Florence

Our trip to Florence was last minute. We had to maneuver chamber rehearsals for CZ to be able to go, and we didn't get it worked out until the day before--so no Uffizzi tickets. I'd been to Florence several times while staying in Cortona in 1984, but always in a leisurely fashion. All CZ remembered from 2003 was that Florence was hot, and that the line for the David statue was really long.

Florence does feel like a tourist trap, and I got my only bad coffee of the trip early during our day there, so I felt sort of sick until late afternoon. At eleven in the morning, we were standing in the Casa Dante, where it must have been ninety degrees, drenched in sweat and trying to speed read the commentary and distinguish Guelph from Ghibelline...in Italian.

How to you enjoy Florence in July on short notice?

Pretty quickly, CZ and I decided to forget seizing the city and just enjoy some small part of it. So we chose three churches and looked for the one that would be most comfortable to spend the afternoon in.

The magnificent Duomo, symbol of Florence, was closest. We got a nice look at the baptistry doors, some of which we'd also seen at the Metropolitan Museum last year. But the entrance line to the main church extended around the building. No, this was not the place to spend our limited time.

Then we walked to S. Lorenzo. Despite its unassuming exterior, S. Lorenzo is the church of the Medicis. Brunelleschi designed the interior. Michelangelo's Medici tomb statues and Laurentian library are within, but unfortunately they were closed. (This is a perennial hazard of touring Italy). The exterior only looks the way it does because Michelangelo had the job of renovating it and never got around to it. I rather liked it for being plain, yet housing such distinction within. Not that it's a secret!

Inside, there was a Florentine tour guide who asked each visitor if they spoke Italian, and if they said yes, she would proceed to explain the inside of the church. We listened for a while and asked a question or two, rather fascinated with her flat Florentine accent. And like a true Florentine, she didn't really pronounce her hard "c"s.

CZ sat in the pews for a long time, but eventually we both became quite hungry, so we went of to the Central Market, where we ended up with a hurried and not-so-great plate of farfalle, because the market was closing.

But I think we really started enjoying ourselves (or I did) at Sta. Maria Novella. This church is a regular storehouse of medieval and Renaissance art, with Masaccio's famous Trinita', a Botticelli nativity, a crucifix by Giotto, and an amazing fresco cycle by Ghirlandaio, just for starters. Even CZ (who insists that art is my thing) liked the frescoes.

After we had sat for a very long time, we had fun trying to observe the decreasing space between the piers as we approached the altar. It's a subtle effect, but it makes the nave appear longer than it actually is. And there's an interesting set of spheres on the exterior of the church whose shadows make the time of day and year, like an advanced sort of sundial.

In the refectory of the cloister next door, we were interested to see a medieval fresco nested in the middle of an incongruous, Mannerist Last Supper. A solemn Madonna attended by mermaid-like angels with trailing clouds for feet was surrounded by the twisting and turning, very solid bodies of severs carrying platters of food. The medieval fresco only survived because the bottom of the Last Supper had been painted on canvas and placed over it. No one bothered to remove the fresco underneath.

CZ and I were the only people in the treasury. The day was finally cooling down, and we were both feeling better. We left Sta. Maria Novella feeling like we had seen what we wanted to see, and enjoyed winding our way through the narrow streets to rejoin Bob after his day of meetings.

On the way we happaned to peek into Sta. Trinita' where we found another jewel-toned Ghirlandaio chapel to cap off the day. Someone had even just dropped in a coin to turn on the lights!

After our side track into Sta. Trinita', we had to explain to Bob why we were late, but he understood, and besides, he had had a productive day and was still pleased about getting a parking space right by the Arno. We each drank enormous quantities of bottled water on the two-hour drive back to Castelnuovo, admired the Florentine commuters on motorcycles, and decided we liked the city after all.

For instance, where else but Florence would you find a building facade like this one?

Even though the paint color in this alleyway is usually called "Naples Yellow," it reminds me of Florence.

How I think of Florence most of all: Imposing, brown buildings that look like they might be fortresses (and probably were).

Approaching the Piazza della Signoria, the tourist center of Florence, to meet Bob at the end of the day.

And various shots approaching and crossing the Ponte Vecchio, which is touristy and crowded but still beautiful.

The reason that there aren't so many photos of Florence as there are of some of the other cities is that we spent most of our time there inside churches, where no photography is allowed. But I've tried to at least provide some links to what we saw.