The Town

Vespucci Airport is only three miles west of Florence. Taxis are cheap and give you more excitement than any ride at Six Flags.

Most of the interesting sites are in walking distance, although we did occasionally take the bus back to our hotel, if we were a bit tired.

At every bus stop and especially at the station, there were dozens and dozens of scooters neatly parked by commuters.

We saw gypsies everywhere, especially at church entrances. It surprised us that a lot of Italians give some money to them.

We went into a few local food shops and department stores and tried to compare prices with those back home. Tina, who is more price conscious than I, thought that most items were a bit cheaper, especially clothing, leather, food and wine.

Speaking about food and wine, every night we had a superb dinner. Restaurants, or trattorias open at 7:30 PM and they fill up immediately. We never reserved a table, but you should if you want to come in a little later. Especially over the weekends it is busy with large families and friends sitting at large tables.

We normally had a first course (not just a simple appetizer), then a second with a bottle of good local wine. We would sometimes have dessert, and always finish with great cappuccinos. The bill would never be more than between $30 and $40 including everything. The food we had there was similar to the food served in the better Italian restaurants back home, except for the herbs and spices. The flavors were fresh, delicate and wonderful. Some Tuscan specialties we had were Florentine steak, white veal in wine, beans in sage, rosemary potatoes, white fish in dill and spicy tripe. Just typing this makes me salivate.

One of the best-priced, excellent Tuscan wines was Santa Cristina. I've seen it advertised, on the web, in Holland for around 8 guilders and in the US for $7.95 per bottle. The 1997 and 1998 are the best and 2000 is supposed to be one of the best ever. Do yourself a favor and buy at least a dozen bottles and store them for 5 years or so, before enjoying them. You'll definitely thank me later.

Ponte Vecchio is famous for the dozens of jewelry stores and tourists (especially Americans) flock to them as if it you could get it for free.

In addition to the huge "Central Market" hall, there are many open-air markets, with about everything for sale. I cannot do this Florence album without highlighting the Gelato. Now, back in Sarasota, we still think of the delicious gelato (the Italian version of ice-cream). Gelato is life. It is Italy condensed and frozen. Not too rich, but bursting with flavor. Flavor upon flavor, color upon color, sometimes with "sprinkles", lined up well lit under glass. Each evening, all of Florence emerges from their 2-hour dinners to find good Gelato and stroll through the squares arm in arm. Old men debate. Young lovers retreat to quiet corners. Musicians curculate (did you know that word?).

Just to keep you in this poetic mood, I've added some nice "sprinkles" of Tuscan architecture. Do you see the shape of the roof in the middle picture?

The Duomo

I figured that "Duomo" meant "dome" in Latin. However, I was puzzled to find several churches without domes referred to as "Il Duomo". It turns out that "Duomo" comes from the Latin Domus Dei or "House of God."

The official name of "The Duomo" is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, whose gigantic cupola is the symbol of Florence's artistic and architectural achievements. The cupola was designed by Brunelleschi. It is 140 ft across. It took 16 years to complete, but then the cupola was consecrated by the Pope in 1436.

Everybody had said that it couldn't be done. So, what was Brunelleschi's secret? Two domes, one tucked inside another.

There is no elevator. Tina and I climbed the dome and then the cupola. In between the cavity of the dome structure. All 463 steps. Boy, what an exercise, but we were rewarded with great views.

The cathedral is relatively spartan inside, but over the altar there is a 39,000 ft² painting of The Last Judgment by Vasari, one of the world's largest Renaissance paintings.

Next to the cathedral is the beautiful bell tower, designed by Giotto. Bands of pink, green and white marble inlay decorate the 275 ft Campanelle.

Baptistry

Adjacent to "The Duomo" is the Baptistry, which is famous for its bronze doors and ceiling mosaic. It was used for baptizing infants who were then carried into the cathedral. This happened only once a year, when all children, who were born in the previous year were then baptized. It is one of the oldest buildings in Florence, with foundations dating to the 6th century. The building you see today dates from the 12th century with an exterior of white and green marble. Inside there are 13th century mosaics and the tomb of Pope John 23rd (Johannes de 23e).

The powerful cloth guild commissioned the northern doors of the Baptistry in 1401 as a plea to God not to repeat a plague epidemic that had swept through Europe. Ghiberti wins it and spends 22 years perfecting the doors, casting and recasting the panels. Then it took him another 28 years to create the bonze and gold leaf east doors, which show 10 scenes from the Old Testament. Michelangelo loved them so much that he called them "The Gates of Paradise".

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

This is the "safe harbor" for famous works that once decorated the Duomo, Bell Tower and Baptistry, including the original panels from the Baptistry doors. It is a fairly small museum, but with beautiful art, especially the sculptures. One of the most famous is Michelangelo's "The Florentine Pieta". He intended this enormous sculpture (8 ft tall) for the top of his own tomb. At the time of sculpting (mid 1540s) Michelangelo was an old man and unable to move without pain from years of backbreaking work at the Sistine Chapel. The largest of the figures show a suffering old man. One day, without explanation, Michelangelo took a sledgehammer and nearly destroyed the work, because he probably felt that the work was imperfect. His assistants patched the pieces together again.

Tina had read that people still come and pray to this sculpture and touch Jesus' toe for strength. So, Tina also felt the urge to touch the toe. Immediately bells and sirens went off and armed security guards came running. A red-faced Tina apologized and everything was fine.

Bargello

This once was the city's prison, but now has the world's finest Renaissance sculpture collections. During the Medici reign bodies of "traitors" were often hung out of the windows, a signal to anyone who tried to tamper with Medici control. Now it has works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Verocchio, Della Robbia and the like.

Donatello created the David sculpture in the 1430s. It was the first nude statue of the Renaissance. The nearly life-size bronze image of the biblical hero was also the first statue since classical antiquity to be cast in the round. The nude adolescent boy shocked his contemporaries for its sexual overtones.

There are also many ceramic terracottas by Luca della Robbia, one of our favorite artists.

Accademia

This was a long walk. It took us some 45 minutes from our hotel to get there.

This is the home of Michelangelo's famous David. Michelangelo carved it from a single 18 ft block of allegedly cracked and discarded marble, when he was only 27. When it was finished two years later it was thought to be the most beautiful sculpture, ancient or modern, Greek or Roman.

If you think that David's upper-body and head seem too big, then you're right. Michelangelo made them bigger on purpose, to account from viewing his statue from afar and from below (it stood in front of Palazzo Vecchio, where now the copy stands).

Look at the photos above and see how the perception of David changes with different angles.

Another copy of David can be seen at the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is on the southside of the river, high up in the hills. We walked up there from our hotel. It was quite a steep climb, but halfway we rested at an 11th century old church, San Miniato al Monte. This has not been discovered by tourists. We were there in the afternoon and were greeted by Gregorian chants. Can you believe that? They have that each afternoon. We were the only ones there. It was like we had gone back 500 years in time. Tina wanted to stay in that time warp. It was beautiful.

Then we walked to the David sculpture. It is on top of the hill, with beautiful views of the city and the valley.

After we had some wine on the restaurant terrace there, we walked down towards the river, through some lovely old neighborhoods and a 2.5 acre terraced rose garden.

A glorious place to visit, even more so by the fact that hardly any tourists know of its existence. We were the only ones there. Pure tranquility. Then at the end of the afternoon we sat at the riverfront and saw the sunset over the Arno river (see photo left ).