Florence... Under the Tuscan Sun

Italy at its best: Medieval architecture, picturesque courtyards, renaissance art, beautiful gardens, the scenic River Arno, all surrounded by the Tuscan hills and vineyards. Vince could live in Florence, I could definitely live in Florence… Let’s all pack up and move to Florence. Or maybe to the Tuscan hills right next to Florence. Seriously. Who’s in?
We spent a week in Florence, could’ve spent a month. Or several years. This is probably the longest blog we have because we loved it so much… Here are just a few of our 397 pictures…

Duomo
Vince took a picture (or 12) of the Duomo every time we walked by – It’s fair to say that it’s his favorite building in Europe so far. Here’s a picture of all 3 buildings (cathedral, tower, and baptistry). It was built from 1296 to 1436. The interior (fresco in the dome & marble mosaic floors) were completed in the 1500’s.

Here are the interior & exterior of the cathedral – the exterior is extremely ornate with 4 colors of marble and intricate sculptures & carving, but the inside is one of the plainest that we’ve seen, except for the marble mosaic floors & the dome – more about the dome in a bit.



Interior of the Duomo:

On the outside, the distinctive red dome is the iconic structure in the skyline of Florence. On the interior, the fresco in the dome was painted by Vasari and Zuccari. It shows a very violent, Dante-style Last Judgment scene – very explicit and torturous scene of hell, with the saints & “ the righteous” looking down from heaven. We did see similar “Last Judgment” scenes in churches all over Italy.

We climbed to the top of the dome, which is the largest brick dome in the world. It was an incredibly steep climb, and had incredible views of the city:




Ponte Vecchio

Another iconic structure of Florence, built in 1345. The bridge has shops across it – they were originally butcher shops, but one of the Medici’s didn’t like the smell and ordered that the bridge only sell jewellery… So now there are a lot of jewellery shops (ah, to be a Medici - until they were kicked out. But reinstated)... Anyway, views and more views:

The shops on the Ponte Vecchio:

View of the Arno from the Ponte Vecchio:

Palazzo Vecchio

Built in the 1300’s, the building is extremely impressive and has unbelievable art and map collections - every doorway & ceiling is another unbelievable show of art... every room made us say “woah.” Out loud. The building has been the town hall and residence of the Medici’s, other dukes, and some bishops. This palace took a few hours to go through.
First Courtyard:

The Great Hall – these are paintings by renaissance artists, and the ceiling is real gold – they ran out of gold, so they melted down Florins (coins) to make this ceiling (and ceilings in the rest in the palace). One could accurately say that it is decorated with money.

This painting is from the 1600’s, and it shows the building and square that we are in - it looks the same! It’s incredible to look at really old art that depicts buildings that were already hundreds of years old when they were depicted in a painting.

Cool view of the Duomo from the Palazzo Vecchio:

A Donatello sculpture on the left, with gold ceilings and an intricately-sculpted marble doorway.

There was an exhibit of 16th century tapestries in the palace, arguably some of the most priceless art that we have seen. Tapestries like this are extremely rare because so few people could afford them. These were made of the finest/most expensive fibers & dyes at the time: silk, cashmere, wool, silver thread. The detail is incredible – as intricate as any painting that we saw. This is a Huge tapestry, the picture doesn’t quite do it justice…

This is the “Map Room” in the palace. Maps from all over the world were pretty good in the 1600’s, with a few exceptions – such as the western part of North & South America, & interior of Africa. The 17th-century globe is by Vincenzo Coronelli, who we learned about in Vienna at the Globe Museum.

Palazzo Pitti & Boboli Gardens
A huge Renaissance palace, (built in 1458) with a city-sized garden complex behind it.

The next 3 pictures are all taken in the Boboli Gardens.

Vince doing his best Neptune impression (Neptune is behind him in the pond)

Gardens, ponds & sculptures everywhere. The sculptures are from different eras, but they are all... well, really old:

And more views (anyone tempted to move there yet?)

The Tuscan Bike Ride
This makes the top 3 of my favorite days in Europe. We took a guided bike ride through Florence and around Tuscany – we were two of only 4 on the tour, so it was very private…
In front of the Ponte Vecchio:

In the marble quarry overlooking Florence:

Michaelangelo’s favorite Church:
Exterior

Interior - this is a side-chapel with Giotto-style frescoes:

Back on the bikes, we went past olive orchards…

Off the bikes for a traditional Tuscan lunch with an awesome view:

And to this villa that produces wine and olive oil:

Winetasting in the villa cellar with our tour guide Stephan and our new friends Marty & Jessie.

And, back through the city, Duomo behind us.

We really could live here, there’s so much to explore. We were glad to have a full week so that we could check out some squares, churches, and parks that are off the beaten path, in addition to the historical/tourist sites. Here are a couple of pictures of our meanderings.

Bellissimo.