Tour of Tuscany – Florence

Warning – Photos of nude statues ahead.

We spent only one day in Florence, so we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked. Originally we thought we might return on one of the free days at the end of the trip, but it wasn’t to be. We didn’t have time to visit the Uffizi Gallery, but we did get to the Cathedral, the Gallery of Fine Arts, and the Ponte Vecchio.

The main square in Florence is the Piazza della Signoria, an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, which is not only the political hub of the city, but also an open-air museum. Buildings along the square include the Uffizi Gallery and the Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria. The Loggia dei Lanzi isn’t so much a building as a covered patio, open on two sides to the street, which houses some beautiful and famous statues.

Click any photo for a larger view.

The Rape of Polyxena, by Pio Fedi, and “Perseus With the Head of Medusa” by Benvenuto Cellini	Closeup of The Rape of Polyxena	The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati

Outside of the Loggia dei Lanzi at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio – the town hall of Florence – is a copy of “David”, by Michelangelo. The original is at the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts. We did get to see the original, and it’s truly awesome, but photographs are not allowed. Oh, OK, here’s a photo of the copy sans sock:

Here’s the Ponte Vecchio, the medieval bridge which crosses the Arno. If you look closely, you’ll see people in the archways in the center, crossing the bridge. The upper part of the bridge is enclosed – that’s the small windows you see going across the bridge. In the 1500’s, the Duke of Florence had this enclosure, the Vasari Corridor, built to connect the Palazzo Pitti with the Palazzo Vecchio, so that he could move freely from the palace to the town hall without having to mix with the crowds. The bridge is lined with shops, a large number of which are jewelery shops.

The Ponte Vecchio	My friend Bev does some window shopping for gold along the bridge
On the far side of the bridge is the Beatrice Galli yarn shop, which unfortunately was closed for the afternoon break.	We did make it to the Campolmi Roberto Filati yarn shop, though, which is just one block behind the cathedral.

The cathedral “Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore” is of course, one of the best-known landmarks in Florence, and it’s certainly a masterpiece. The white, green, and red (pink) marble used in this and other cathedrals is supposed to represent Faith (white), Hope (green), and Charity (red).

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore	Bell Tower	Detail of door
Painting inside the dome of the Last Judgement	Detail of The Last Judgement	Inside the cathedral

I’d still love to go back to Florence to see more of the museums, especially the Uffizi, but at least I did bring back a little bit of Florence with me – some nice gold earrings: