal sat behind a pillar nearly missing our turn to collect the tickets off the guards. Luckily all was worth it - so many masterpieces in such a small space.

Medieval art certainly lacked perspective!  Mary seems quite put out as Gabrielle tells her of  her privileged destiny.

DaVinci's 'Announciation' makes Mary a little more interested although altogether too wealthy. This is Leonardo's first big project but some say not all of it is his and that someone has messed about with Gabrielle's wings after completion.

A couple more Renaissance Marys.
Right:In Florence by Filippo Lippi c1406  He was Botticelli's master. The background looks similar to the Mona Lisa's.

Left: Michelangelo, 1507. He probably designed the frame too. Commissioned be a wealthy Florentine merchant on the birth of his first daughter. John the Baptist and a few male nudes look on from the banks of the Jordan. Known as 'Doni Tondo'
Right: Botticelli, 1483. The Madonna writing in a prayer book guided by the infant Jesus and surrounded by 5 angels. Lots of gilding and lots of reproductions by other artists. Painted while Savonarola dictated the 'Republic' of Florence. No nudes!

A stunning painting of the nativity that seems to ooze all the joy so many others in the building couldn't conjure.  'Adoration of the Child' by Gherardo Delle Notti c 1620   An artist I hadn't seen of before but will look out for in the future.

A incredible room full of treasures in the Uffizi.  The ceiling is covered in mother of pearl shells.  This is the centre room of the Justice Halls in the shape of an Octagon.

After a very long wait in the free Sunday queues for the Uffizi we were delighted to find only a couple of people in front of us at Galleria dell'Academia - the home of Michelangelo's David. Our walking tour guide was an art historian and told us that the sculpture had been commissioned to go in an alcove high in the Cathedral. The sculpture worked on it in secrecy for two years before anyone was allowed to see it. He made a model in wax then placed it in a bowl of water -he carved his marble block to the same place showing on the wax model then took out some water to reveal his next move. When it was seen for the first time the council decided it was too good to be tucked away up high in the Cathedral. A committee of 30, including daVinci, Botticelli and deSangallo, decided that it perfectly represented the Florence ideal of a thinking man and so should stand outside the Town Hall.

Left: Back view under the Academia's glass roof.                                     Right: Copy at the front door of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Centre - Copy in the Piazza Michelangelo 

 Most 'Davids' painted or sculptured were shown standing over the beheaded giant but Michelangelo made even his sling insignificant and emphasised the adrenaline and tension as he thought about how to best combat his enormous foe. The statue stayed put until a copy was made so the original could be housed away from further weathering in the museum under a glass dome built especially for it in 1873. The gilding on his sling, tree stump and victor's wreath was never replaced.

Inside the Academia

A whole room of busts in the Academia  -  The corridoor leading to David has half finished Michelangelo sculptures - Apostles trapped forever in their marble wombs.

Poss and I headed off to Santa Croce(all I can see is a reptile in a red and white suit) this means Holy Cross - the church that has the best and brightest of Florence buried within. This was also designed by Arnolfo Cambio - sounds like he had a handy little monopoly going on. We stopped off to look in a store at the edge of Piazza di Santa Croce. It sold gilded(fake) icons and beautifully hand carved mirror and picture frames in the Florence style at very steep prices. This meant we missed the cutoff entry time by 2 mins. I was nearly foaming at the mouth with disappointment! Luckily M had already been through so I got to visit via his photos. Not quite the same!

In and Out of the Santa Croce

Two of the many memorials to famous Florentine inside.  Left: Galileo  Right: Michelangelo

 M spent 1/2 a day on the hop on hop off bus that gave him a much wider experience of the town than my museum crawl punctuated with food and shop stops. It took him to the Piazzale Michelangelo and he had a fabulous view across the Arno river and the town centre.

Olive grove on the city border.

After a long - first day explore, we all went on a guided walking tour!  Of course the guide took us to many of the places we had already found for ourselves but the stories and secret local knowledge is well worth the effort and €12.

The horse head on Cosimo's Statue

One of the original city gates.  Florence was a much smaller place in Leonardo's days.

The palazzo of a wealthy cloth merchant. They heard of a Dutch contingent coming to trade. The night before they were expected to arrive the family threw a banquet for all their guild and drugged their wine with poppy juice. The next morning the Dutch group met with the only cloth merchants they could find(awake) who became very wealthy on the deals signed.  The Poppy became their icon and their motto was 'never sleep'. Talk about insider trading!

Signs to keep the tourists entertained our guide said.

Scooters everywhere!  We found a vent blowing up cold air - lovely.

Left: Jewelery shops across Ponté Vecchio  Right: It was Willow's turn for a bit of good luck, this time a boars nose needed a good rub, a coin thrown into the pool brings you back to Florence one day.

Food in Florence was abundant - they seem to have more gelato shops per head of population than anywhere else in the world. We stopped into a 'serve yourself place for lunch where you didn't actually serve yourself! Single portions of pasta dishes to heat up in microwaves(sounds horrid but really wasn't!) or huge platters of pasta salads to be shoveled onto single serve plates and of course a gelato bar. My cannelloni was delish. M and Poss' tuna salad with lots of summer vege and thumb print pasta was really pretty.  Most of the Florentine specialties seem to be soups reboiled with left over bread (ribollita and pappa al pomodoro) but being summer it wasn't on the menus. I had a lovely truffle pasta one night - a much thicker spaghetti that was really soft but chewy at the same time - like a good bread. Another night we picked up pizza from a restaurant with a tree growing up through the floor - M sneakily went back for lunch there the next day.

Of course I didn't think to pull out the camera until we were leaving most times and the troops refused to 'go pose' so some other family has been caught ordering.

Florence is definitely on my 'If I should be so lucky' list for a return visit.

Maybe one of the reasons I felt so at home in Florence is that the people of this city have cherished their freedom of thought and hold the expectation that each person should make choices and be responsible for their own actions. Like the Florentine, I rebel against any institution, be it civic or sacred, that dictates against my own philosophical, theological and anthropological inquiry. I may be wrong many times but as long as I keep seeking, truth will out. Perhaps those who like the ease of dictates and prefer ignorance to new discoveries would claim that this is merely arrogance or perhaps profane. They should not go to Florence - you can almost see free choice seeping from the stone and rippling through the air.

Florence Train Station - Could had done with a few more days here.