Italy, Part II: Florence

Our next stop was Florence, which was my favorite city in the entire trip...though it's like picking a favorite out of chocolate, gelato, and crepes! But Florence was perfect in every way: It was small, still walkable (if a bit busier than Venice), with exquisite architecture and artwork, and surrounded by the most gorgeous Tuscan landscape you could ever imagine.



Our first night there we climbed up a hill on the outskirts of town to see a view of the city at sunset. It had been the warmest and sunniest day I've experienced since coming to Europe, with temperatures in the high 70's/low 80's. It felt sweltering because I had become used to the wet and cold English winter. The plants and trees were just beginning to flower, and as dusk set in we saw both the lights of the city and the stars. It was magic.

The next day we went to the Basilica di San Lorenzo (the Medici family church) and saw the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici, which was inspiring for me since I'm a fan of Lorenzo's. As an added bonus the chapel had sculptures by Michelangelo. The Medici family, especially Lorenzo the Magnificent, were the de facto rulers of Florence for much of the late Middle Ages, and it shows. Or as I triumphantly said as I saw the beautiful churches and Renaissance art that they commissioned, "The Medici's owned this town!" Of course, it could be argued that the Medici supremacy messed up Florence's "democracy," but if Lorenzo was a dictator, he was a benevolent one.

His statue:


From there we saw the magnificent Duomo, which I believe is second only to St. Peter's in size. My favorite thing about this cathedral was its dome, painted by Brunelleschi. It truly is a work of genius; the figures all look distorted if you get close to the ceiling, but are perfectly proportional when viewed from the ground. It was cold inside, the tiled floors acting as natural air conditioning, and was a welcome respite from the sun outside.





From there we saw more evidence of Medici hegemony, the Palazzo Vecchio (a government building). In the square was the Loggia, which had reproductions of famous statutes. Diep really liked this area, as an artist and art history major! I liked the statues of famous Italians lining the road along the Uffizi Gallery, including Lorenzo, Bruni, Dante, Boccaccio, and Machiavelli.

We saw two art galleries while in Florence. We went first to the Galleria dell'Accademia with only one goal in mind: to see David. I didn't like paying a full price ticket to essentially see only one sculpture, but if anything's worth it, David is. It's so much bigger and lifelike in person; pictures don't quite do it justice. The Uffizi Gallery had some nice artwork as well, including famous Botticelli paintings, favorites of mine. Still, though, it wasn't as impressive as the Vatican Musuems. We did get to skip the ridiculously long queue with a "fast past" ticket, though! ;)

Finally, the view from the Ponte Vecchio...