The Renaissance City (Florence, Italy)

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We bought these $200.00 suitcases from Zellers on sale for 70 bucks and the wheels are already busted. W.T.F., now were dragging them instead of rolling them. Anyways, ever since playing Assassin's Creed II I fell in love with the Basilica here in Florence. Last year on the way to Rome we drove by Florence in which you could kinda see the dome from the highway. I swore I'd be back. However, you can return time and again and you won?t see it all. Stand on a bridge over the Arno several times in a day and the light, mood and view will always vary. Surprisingly small as it is, this city is like no other. Cradle of the Renaissance and home of Machiavelli, Michelangelo and the Medici, Firenze is magnetic, romantic, unrivalled and ? above all ? busy. Its historic streets teem with tourists, who flock year-round to feast on the city?s world-class art and extraordinary architecture. The flesh and bones of this Dominican church, completed in 1346, may be medieval, but the finishing touches include some of the most seminal works of the Renaissance. Leon Battista Alberti?s super-refined facade influenced generations of church architects with its classic motives and balanced geometry. Inside, Masaccio?s fresco Tr?nita (Trinity, 1427), is considered the first Renaissance painting, with its distinctly Roman setting and almost perfectly realised, three-dimensional perspective. Note the ominous words of the fresco?s skeleton, which translate as ?I was as you are, and you will become as I am.? Nowhere is Medici conceit expressed so explicitly as in their mausoleum. The soaring and rather overblown main chapel is sumptuously adorned in baroque style with granite, marble and semi-precious stones. From here a corridor leads to the stark New Sacristy, Michelangelo?s first architectural work and showcase for three of his most haunting sculptures. Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day & Madonna and Child. And right beside Capelle Medicee is the Basilica di San Lorenzo. Founded in the late 4th-century, San Lorenzo lays claim to being the oldest church in Florence and once served as its cathedral. The current incarnation dates to the 1420s, when the Medici hired Brunelleschi to spruce up their parish church. The facade may look like a pile of rough-cut stones, but it belies the extraordinary, light-filled interior. Michelangelo was commissioned to design the facade in 1518, though it was never executed; hence its unfinished appearance. The incredible Uffizi, contains the Medici family?s private art collection, with masterpieces from medieval, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and neoclassical schools, including works by Giotto, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto and many more. The first documentation of a stone bridge here, at the narrowest crossing point along the entire length of the Arno, dates from 972 AD. The Arno looks placid enough but when it gets mean, it gets ugly. Floods in 1177 and 1333 destroyed the bridge, and in 1966 it came close again. Newspaper reports of the time highlight how dangerous the situation was: one couple who owned a jewellery shop on the bridge described the crashing of the waters just below the floorboards as they tried to salvage some of their goods. The bridge as it stands was built in 1345 by Neri di Fioravante was also known as Vasari's Corridor which passed over the bridge allowing Cosimo I to reach Palazzo Pitti from Palazzo Vecchio without running any risks... Behind an opulent candy-coloured facade (actually a 19th-century neo-Gothic addition), the nave of this Gothic church, built between 1294 and 1385, is surprisingly austere. Lurking in the transept is a series of chapels brightly decked out with masterly fresco cycles. The basilica also serves as a kind of Florentine pantheon, including the tombs of Michelangelo, sculpted by Giorgio Vasari, and Galileo Galilei, and an empty monument to Dante (who is buried in Ravenna, where he died in exile). At the insistence of his fussy wife Eleonora de Toledo who was displeased with the Medici quarters in the Palazzo Vecchio, Cosimo I purchased this palazzo in the 1540s from the Pitti, a rival banking family fallen on hard times. The Medici expanded it many times over the centuries, but remarkably the military bearing of its original, rusticated facade was always respected. Today, the sprawling palazzo contains six separate museums. Three are devoted to the decorative arts, including the Silver Museum, Costume Gallery, Carriage Museum, Royal Apartments and the Modern Art Gallery. Next we challenge the main Basilica of Florence. Santa Maria del Fiore...

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Florence florence
• firenze
• italy
• italia
• ponte vecchio
• uffizi
• santa maria del fiore

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Thumps up for Ezio.