Italy Vacations

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Florence is the regional capital of Tuscany. Tuscany is known for its beautiful landscapes, its rich artistic legacy and as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. It has been home to some of the most influential people in the history of arts and science, such as Petrarch, Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespucci and Puccini. The Tuscany region has several museums, most of which (such as the Uffizi and the the Accademia Gallery) are found in Florence, but others in towns and smaller villages. Tuscany has a unique culinary tradition, but is especially famous for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino).

Florence was the fascinating destination of our today’s day trip.

• Once again served well by our old good alarm clock from the Radio Shack (currently the Source), we were woken up early so that we could take one of the first morning buses from Via Salaria/Via Aniene to the Termini station. We didn’t have to buy the train tickets as we bought them (“in bulk”, with other tickets at the travel agency at the Termini; price – €26.50 per person, quite cheap. By the way, our return tickets from Florence were even cheaper – €16.00 per person as there were for a slower train). We checked as always that the train wold go and from which platform and then with few minutes left, we enjoyed the espresso coffee with cornetto at Cremonini coffee bar (06:05 AM).
• A 2nd-class train took us from Rome (Termini) to Florence (S.M.N. – Santa Maria Novella); it left at 6:35 AM and arrived in Florence at 9:38 AM, so it was about a 3-hour trip.
• With appetites increased during the journey, we had solid breakfast at the McDonald’s at the S.M.N. station
• Around 10:15 AM we were ready to explore Florence. We left the station and trough the underpass (tunnel) under the square we got to the Church of Santa Maria Novella – a 13th-century Dominican church with the famous Masaccio’s painting in 3-D (“The Holy Trinity”). The modest entry ticket (€2.50) was a well-spent money as we saw a number of interesting pieces by the artists from medieval times to Baroque (e.g., crucifixes by Giotto and Brunelleschi). It was a great start to a day of unforgettable encounter with art that we were to experience in the city of Florence.
  

  Santa Maria Novella Church, Florence

• In his book, Rick Steves wrote that there was a perfurmery there – Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella – and we were interested in seeing it, but couldn’t find it, so we gave it up knowing that so many other things were still to see in Florence and we didn’t have too much time – about nine hours. By the way that pharmacy is officially called “Officina profumo-farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella” and is located at Via della Scala, 16-red, 50123 Firenze – phone: 055 216276.
• Like so many times during this trip, we based our tour of Florence on Rick Steves’ “Italy 2009″ book and found his information very reliable and accurate. Based on Rick’s advice we made online reservations for the Uffizi Gallery (best collection of Italian paintings) and to the Academia Gallery (Michelangelo’s David). We also intended to do Rick’s “Renaissance Walk Through Florence” that would start at the Duomo and finish at the Uffizi Gallery/Ponte Vechio. We also hoped to do some shopping in Florence, including stopping by at the old leather factory. Our train back to Rome was at 7:13 PM.

Here is how our walk through Florence actually looked – as you can see, we found almost every attraction that Rick was suggesting:

• Walking from the Church of Santa Maria Novella in the direction of the Duomo, we dropped by the Santa Maria Maggiore Church at Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore and from there it was just one block to Piazza San Giovanni (10:50 AM) with the Baptistery and Piazza del Duomo with the Duomo (Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore) and the Campanile (Giotto’s Tower). It would be hard to miss those sights as thousands of people were impatiently waiting to enter. Mounted policemen were trying to keep the activities there in some order.
  

  Baptistery, Duomo, Campanile; Florence

• Some important info on biggest attractions in the Piazza San Giovanni/Piazza del Duomo area (these three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence):
  • the Duomo (Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore) – the cathedral church of Florence. Its construction begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and it has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival facade by Emilio De Fabris. It’s free to enter the Duomo (church), open Mon-Wed 10:00 AM-5 PM, Thu 10 AM-3:30 PM, Sat 10 AM-4:45 PM, Sun 1:30-4:45 PM. To climb the Duomo’s Dome – €6 pp, open Mon-Fri 8:30 AM-7 PM, Sat 8:30 AM-5:40 PM, closed Sun. Great view from the top after climbing 463 steps. Lines are very long and slow-moving; best time to climb is early in the morning or very late in the evening.
  • the Baptistery of St. John – one of the oldest buildings in the city, built between 1059 and 1128 in Florentine Romanesque style. It is renowned for its three sets of bronze doors with relief sculptures. The south doors were done by Andrea Pisano and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The east pair of doors was called by Michelangelo “the Gates of Paradise”. Dante Alighieri and many other notable Renaissance figures, including members of the Medici family, were baptized there. Entry to see the interior – €3 pp, but strange opening hours: Mon-Sat 12:15 PM-7:30 PM; Sun 8:30 AM-2 PM.
  • the Campanile (Giotto’s Bell Tower) – It’s 84.7 meters high, has seven bells and is standing adjacent the Duomo and the Baptistry. Designed by Giotto in the Florentine Gothic style, has rich sculptural decorations and the polychrome marble encrustations. The tower has lots of steps to climb – 414 of them, with easier (less crowded) access than to the Duomo’s dome, but taking pictures is difficult from there. Entry – €6 pp, open daily 8:30 AM-7:30 PM.
• After the Duomo complex, we visited another interesting part of Florence located a block or two (just a few-minute walk) from the Duomo – Piazza San Lorenzo with the following major attractions: San Lorenzo Market, Mercato Centrale (Street Market), Basilica of San Lorenzo with the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) and Palazzo Medici–Riccardi (11:50 AM)
  

  Basilica of San Lorenzo, Medici Chapels; Florence

• At Rick Steves’ advice, we bought the tickets online from home – on August 6, 2009 – by going to this website: http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/Uffizi/default.aspx. To avoid standing in the lines and wasting our time, we bought the tickets to the two sights that are often booked a month in advance – the Accademia Gallery and the Uffizi Gallery. For each gallery, the tickets were €10 plus €4/ticket reservation fee. For the Accademia, our reserved entry time was 1:15 PM, but when we came there around 12:30 PM they let us in and we didn’t have to wait plus we earned some valuable time for other attractions or shopping… By the way, the building of the Accademia Gallery (at Via Ricasoli 60), housing “David” – the most popular sculpture in the world, looks very “innocent” from the outside, but the very long line clearly indicates that something special must be inside. The original “David” by Michelangelo is 4.10 meters high and has been at the Accademia Gallery since 1873. The other Michelangelo’s works displayed there include: four unfinished “Prisoners“, a statue of Saint Matthew, also unfinished and a Pietà (attribution to Michelangelo not certain). The following Renaissance works are also on display: collection of 15th and 16th century Florentine paintings by Paolo Uccello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli and Andrea del Sarto; from the High Renaissance, Giambologna’s original plaster for the Rape of the Sabine Women; Florentine Gothic paintings; a collection of Russian icons assembled by the Grand Dukes of the House of Lorraine; a collection of musical instruments, including an early piano and the precious Stradivarius violins. Exit ~1:45 PM.
• Shopping for water and fruits at Il Centro – Via Ricasoli (1:30 PM). Short picnic/lunch.
• Piazza di San Marco (2:00 PM) – located just one block north from the Accademia. Museum of San Marco – a 15th-century monastery with the greatest collection of frescoes and paintings by the early Renaissance master Fra Angelico. We planned to see it (at €4 pp), but it was already closed (open 8:15 AM – 1:50 PM).
• Walking down south along Via Ricasoli, passing by the Duomo at Piazza del Duomo (2:35 PM), entering the “Via Calz” - Via de’ Calzaiuoli and walking down south.
  

  Piazza della Repubblica, Florence

• Detour to Piazza della Repubblica. Shopping at ZARA (2:40 PM).
• Continuing down Via de’ Calzaiuoli to Orsanmichele/Palazzo dell’Arte della Lana (2:50 PM).
  

  Orsanmichele, Florence

• Shopping again at ZARA – at the Via de Lamberti store (3:14 PM)
• Mercato Nuovo (the Straw Market) (3:20 PM) – a busy market to buy Florentine souvenirs is featuring the famous pig that has a copy in our neighborhood in Canada (the Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, BC). That “little pig” called “Porcellino” brings luck and assures return to Florence to those who rub its snout. Of course, we didn’t miss the opportunity to help our luck and we did rub the pig.
• Piazza della Signoria – a number of interesting sights located there: Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria), Loggia dei Lanzi, great statues, including: Michelangelo’s “David’s” copy, the “Equestrian Monument” (of Cosimo I, by Giambologna), “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” by Cellini and “The Fountain of Neptune” by Bartolomeo Ammannati (3:43 PM).
• Ponte Vecchio (3:50 PM) – we didn’t have enough time to walk over the one of the world’s most famous bridges, a very romantic spot and a place to buy elegant gold and silver pieces. However, we had a nice look at the bridge and the Arno River while standing in front of the Uffizi Gallery.
  

  Ponte Vecchio, Florence

• Galleria Uffizi – our reserved entry time was 4:15 PM; we didn’t have to stand in the line to buy the tickets as we had them already – bought online at home (see above). This was one of the finest museums/galleries we’ve ever seen anywhere in the world. It has the greatest collection of the finest Italian paintings of such masters as: Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian, Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Botticelli. It also has paintings by some of the greatest artists from other countries – e.g., Germany’s Dürer, Memling, Holbein, the Dutch artist Rembrandt and Spain’s Goya. Some of the most famous exhibits are: “The Birth of Venus” by Boticelli, Michelangelo’s “The Doni Tondo“, “Venus of Urbino” by Titian, “The Baptism of Christ” by Andrea del Verrocchio, Caravaggio’s “Bacchus“, Sacrifice of Isaac and “Medusa“, “Madonna of the Goldfinch” by Raphael.
  Exit 6:05 PM.
  

  Galleria Uffizi, Florence

  NOTE: Before entering we had to drink all water and juice we had as no fluids were allowed inside.

• We left the Uffizi Gallery complex through the gift shop and walked towards Piazza della Signoria. Originally we hoped to go to the famous Leather School of Santa Croce by the Santa Croce Church (it’s a beautiful Franciscan church housing the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini). Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time left and we were not sure about the accuracy of the directions to get there. It was disappointing (like in the case of not getting closer to Ponte Vecchio), but we didn’t want to risk missing the train to Rome. But we’ll go there for sure next time we’ll be coming to Tuscany.
• So from the Uffizi Gallery we turned left and walked across Piazza della Signoria that we saw already (6:15 PM).
• We’ve noticed some buses and little elettrico minibuses that could probably take us back to the S.M.N. train station, but we knew that we could easily get to the station simply on foot. However, it wasn’t easy, because there wasn’t much time left and the map(s) we had were confusing
• Anyway, the route we chose included Piazza della Repubblica (6:17 PM), Piazza degli Strozzi (6:20 PM), Via del Sole, Piazza Santa Maria Novella (6:25 PM) and the Church of Santa Maria Novella. From there through the underground passage we got to the Santa Maria Novella train station (Firenze S.M.N.).
• As mentioned above, we had already our return tickets bought a few days ago at the travel agency at the termini station. Having a few minutes left to the departure time (7:13 PM), we dropped by the Conad supermarket on Via Luigi Alamanni on the west side of the station where we bought some food to eat on the train.
• The train to Rome left on time and we had a nice trip back after such an eventful day in Florence.
• Arrived at Termini at 11:03 PM and still hungry despite having some food on the train, we bought the last remaining pieces of pizza at the Conad downstairs (11:20).
• Very tired; took the bus from Piazza dei Cinquecento to the Executive Hotel (got off at Piazza Fume, then 2-minute walk).
• NOTE: We used the 7-day bus tickets that we bought ahead of time (called CIS, priced at €16 each, but very convenient!). If we took a taxi, it would cost us around €9.05 – according to this interesting website – World Taximeter.