This steamy, hot weather we are currently "enjoying" (well, that’s just a saying, I really don’t enjoy hot weather!) reminds me of my 2015 trip to Italy. And so, it’s time for Part II of Italy, 2015: Florence. Or, as the Italians call it, Firenze!
I traveled to Italy in July that year with my daughter, Janelle. Deciding to vacation in Italy in July may not have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but what can I say, it was a spur of the moment trip. I knew going in it would be hot in Italy during the summer, but I really wasn’t prepared for how hot it got.
We had a full week of high 90s and low 100s. It was hot. It was sticky. It was so hot I even wore a sleeveless dress a couple of times. That might not sound like a big deal to you, but believe me when I say I always cover my arms. Call me vain, but they are not my best feature, and I don’t do sleeveless. Normally I would throw a light sweater over this dress. Nope. Not this trip. Too hot. Too sticky.
Heat aside, we had a wonderful time in Florence! So much to see and do, so let’s get started…
If you recall, when I left off in the first blog post, Italy: Milano, it was late afternoon, and we had just hopped a train for the trip down to Florence. It was a two-hour trip through some very beautiful country, but I may have dozed off once or twice. 😉
After arriving in Florence, we walked to our hotel and checked in. It was getting late in the day, and as we were very hungry, we headed back out for dinner. We chose a restaurant highly recommended by a friend of Janelle’s who had recently visited Florence, il Gatto e la Volpe (the cat and the fox.)
This meal was a great start to our time in Florence. As I wrote that night in my travel journal, “Prosciutto and melon—yum! Bread and balsamic vinegar—yum! Spaghetti carbonara—yum!” Yes, indeed, everything was delicious, and to me the real eye-opener was the prosciutto and melon, a food combination I’d never tried before but really enjoyed! We split tiramisu for dessert and ended the meal with a few sips of limoncello, on the house. At this small, family-run restaurant, we certainly enjoyed our first meal in Florence, courtesy of the folks at il Gatto e la Volpe!
Day 3 (See May 18 blog post, Italy: Milano, for Day 1 and Day 2)
As luck would have it, our first full day in Florence happened to be the first Sunday of the month, a day when all museums in the city are free. So, we made sure to get up early and be ready to head out in order to try and beat some of the crowds that would be taking advantage of the museum freebie that day.
On this day we visited the Palazzo Pitti – AKA, the Pitti Palace, and the Boboli Gardens. The Pitti is a huge palace that today houses five separate museums. But when construction started began in the mid-1400s, it was just a “smallish” palace, at the foot of the Boboli hill beyond the Arno River, built by Florentine banker Luca Pitti.
In 1550, the palace was purchased by Cosimo I de’ Medici and his wife, Eleanor of Toledo, and it soon became the symbol of the Medici’s power over Tuscany. The Medici’s were a powerful banking family that ruled Florence, and later, Tuscany, from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals. The family’s support of the arts and humanities transformed Florence into the cradle of the Renaissance, and they produced four popes: Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV, and Leon XI.
Today the Palace is divided into five museums: the Treasury of the Grand Dukes on the ground floor, the Palatine Gallery and the Imperial and Royal Apartments on the first floor, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Costume and Fashion on the second floor. We wanted to see it all, but let’s face it, it was a scorcher of a hot day, it was a huge palace, and there were way too many museums for us to properly visit, so we just buzzed around and did our best to see what we could see.
The lion is a symbol seen frequently in Florence and represents
the "Free Republic of Florence."
If you’d like to read more about what’s inside these five galleries, here’s a link to a great Uffizi website, that features the best art, etc. that the Pitti Palace has to offer:
And then we headed outdoors to wander around in the Boboli Gardens, doing our best to stay in the shade when possible. It’s an interesting garden with a lot of quirky statues sprinkled here and there. Janelle made the climb up to the top of the hill, where she had a great view that looked back down on the whole palace. I chose to stay in the bottom garden and waited for her return. 😊
Janelle at the top
And her view looking back down at the Pitti
We split a pizza for lunch, and then purchased gelato, which we ate in the cool confines of our hotel.
In the afternoon, we decided it was time to journey up to Piazzale Michelangelo. This piazza, with its breathtaking views of Florence, sits on a hill just south of the heart of the city. To get there on foot, one must walk a long and winding road up, up, up. My daughter, Laura, who spent a summer studying abroad in Florence, advised us to take a cab up and then walk back down. Seemed like the thing to do to me, but Janelle thought otherwise. She said no big deal, we can make the walk, it’ll be fun to do. And off we went.
It did not go well. Have I mentioned how hot it was that day? We started out by crossing the Ponte Vecchio bridge over the Arno River and then headed up. The distance we had to walk was 3.8 KM or roughly 2-1/3 miles. We had to climb a lot of stairs as our route wound up the hill. I had to take frequent breaks. I didn’t think I was going to make it to the top. I got angry with my daughter for making me walk up the hill. Unkind words were said to each other. Yes, this was definitely the lowlight of the trip for us gals. But we did it and finally found ourselves dragging into the piazza. (OK, only I was dragging.)
The views we found were as promised! Looking across the city we were able to see the Arno River; the Duomo Florence and its iconic Dome, Tower, and Baptistry; numerous other churches and towers; and all the way to the gentle hills that surround the Florence. It is indeed a breathtaking view, one very worth seeing; just believe me when I say, take a cab ride up and walk back down!!!
I’m happy to report, Janelle and I got past this awful moment
and all was well between us the rest of our trip. 😊
Right next door to our hotel was the Venchi chocolate shop. They are one of the premier chocolatiers in Italy, and we walked by this shop several times each day and were continually tempted by chocolate smells wafting out. So, after our workout walk up the hill, we treated ourselves to freshly made chocolate crepes before we headed up to our room for the night. Yum!
Check out the wall of chocolate behind the back counter!
Day 4
Today we headed out of the city as we went on a wine tasting tour in the nearby Chianti wine region. Matteo was our well-informed tour guide as well as being a certified sommelier. We made stops at three different facilities on our tour.
Our first stop was at the Antinori Winery. This family-owned vineyard and winery was established in 1385, and 26 generations later is still proudly run by the Antinoris. Even though this business goes back over six centuries, what we visited was a very modern and sleek facility, designed to have a low environmental impact and maximum energy savings. It was a fascinating structure, and I enjoyed walking through the facility and seeing what goes on behind the scenes of a working winery.
A little taste-testing of the Antinori wines.
On one wall is painted this beautiful family tree that covers all 26 generations of Antinoris!
On to our second stop, Castello di Gabbiano.....
The next stop, Castello di Gabbiano, was a much smaller winery. Our stop here was mostly about learning about wine tasting. Matteo shared his sommelier knowledge with us as he explained some of the finer points of wine-tasting with us.
The last stop of our tour was not about wine, but olive oil. Fattoria di Maiano is a farm with almost 20,000 olive trees. Their olive oil is sold under the brand name of Laudemio. It was at this location that we ate lunch with our fellow tour group members.
Back in Florence, dinner that evening was in a lovely restaurant, La Goistra. In my travel journal I called this meal “divine.” We had delicious food, drank some wine, and did a lot of talking. A wonderful, quiet evening connecting with Janelle.
Day 5
Today was a very full day! We started at the Galleria dell’Accademia Museum. We had pre-booked our tickets online and so breezed right in, past the long line of those waiting to enter who had not done the same. Silly tourists. 😊
The statue of David, by Michelangelo, is the masterpiece that attracts most visitors to the Accademia. In 1501, Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he began work on the sculpture. He used a large piece of white marble that had been previously rejected by other sculptures as having too many imperfections. Working almost nonstop for over two years, he created a 17-foot statue of David, the hero of the Biblical story, David and Goliath.
The statue had been commissioned as a piece to be placed high up in the Florence Cathedral. But when finished, it was deemed too perfect, too beautiful, and it was decided David should be placed at ground level to better be admired. After much debate, the statue was placed in the political heart of Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria. David stood in the piazza until 1873, when it was moved into the Accademia to protect it from further weathering.
There is so much more to see at the Accademia, and we spent the next few hours wondering the halls, gazing at the works of other important Italian artists, as well as lesser-known pieces by Michelangelo.
The Four Prisoners by Michelangelo. These pieces are "non-finito" or unfinished. Apparently he was known for not completing all his sculptures.
All the art in this hall are the work of Lorenzo Bartolini.
The Palestrina Pieta. Originally thought to have been done by Michelangelo,
but now scholars aren't really sure who created it.
This painting was done by an unknown Italian artist between 1290-1320. What I remembered about works of this period from my art class was that at this time painters didn't know how to paint baby bodies, and so instead they painted miniature adults, baby-sized.
Our second stop that day was at the il Mercato Centrale, their central food market. Housed in the historic San Lorenzo market, the current format opened in 2014. But the beautiful iron and glass building has been in business since 1874. Today, market wares can be purchased to take home and eat, or you can eat at the many on-site food stalls where local restaurateurs create tasty food that has been locally sourced. As we strolled the first floor we saw fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, baked goods, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, candy, trinkets. etc.
Wherever you go, go blue! 😊
We went up to the second floor where we found all the mini-restaurants. After checking out the various offerings, we settled on a fresh salad with mozzarella cheese, and we split a pizza Margarethe. It was a great choice for a fairly quick lunch so that we could get on with our scheduled afternoon activities.
Lunch! Yum. 😊
And we were very eager to see our next site: la Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, or simply, the Duomo. This is the largest and most important church in Florence. It’s big, it’s beautiful and to me it screams, Florence!
Construction began on the cathedral at the end of the 13th century, and it took 200 years to be fully completed. The cathedral’s octagonal dome was added between 1418 and 1434. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi after he won a competition to be the designer. His masterpiece has proven capable of withstanding lightning, earthquakes, and the passage of time.
That's Janelle waiting in line to go in and climb to the top of the cathedral.
Janelle got quite the workout at the Duomo. First, she climbed the 463 steps to the top of the dome for some fantastic views of the city. At the top, a fellow climber took her picture as proof she made it up there. Right next to the Duomo is Giotto’s Bell Tower. And then she climbed the 414 steps to the top of the Tower! The Tower is not nearly as busy as the staircase to the top of the Duomo, making the climb up less stressful. Plus, it offers the best up-close look at the famed dome of the Duomo. And it looks right down on the Baptistery.
From the top, you look back down into the cathedral.
The frescoes in the dome of The Last Judgement were designed by Giorgio Vasari but painted mostly by his student Federico Zuccari.
Looking down on the Baptistery from Giotto's Bell Tower.
Looking up at the Tower from in front of the Baptistery.
By the way, the exterior of the Baptistery was wrapped while we were there, because it was being cleaned, a $2 million restoration that took 21 months. I was disappointed when I first caught sight of building to see it covered in scaffolding.
While Janelle climbed all those stairs, I went next door and visited the inside of the Baptistery of St. John, the oldest religious site in all of Florence, consecrated in 1059. I was very excited to see the outer doors of the Baptistery as I had learned their history in a college art class. Two of the sets of doors were designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti after he was chosen over the aforementioned Brunelleschi in yet another contest. You win some, you lose some. 😊
The Gates of Paradise as named by Michelangelo.
Ghiberti immortalized himself in his doors; that's him in the upper left.
Up until the end of the 19th century, all Catholics in Florence were baptized here. Today, young children can still be baptized here on the first Sunday of the month, but as space is limited, parents have to make the request early.
The baptismal font.
St. John the Baptist sculpted by Giuseppe Piamontini.
On the left, stunning 12th century mosaics.
On the right, the restored stained glass oculus of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was on display in the baptistery the summer we visited. That fall it was moved back to its permanent home inside the Duomo.
The apse with altar.
Like all medieval religious buildings, the Baptistery contains tombs of prominent individuals. This one is the tomb of the Anti-Pope John XXIII, who died in Florence in 1419; the tomb was made between 1421 and 1427 by Donatello and Michelozzo.
As you can see, I was really fascinated by this octagonal shaped building that is beautiful on both the inside and out, and took a lot more pictures here than I did of the Duomo.
After Janelle’s double stair workout, we headed back to our room so she should shower and get ready for dinner. I however, felt the need to check out one more museum this day; one of the smaller museums that was just two blocks from our hotel: the Bargello. It actually houses the largest collection of Renaissance sculpture in the world, yet it is not nearly as well visited as some of the other museums in Florence, and there is almost never a line to get in.
So, after making sure I knew exactly where I was going, I set off on my own. My time was limited so I had to be quick. This was another case of wanting to see a few things I had learned about in my college art history class. First off, this museum has the original two pieces that Ghiberti and Brunelleschi submitted in 1402 for the competition to determine who would design the Baptistry doors. I was in luck; I got right in to the museum and was standing in front of the competition panels in no time! The inspiration for their submissions was from the Bible, the Sacrifice of Isaac. So, what do you think of the two different visions? As a reminder, Ghiberti, below left, won the competition. I think they’re both very good.
Before Michelangelo created his masterpiece of David, two other famous sculptors had created their own versions of David. Donatella, in 1440, and Verrocchio, in 1466-1469. As you can see, they are so very different than Michelangelo’s muscular and manly David. They are also much smaller (Donatello’s David is just over 5 feet while Verrocchio’s is just 4 feet tall. Michelangelo’s David is 17 feet tall) and both were made of bronze instead of white marble.
Donatella's David
Verrocchio's David
Being able to compare the Bargello Davids to Michelangelo’s David was the second reason I really wanted to visit this museum. With this done, I spent the little time I had left buzzing around and checking out the things that caught my fancy.
St. John the Baptist by Donatella
Bronze Birds created for one of the Medici palaces.
Bacchus by Michelangelo
Two more lions!
The "Pitti Tondo" on the left and two examples of ceramic art.
There was plenty of art to see outside in the courtyard.
Day 6
Today we visited the Uffizi Gallery, considered one of the world’s most important art museums, home to the largest collection of Italian Renaissance art in the world. We had again booked our tickets in advance for a 9 a.m. entrance and arrived early at 8:45. Sadly, we did not get inside until 10:15 due to an impromptu workers strike. Strikes are a common occurrence in Italy, and you never know when one will be called. As the heat continued, sitting/standing around outside for an hour and a half, waiting and wondering when the museum would open was not a fun thing to do, so we were quite relieved when the doors finally did open!
The Uffizi is one of those museums where you really could spend weeks, probably months or even years studying the staggering number of masterpieces in its many long halls, but of course we only had a few hours. Armed with our Rick Steves’ travel guide, we looked for the “not-to-be-missed” pieces and just kept moving. 😊
Birth of Venus by Botticelli
Madonna with Child by Filippo Lippi
Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli
Dwarf Morgante by Bronzino
Holy Family a.k.a. "Doni Tondo" by Michelangelo
Venus of Urbino by Titian
Roman art, Sleeping Ariadne (3rd century B.C.)
The octagonal room of the Tribuna
Last but not least, Medusa by Caravaggio
Leaving the Uffizi behind, we walked across the Arno River and headed towards our next destination, the Brancacci Chapel. But first, we had to eat lunch. We were kind of off the beaten path, and we weren’t seeing many places to eat. We finally came across a restaurant called Trattoria Pandehohio and went in. It was so quiet we weren’t sure they were open, but they greeted us warmly and showed us to a table.
It was a family-run establishment, and “Mama” waited on us. We shared a melon, mozzarella, and basil salad, followed by two kinds of pasta and half a liter of a delicious white wine. We may have just stumbled upon this little restaurant, but it really was a great find! Yummy food, extra friendly service and a quiet, but charming atmosphere. We left Pandehohio feeling refreshed and ready for the second half of our day.
The Brancacci Chapel was yet another stop I had to make to fulfill a “bucket list” item from my art history class. As a little sidebar, let me just say I had to take a humanities class while at Oakland University, and I chose Western Art History, Renaissance to the Present. Going into this class, I really had no idea what to expect or whether I’d love or hate studying the history of art. But, as you can probably tell, I ended up loving it, soaking up all the facts and stories behind the great art we studied.
The Brancacci is a small chapel reached through the cloisters of the Santa Maria del Carmine Church. Most of the church was destroyed by fire in 1771, but the Brancacci Chapel survived, as did the frescoes at the front of the chapel that are Renaissance masterpieces. Spread over three walls, they depict scenes from the life of St. Peter. They were commissioned in 1424 by Felice Brancacci, a wealthy Florentine merchant and statesman.
In my art class we spent a lot of time going over the detail found in the frescoes, including the differences in style, found in them as they ended up being painted by three different, important Renaissance painters: Masolino, Masaccio and Lippi. I thoroughly enjoyed gazing at these beautiful frescoes, and Janelle was kind enough to go along for the ride. 😊
That evening, our dinner was one we helped make ourselves as we went to a pizza and gelato making cooking class. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but somehow my pizza ended up looking more like a calzone than a pizza pie. Didn’t matter, it still tasted really good, and we had a lot of fun learning and doing with our cooking group.
Then, back to our hotel to pack and get to bed early, as in the morning we would board the train and head to Vernazza, one of the five centuries-old villages that make up the Cinque Terre, on northwest Italy’s rugged Ligurian coast; the vacation part of our vacation. 😊
But that will be for a future blog post, and you’ll just have to come back and read again.
Till then, I’ll see you at the Information Desk. Take care!
A preview of the next leg of our trip: Vernazza!