Susan the Human

My first impressions of Florence, after several days in Rome, were suprising to me. First of all, whereas the tourist areas of Rome were immaculate--barely a scrap of trash--Florence seemed a bit messy and unkempt. Second, the streets seemed more confining and crowded than Rome's--an optical illusion, perhaps, caused by the lack of pedestrian-only streets in most parts of town. In Rome when the streets get narrow, they're generally for pedestrians and Vespas.

But there is an allure the Florence only hinted at a block or two from the train station. Just ask the lamppost.

First stop: the Museum of San Marco, home to a luscious collection of Fra Angelico murals. Fra Angelico, a brother in this famous (and infamous) order of Monks, had a brilliant, saturated, stylized pieces that are instantly recognizable. Fra Angelico, circa 15th century, would represent the, er, famous side of this former monestary.

Now, for the infamous side, we turn to our trusty Rick Steves "Florence & Tuscany 2005", where we learn about Brother Savonarola, who came into power as head of Florence on a sort of "compassionate conservative" platform...and promptly went downhill:

Savaranola had an uncompromising and fanatical side, as his hair-shirt girdle attests. His government passed strict morality laws against swearing, blasphemy, gambling and onstentatious clothes, which were enforced by gangs of thuggish teenagers.

Then the Florentines dragged him into the main square, hanged him slowly, and burned him up. They really knew how to handle things back then.

This tower on the Palazzo Vecchio is near that lovely spot, which can be exactly located in front of an obscene-looking Neptune fountain I will let you discover on your own.

Anyhow, back to San Marco. After exiting that very worthwhile site, we headed nearby to the Accademmia to see David himself. As its name implies, the Accademmia is primarily a place of study, and the museum is very small. But the few Michalangelos it has can be seen without wading through room after room of overly fat cherubs, and for that I will always be grateful. Now as for David, he's a big guy:

And he really has no bad side:

At this point I should note that it is against the rules to take pictures of David. This is mainly to protect nearby paintings from the degrading effects of a flash. But I had my flash off, and sneaked a couple of pics by strategically angling the camera up from my hip. I imagine I'll go to hell for that.

After the Accademmia, we walked into central Florence, which gets exponentially more interesting. The narrow streets open up into a huge piazza, the centerpiece of which is Il Duomo, a cathedral which screams renassance as much as others we saw whispered of earlier times.

Marble coats the outside of the building like mother-of-pearl, and the belltower shoots straight up into the sky.

Inside, the building is starkly simple, restful and calming, unlike the ornate interiors of cathedrals in Rome. It was like a cathedral inside-out, with the fancy parts outside.

That is, until you enter the altar area and look up.

That riot of color features hell on the bottom circle and heaven at the top. In case anyone needs a visiual aid.

Leaving Il Duomo, we headed toward the Uffizi Gallery, where we toured without standing in line thanks to reservations. The highlights of the museum for me were the Boticelli room, which contains enormous, gigantic, extremely famous Boticelli paintings. You might think you don't know who Botticelli is, but then you walk into that room and you realize you've seen his whispy Venus on everything from soap cartons to Monty Python skits.

Another highlight is Michelangelo's round painting of the holy family, giving us an opportunity to see up close the artistry we saw from a distance at the Sistene Chapel. Lush, brilliant colors and ultra-realistic perspective that makes you fell like you can shake Mary's hand.

Outside of the Uffizi--just in back of it, in fact--is the River Arn, a slow-moving body of water crossed by dozens of bridges. The most famous of these is Ponte Vecchio, home to Florence's jewelers for hundreds of years. It apparently started out as some sort of meat chopping district, but the Medicis didn't like the smell and switched it over to pretty baubles. I doubt there are any bargains on Ponte Vecchio, but it's worth the stroll if only for the views.

We turned around and headed back toward Il Duomo to catch the sunset from the top of the dome. On the way, we got sidetracked by, well...

And dinner across from the Uffizi:

Said hello to a pig as we passed by:

And then, up the dome. We figured, after climbing St. Peter's, how hard could this possibly be? Well, it was pretty hard. But the views were worth it:

And finally, at the top, the end of a lovely day-trip to Florence.