Florence and Tuscany

Plenty of things to do before going.

These are the few things you have to do before making a two-day visit to Florence possible:

Make Accademia reservations for mid-morning of the second day, you can do it online at http://www.uffizi.com/accademia-gallery-florence.asp. The Accademia is a must-see, although it shouldn't take more than an hour of your precious time. Michaelangelo's David is worth the admission, and you can take as little as 30 seconds of looking or 30 minutes of studying the sculptures. The other pieces in the museum are excellent, mainly the other Michaelangelo sculptures.

Make your hotel reservations

Make your train and/or air reservation

Unfortunately, to visit the Galleria degli Uffizi, you would need to spend a lot of time waiting in line, even if you make an advance reservation you still would have to wait for hours. It has therefore not been included in this itinerary.

The morning of the first day:

a view on Florence

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Before starting to see Florence one should first look down from the top of one of its grey stone towers at the red sea of roofs lying between the hills, scattered with villas, cypresses, and olive groves. The natural setting of the city is superb.

We start our visit to Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, the most famous observation point of the cityscape of Florence, reproduced in countless postcards and a must-see for anyone visiting the city.

San Miniato

San Miniato

The old town can be appreciated in its entirety from the surrounding hills, especially from Forte Belvedere, from the Piazzale Michelangelo with the Romanesque Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, which offers one of the most beautiful views of the Arno valley.

From this point go up the monumental staircase of San Salvatore to San Miniato, with its façade of inlaid polychrome marble; this is more than decoration, it is color serving to express the architecture; the serene beauty of this façade is a foreshadowing of the Renaissance.

Frescoes by Spinello Aretino

In the interior, this peaceful expression of beauty in marble is continued. In the nave the Chapel of the Crucifix by Michelozzo, in the north aisle, the beautiful tomb by Manetti for a Portuguese Cardinal. In the Sacristy there are frescoes by Spinello Aretino, a pleasing minor master of the late 14th-century.

The crypt is the oldest part of the church (XI-century), is surmounted by the main altar that is supposed to contain the bones of San Miniato (although there is evidence that these had already been brought to Metz before the church was built).

As long as the rectory is concerned, it is accessed through its five arches that lead to three flights of stairs, corresponding respectively to the aisles of the church. The ceiling vaults rest on thirty-eight columns which are divided into three aisles inner and four sides. On this ceiling, there are frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, dating back to 1341.

Forte Belvedere

Forte Belvedere

From here you can walk 15 minutes to Forte Belvedere (late 16th-century) which houses detached frescoes from various parts of Tuscany. Beneath is the Boboli Garden.

Today, the Forte Belvedere is one of the most beautiful sights of the city, hence the name, which competes advantageously with the Piazzale Michelangelo. During the summer, it is open to the public until late at night and includes a bar-restaurant and a nightclub. In 2006, the Alberto della Ragione Collection was exhibited and at a vantage point on the ramparts was placed a large sofa, a dozen meters long.

Going through the rusticated Porta San Giorgio, we come into the almost country lane of Via San Leonardo down which we walk towards the monumental complex of the Baptistery and the Cathedral.

This walk takes about 15 minutes.

The Baptistery

The Baptistery

We start our visit to the monuments of the old town with the most ancient building in Florence: the Baptistery.

It is of the 11th-century and has the same clean and linear architectural lines as San Miniato.

Venetian mosaic on the dome

The interior is an elegant octagon with a glittering Venetian mosaic on the vault.

On either side of the altar stand the impressive Mary Magdalene and the Papal Tomb by Donatello.

The Gate of Paradise

The bronze doors are of different periods; that facing the Cathedral, which Michelangelo called The Gate of Paradise, is the masterpiece of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455).

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Opposite the Baptistery is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The facade is from the 19th-century, but the interior impresses by the pure harmony with which the Florentines adopted (or perhaps adapted) the Gothic style. Giotto took part in the building of the Cathedral, which was completed by that genius of the early Renaissance, Brunelleschi, with his mighty dome.

Dante - Domenico di Michelino

In the north aisle, there are the fresco portraits of Dante, by Domenico di Michelino, of two captains of the Florentine army, the Essex knight, Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni Acuto) by Paolo Uccello, and Niccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno.

Campanile di Giotto

Leaving by the door at the end of the church, in the south aisle, we note the sharp curve of the apse and the rich shape of the Campanile, or bell-tower, which Giotto planned at seventy years of age.

Michelangelo - Pietà Bandini

The Opera del Duomo Museum is located just east of the Duomo, near its apse. It opened in 1891, and now houses what has been called "one of the world's most important collections of sculpture."

In the museum, there is the most dramatically eloquent of the four Pietà carved by Michelangelo, the one that the sculptor intended for his own tomb.

There are also some essential sculptures, including the Choir, with its garlands of putti and the realistic statue of the Prophet Habbakuk (known to the Florentines as lo Zuccone, or Old Baldpate) by Donatello.

The Duomo with Brunelleschi Dome

Orsanmichele

Orsanmichele

Along Via dei Calzaioli we pass Orsanmichele, a church as reliable as a fortress. Round its sides, between the richly decorated windows, there are statues by Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Ghiberti, Verrocchio and Giambologna. The shadowy interior is commanded by the Tabernacle, a masterpiece of sculpture as minute as a goldsmith’s work, by Andrea Orcagna (14th-century).

Next to Orsanmichele, there is an excellent example of Medieval civic architecture, the Palazzo dell'Arte della Lana.

Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria

From this point, it is only a few yards to Piazza della Signoria, the center of Florentine life for ten centuries. Here the people rejoiced in happy times and gathered in times of trouble; here Savonarola was burnt, artists displayed flit works they had just finished, and festivals, the Medici theatrical performances, and wedding processions took place. Here they still play the football match in 16th-century costume, which recalls ancient Florence.

When the Renaissance came along, this Piazza was already built, and it had to look elsewhere for space to express itself. The Palazzo delta Signoria was finished in 1314, but it took two more centuries to create the interior as we know it today. Gazing up from the ground, it makes one giddy, not so much for the height (308 ft.) but for the boldness with which the tower soars from the façade – a rare example of strength and elegance combined.

Loggia della Signoria

The Loggia della Signoria demonstrates with its semicircular arches that the Renaissance spirit was already mature in Florentine artists a century before. It was made in 1381. Here Benvenuto Cellini left his masterpiece, the Perseus, with its four base statuettes, perhaps even more perfect than the more massive statue.

A loggia is an architectural feature which is a covered exterior gallery or corridor usually on an upper level, or sometimes ground level. The outer wall is open to the elements, often supported by a series of columns or arches.

From the early Middle Ages, nearly every Italian comune had an open arched loggia in its central square which served as a symbol of communal justice and government and as a stage for the civil ceremony.

Michelangelo’s David

Passing a copy of Michelangelo’s David we enter the Palace. The left-hand courtyard has remained as it was in the 14th-century, but all the rest was transformed in the following centuries. From being the seat of government of a Republic, it became a royal palace. Michelozzo built the first courtyard in 1453, a century later, they applied stucco ornaments to the columns.

The Neptune fountain was made