Florence (
Web site)(
locator) is in the
Tuscany region, 177 miles northwest of
Rome, 163 miles south west of
Venice,
and 190 miles southeast of
Milan. It was the center of the
Italian Renaissance from the end of the 14th to the 16th centuries
and that remains its legacy today. The city center is a
UNESCO World Heritage site. There are seemingly an inexhaustable
supply of
beautiful buildings sheltering a huge number of artistic masterpieces of painting and sculpture. Indeed many of the
masterpieces are integrated as part of these structures or are on display on their exteriors. As far as we are concerned, it
does not take away from their beauty to know that many of the sculptures and bas-reliefs seen on the outside of the buildings
are copies. But if you are purists, you can see many of the originals in Florence museums.
Michelangelo's David in
front of the
Palazzo Vecchio, for example, is a copy of the original which can be seen inside the
Accademia Gallery .
Similarly, the marble bas-reliefs on the first story of
Giotto's bell tower are copies of the originals that can be seen in the
Museum
Opera del Duomo. And the exquisite bronze bas-reliefs on the faces of the doors in the
Florence Bapistry by
Lorenzo Ghiberti,
are copies, but the originals can be seen in the Duomo museum.
We visited Florence in 1995 and again in 2005. The latter
time we stayed in the
Camping Michelangelo, parked amidst olive trees overlooking the city. It is worth knowing about
this campground, which, like many others in Italy, has accomodations in tents and cabins for people who are not necessarily campers.
The rates are very low for Florence (and pretty much anywhere else, for that matter)--29 Euros per room, 8 Euros to share a room.
And there is a nice restaurant with a terrace from which you can see the city below as well as a well-stocked store that
has groceries, meats, cold-cuts, and a large wine selection. A bus stop is just outside the gate. The bus runs often
and takes you very close to the Uffizi Gallery. We devote one of the
photos pages to this campground.
The
Uffizi Gallery has
one of the best collections of Italian art in the world. It was closed on our first trip to Florence, so it became our first
intended stop on our 2005 trip. As our
letter reports, our visit turned out to be an ordeal, one that was not without its
pleasures, but an ordeal nonetheless. If you want to visit it in any summer, we advise you to buy your tickets in advance, with
a specific time to show up. Otherwise you will be in for an unbelieveably long and unpleasant wait in line. Ours was over
three hours! It was because of that experience that we decided not to visit the
Bargello Museum which also contains great
masterpieces of art. That had a huge line waiting to get in also. But we did get into the Museum Opera del Duomo.
There are many beautiful things in that museum, but the highlight for us was
Michelangelo's (Florentine) Pieta. The bearded
Nicodemus figure in that sculpture is said to be a self-portrait.
Even if you do not want to stand in line to get into some of
the places you might want to visit, don't get discouraged. Just walking around that city is a delight. We came across
a very large market building housing the City Market and spent at least an hour there looking at the food stalls and then had
lunch in one of the market cafes. You can spend a good hour looking around the jewelry shop windows on the historic
Ponte
Vecchio, a medieval bridge over the
Arno River with those shops built on either side of it.
