Greg · Wannier's · Travel · Log

FIRENZE (FLORENCE), Italy
May 2007
Length of Stay: 3 and a half days
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General Description: Considering that it was the heart of the elite artistic and intellectual society that comprised the Renaissance, I suppose I should have expected it, but Florence definitely feels highbrow from the moment you enter it. From the moment I stepped out from the relatively clean station into the well-list streets, I felt...relaxed. The historical flagstone walkways are kept surprisingly clean, even the street stands are organized into orderly rows, the streets are fairly open and almost never crowded, and the whole city just feels like it flows from one sight to another. Somehow, the fact that over half of the city's attractions are museums, and churches make up another 40%, just makes sense. It's a city that seems more absorbed by music, art, religion, sculpture, and history than it is by the troubles of today. Without doing any research, I would wager that Florence is the most affluent city I visited in Italy.
The catch here is that it's very easy to get lulled into wandering from pretty street to street and forget to make the time to see the city's major sights. I met not one, not two, but three different sets of travellers who talked independently about how they loved Florence, but spent their last day or two trying to cram the really great sights in, or just missing them altogether. Being anal, I managed to get them all in with (a little) time to spare - but be forwarned - Florence's famous museums, etc. are worth seeing, but won't get seen by themselves!
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Highlights:
- DUOMO: The main cathedral of Florence, this building has one of the coolest "looks" that I have seen. It is white, lined in dark green and pale red, and looks like nothing I would have imagined until I saw it. It is also an entire complex, and way too big for one picture - the site includes an incredible dome over the church, a Campanile (bell tower), and a big baptistry with pretty stunning carved gold doors. I went up the bell tower (and was inspired by a person who climbed to the top on permanent crutches), and the top gave a pretty spectacular view of Florence in all directions.
- THE UFFIZI: Apart from the Vatican Museums, probably Italy's most famous museum. Basically, the Uffizi contains a ridiculously large collection of renaissance artwork. And I mean ridiculous. Everyone said to take about 3 to 4 hours to see it all. Not being a huge art person, I made it out in just over 2, but oh man is that museum huge. It also has lots of super famous paintings. The highlight for me was seeing Boticelli's "Birth of Venus," of which a friend and I have a 10,000 piece puzzle. But I also saw some pretty amazing less-famous paintings that appealed specifically to me (including one with a mythical beast I didn't recognize). The nice thing about the Uffizi is that there is so much great artwork, that everyone has to find something they like. Oh - and my great picture of the Ponte Vecchio (Florence's famous bridge) over the Arno River came from the Uffizi gallery - so look for that. Be warned though - the Uffizi is the #1 thing that fucks with people's schedules...I waited two hours to get in, and wished the whole time that I had reserved a spot (apparently you can do that ahead of time to avoid the wait).
- THE BARGELLO: Ok, so this is absolutely my preference peeking out, but this was my favorite museum in Florence. It isn't as famous (or as crowded - no line!) as the Uffizi, but it specializes in sculpture as opposed to painting, and after my Italy swing, I've decided that I find sculpture more impressive and interesting. Personal taste. They had a Michelangelo from when he was 22 that made me feel like a worthless bum, and an awesome collection of bird statues by Giambologna to go with some more pretty amazing stuff. ALSO, they had a pretty interesting medieval art - a pretty large collection, actually.
- GALLERIA DELL'ACADEMIA: Unlike the above two museums, this is basically a gallery - it has one room of decent paintings, another side room absolutely stuffed with busts and statues, and a side instrument museum - but basically, you go for Michelangelo's David. Well, and his "Slaves," which is the men emerging from uncarved rock. While trying not to exaggerate too much, David is as good and better than everyone says it is. For one, it's freaking huge, and for another it's REALLY good. Again, I'm apparently a softie for sculpture...but man - it's a really good statue. The one thing in Florence I absolutely want to see again. Oh - and the Slaves are also really good...they're just overshadowed by David.
- SANTA CROCE: Imagine for a second that lots of famous Renaissance people came together and decided that they wanted to pick an otherwise random church to bury themselves in. Now open your imagination. The church that you are viewing is Santa Croce, whose long list of famous people includes Gallileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Dante. The super famous people have elaborate tombs along the walls, while plenty of other notables are in graves set into the floorstones. The creepy highlight apart from the famous people was a seperate passage whose walls and floors were solid graves, all bone-white. My other favorite part about this museum was that the sun started shining while it was raining and with dark clouds in the background, so I was treated to some pretty interesting visual effects, including a shining statue in the rain, and a pretty complete reflection of the church in the puddles of the flagstones that lined the plaza.
- PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA: I don't think I could have missed this plaze if I tried - but I wouldn't want to. It has the palace of the Medici family (who ruled Florence for a long time), which is pretty characteristic in shape - a square with a single clock tower in front. Its inside was just ok, though it did have Machiavelli's quarters and another cool map room! There is also a free, open air gallery with yet more amazing statues. Such a gluttony of good art in this city.
- CAPELLA BRANCACCI: Basically, this is a chapel completely covered with frescoes by Masolino (mostly) and Masaccio (a bit of the right side). Along with being beautiful, it has an interesting story - it was the only part of its church (Santa Maria del Carmine) to survive a huge fire, miraculously. Also, it was apparently where all of the great masters of the Renaissance learned a lot of their painting skills. It's really a highlight for me, though, because I got lucky and got to see a video that explained every picture, which automatically makes everything more exciting!
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Lowlights:
- NON-EU DISCRIMINATION: See lowlights of Naples
- RAIN: See lowlights of Naples
- LINES: Not nearly as bad as those in Rome, they were still fairly annoying, and ate at least half a day of my time, mostly between the Uffizi and Galleria dell'Academia.
- PRETTY ART SYNDROME: Similar to the pretty building syndrome. Basically, there is a limit to how much art one can actually take in and appreciate without either being an art history major, or just imploding. I definitely felt overloaded when looking through the later galleries in the Uffizi, or random other paintings in some of the other museums around.
- "FREE" DINNER "DEALS": So this was one adventure that turned out pretty badly for me. A hostel friend of mine dragged me along to this supposedly good deal where you buy a drink and then get unlimited access to snacks, and can make your dinner off of it. It is apparently a really common thing in Italy. Unfortunately, we went to one place, paid the 4 euros for the drink, but the bar sucked (totally dead) and the waiter was a bitch. We decided to go to another place, and I got a coke so I could get a cheap drink...but EVERY drink was 8 euros (it was a much better, more popular place) to cover the cost of dinner. So basically, I got screwed with an 8 euro coke, and ended up paying 12 euros for a bunch of (admittedly decent) snacks, a coke, and some new type of alcoholic drink. I mean, it could be great, I just didn't work it very well, and boycotted them from then on. Theoretically you could take the food and not buy a drink, but I would have felt dishonest doing that.
- PRICES: So part of being a wealthy, touristy city full of art and churches is high cost. The hostel was decently priced, but I had to pay entrance to every single church (sometimes multiple times for different parts of the church), and paid full price almost every time b/c of the only EU citizen thing. It even made me so frustrated that I skipped a museum that I think would have been fun (see Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda).
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Doable Daytrips:
- PISA: Yes, Pisa is its own city, but to be blatantly honest, all there is that is worth seeing is within 200 meters of the Leaning Tower. It's absolutely a daytrip (even half-day-trip) kind of place. There is a nice church, an interesting basilica (with stunningly good acoustics, as this lady demonstrated by singing harmonics), and what has been called "the most beautiful cemetary in the world" - though, ironically for a fresco that is now all but destroyed....go figure. But the tower itself. OK, so I've decided that there are two reasons to see a particular site - for the enjoyment of seeing it, and for the sake of being able to say you've seen it. The best sites encompass both - such as the Colosseum and Pompeii (the former having more "I saw it" value, the latter having more "enjoyment" value). The Leaning Tower of Pisa, however, should be seen almost entirely for the "saw it" value - apart from taking a funny picture, and thinking that it was rather pretty and strange looking, it had very little value for me. Which isn't to say that it shouldn't be seen - I'm definitely glad that I saw it - just that it probably won't live up to any real expectations. Plus, it's 15 euros to climb up, and that's just way too much in my book.
- LUCCA: The former capital of the Tuscany region, Lucca really appeals as a "typical medieval small Tuscan town" - everyone's Tuscan dream, right? It's nice - has a nice laid back feel, a pretty impressive wall and battlements lining the city, some random-ass sights (including a tower topped with an oak tree and an awesome unfinished church with all sorts of different columns along the free-standing facade along the front), and pretty buildings all around. Definitely holds its own in the enjoyment category, but I wouldn't be all that disappointed not to have seen it. It did work well to fill in the other half of the day after Pisa, though.
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Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
- MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA: Coulda, Shoulda. I had plenty of time, and was right there, and wanted to go in. But I didn't. I had spent so much money on the other museums, etc., that I was sick of spending and so I didn't go in. Kind of regret that - it's suppposed to have lots of interesting relics from the "other" part of the Renaissance (science, inventing, etc) that is more exciting to me anyway.
- PALAZZO DI ROSSA: Coulda. Same story as the Science museum, actually - it is supposed to have beautiful gardens, but I was just sick of spending money. Next time, for sure. Oh, and the building itself has yet another fantastic art collection, but that one I said no to just because of the art overload. Also, next time.
- OLTRARNO: Coulda, Shoulda. The hill to the south of the Arno River, I wasn't considering going there but a girl I talked to in Venice said that it was really nice, and gave the best view of Florence she had seen. Ah well.