Florence
Our first walking
tour started at 8.15am at Piazza San Marco to meet our fellow travellers and to
hook up with a “walk & talk” audio system (one that actually worked well).
Our guide, a delightful Florentine, led us straight to the Accademia and, as we had early
“before-the-crowds” admission, stepped immediately into the building. I should add that even at this hour, the
queues were lengthy. This gallery began
its life initially as a drawing academy (1563) but now sets a perfect stage for
Michelangelo. Once inside, we turned a dim corner then
marched through a dramatic phalanx of unfinished Slaves struggling in eternal captivity. David, standing at their head, alone and bathed
in natural light is indeed a fitting and symbolic hero of republican Florence
and the Renaissance.
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| Unfinished Slave |
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| Unfinished Pieta |
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| Visiting David - before the crowds! |
After gazing
upon this magnificent piece for as long as we dared, we moved on to learn about
the Medici family and the rise (and prosperity) of a business class. The Medici’s commissioned Palazzo Medici as a family home and
business headquarters, demanding an austere yet powerful exterior. It sits heavily on the street, a great lump
of grey Florentine stone, so it is quite surprising to walk into the highly
decorated courtyard and through what little remains of their walled garden and
orangery.
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| Medici Palace |
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| Unfinished façade of San Lorenzo |
We stopped
briefly at San Lorenzo, claimed to
be the oldest church in Florence (393), although its current form is an
unfinished Brunelleschi (1419)
design. The Medici Family used San
Lorenzo as their parish church and settled within the complex is the Cappelle
Medicee, an expensive family crypt decorated with more of Michelangelo’s
commissioned pieces.
The Cappelle
became an option for a later visit; the richly decorated Duomo summoned. Not before however, a brief account of the Baptistery. The highlight, and visible without paying
entrance fees, is the exquisitely fabricated north and east bronze doors; the
east being known as “Gates of Heaven” since Michelangelo admired them for their
beauty. These were designed by Ghiberti, a project that consumed most
of his working life.
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| Gates of Paradise - Florence Baptistery |
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| Close up of the detailed work in one panel |
We again whipped
through crowds waiting in line for the Duomo
and their chance for a vertiginous climb into its dome, an offer we did not hesitate to refuse
given our wobbly knees, still in a state of shock following recent expeditions. Our guide informed us of the Duomo’s design
and building, pointing out special features and interesting stories of those
times. It seems that our hero David was
intended for the roof of the Cathedral, however technical difficulties
precluded this and he was moved to stand at the front of Palazzo Vecchio, previously
a Medici Palace, now a fortress of a town hall if ever there was one.
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| Duomo façade |
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| Perfect little details |
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Frescoes covering the dome's interior:
it's quite possible to walk up there |
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And finally, if you want to take one home
there's a confectioners just down the street! |
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