Discovering Florence

Florence is full of beautiful art and architecture, especially from the renaissance period. There is so much to see in the city, even if most people visit only the better known monuments in central Florence. If you have a little time, you can go around to discover some other treasures of the city. This post is about some of the lesser-known but wonderful places of Florence.

The image above shows an overview of the famous Old Bridge of Florence seen from the Michelangelo Square on the hill of San Miniato.

Michelangelo Square

Michelangelo square in Oltrearno (Beyond Arno river) is one of my favourite places in Florence. This square was designed by Giuseppe Poggi in the 19th century.

From the Old Bridge and central Florence, you can see the San Miniato hill and the Michelangelo square on the top. If you cross the bridge and walk along the Arno river, shortly after Poggi monument, you will come across an old tower of a water mill. Just behind the tower, you will find the a road and the stairs going up to Piazza Michelangelo.

It is not a very high climb and has a good road going right till the top, if you don't want to do the stairs. It is a huge square with a copy of the famous David statue by Michelangelo at its centre. From the square you can see beautiful panoramic views of Florence city as well as of the surrounding hills and the Tuscany countryside.

If you do not wish to climb the hill and you have some time, you can find a public bus near the Santa Trinità bridge, which will take you there.

All Saints Square

Not very far from Santa Maria Novella square, if you walk towards Arno river, you will come across Piazza Ogni Santi (All Saints Square). This was the area of the wool merchants in medieval Florence. In the 13th century this square was lined by washing tubs for wool-dyeing under the Humiliated Friars who had built the San Salvatore church and Monastery in this square.

The sculpture of a man fighting a lion in the All Saints square is by the well known Florentine sculptor Romano Romanelli. It was placed here in 1935, during the years of fascism.

Holy Trinity Square, Church and Bridge

Holy Trinity (Santa Trinità) bridge with its beautiful statues is a good place for a view of the Old Bridge and the river.

Near by are the tiny Santa Trinità square and the eponymous church. The square has a column with a statue of The Goddess of Justice. The Santa Trinità church has some wonderful paintings and frescoes - the whole wall behind the altar is covered with colourful frescoes.

Republic Square

Florence has many big squares where the narrow streets of the medieval town can expand and take deep breaths. The Republic square (Piazza della Repubblica) is another of these big open spaces, not far from the Duomo Square and Lords' Square. It is a market area.

The image below shows the Republic Square with the Christmas lighting. It is a good place to sit down, have a drink in one of the roadside caffes and to observe the local life. It also has a beautiful merry-go-round for children.

Following the Footsteps of Dante

Dante Alighieri born in 1265 CE is best known for his epic poem Divine Comedy. Dante lived in the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) area of Florence and is buried there. The beautiful Santa Croce square has a Dante monument and is dominated by the Santa Croce church, built in white marble and dark green granite. His grave is next to the church.

You can also walk to Dante's house on Via Dante near the Santa Croce church. It has a museum dedicated to him.

Annunziata Square

Our next stop is Annunziata square (Piazza Santissima Annunziata) along the Via dei Servi near the Duomo (Cathedral). On one side, the square has the Annunziata church (Basilica). If you have time, visit this 13th century church. It has a lovely Pietà sculpture by Baccio Bandinelli, who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci and hated Michelangelo. It has also has different paintings by important artists.

Behind the church, a short walk away, there are the botanical gardens (Giardino dei Semplici) of the University of Florence.

Annunziata square has a bronze statue of the Grand Duke of Florence, Ferdinando I, by the sculptor Giambologna (who had designed the semi-circular arches of the St Peter's square in the Vatican city) and his student Pietro Tacca.

The square also has a fountain from 17th century in the Mannerism style, with a fantasy alien figure. I like the Mannerism style in sculptures, with their disproportionate bodies that look so graceful, and which probably inspired artists like Modigliani.

Finally the square also has the fifteenth century Innocenti Hospital designed by Brunelleschi, that now hosts an office of UNICEF. It is a beautiful building with some interesting frescoes inside it.

This square is also mentioned in the biography of famous Indian artist Amrita Shergil, who had stayed here for some time.

San Lorenzo Square and Church

If you walk from the Via dei Servi towards the railway station, you will come across the magnificent San Lorenzo church. This is one of the oldest churches of Florence. The seminary next door has a museum and the tomb of the St. Lawrence. The area around the church has shops, a bustling open air market and restaurants. It is a great place for its ambiance, to sit, relax and watch the life pass.

Conclusions

There is so much more to see in Florence, apart from the well known places mentioned in the tourist books. If you enter in any church or walk through the city's squares or its gardens, and you will find much to inspire and to admire. If you want to know about the central area of Florence with its more famous tourist spots, read my other post about the Florence-city-walks.

I have been to Florence many times. Though I still love walking through its famous monuments like the Duomo Square or the Old Bridge, I also try to visit some of its lesser known places.

In conclusion of this post, above you can see an overview of Florence, Arno river and the surrounding Apennines mountains from the Michelangelo Square.

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A Walking Tour of Florence

Florence ("Firenze" in Italian) is famous for its architecture and art by master artists from the renaissance period like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This walking tour is for visiting the city centre in Florence. If you want to know about lesser known places in Florence, you can read my second post about lesser-known places in Florence.

The central part of Florence described in this post, is very compact and you can easily walk to all these places from the railway station.

Reaching Florence

Florence has two main railway stations – Santa Maria Novella and Rifredi. Santa Maria Novella (SMN) is the main railway station of Florence and is near the tourist areas explained in this post. If your train stops only at Rifredi, there are many local and regional trains, which can take you to SMN station, five minutes away (a walk from Rifredi to SMN would take more than 30 minutes).

At SMN, take the exit on the left and then take the underpass towards Santa Maria Novella church across the street.

Santa Maria Novella church in dramatic white marble and black granite, is a very beautiful church. If you have a little time, take a look at the front part of the church with a lovely square.

  

Cathedral (Duomo)

The next stop is the Duomo square with its cathedral. Follow Via Panzani and then Via dei Cerretani for reaching the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. It is just a ten-fifteen minutes walk.

The square has the octagonal baptistery, the cathedral and the bell tower. The whole square is very beautiful. To appreciate its beauty, visit it in early morning or late evening of a weekday, when there are less tourists.

Made of white marble with lines of black, dark green and pink stones, the cathedral is a rich and colourful wedding-cake like building, absolutely marvelous, full of amazing marble statues on all sides. You can spend a lot of time here looking at the different statues and admiring their art.

Entrance to the eight-sided Baptistery requires a ticket and often there is a queue to go inside. Even if you do not go inside, take the time to look at its solid brass doors with some amazing bass-relief sculptures.

On the right side of the cathedral, there are street artists who make beautiful portrait sketches and are really quick. You may wish to get your portrait done as a take-away memory of the Florence visit.

Compared to the rich sculptures and the colours outside, inside the cathedral is relatively simple. It is huge. Remember to look up to see the rich paintings on the inside of the dome. If you have time, you can even climb to the top of the dome (requires a ticket) for an absolutely marvellous view of the city skyline and the surroundings.

Lords' Square (Piazza della Signoria)

In front of the Cathedral, Via dei Calzaiuoli on the right side will bring you to the most famous square of Florence – “Piazza della signoria” (Lords’ square). The square has many things to see - the statue of Cosimo on the horse, beautiful Neptune fountain, Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) museum and the open-air Loggia with some beautiful sculptures.

If you have some time, take a closer look at the sculptures in the square. For example, in the Neptune fountain, look at the way the horses are sculpted – you can even see the veins on their necks.

Old Palace has some incredible frescoes and stucco work. It is an important art museum. For people who do not have the time to visit the museum, you can look at the museum statues displayed in the Loggia in front of Old Palace.

Uffizi Museum 

Uffizi museum is in the narrow street next to the Loggia. Along the street, on both sides you will find the statues of all the important historical celebrities of Florence including Macchiavelli and Dante.

Uffizi is one of the most important art museums of the world. It has an enormous collection of art masterpieces from Renaissance period of Italy. If you have read Dan Brown’s bestseller based in Florence, “Inferno”, you may already know about the masterpieces of this museum.

You need at least half a day to visit it. Usually there is a long queue of tourists waiting to go inside the museums.

The Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio)

The Old Bridge on the Arno river is the next stop of this essential tour of Florence. Just behind Uffizi road is Lungarno, the bank of Arno river. Turn right on Lungarno and you will see the old bridge.

The bridge is full of shops selling gold and jewellry and is always crowded. I love the backside of the shops on the Old Bridge, painted in different colours, hanging over the river.

Walking along the river on Lungarno is another favourite past time for me. Seagulls and canoes, and the reflections of the medieval churches on the river bank, make this a magical place.

So my advice is that if you have some time, do not rush, take deep breaths and admire the incredible beauty of this place where nature and man-made constructions come together in a such a wonderful way.

Boboli Gardens and Museum

If you still have time, you can go across the bridge and continue for a short distance along that road to reach Boboli gardens and its museum that play a key role in Dan Brown’s “Inferno”.

However, Boboli gardens (require a ticket) are huge, are on a hill and the visit needs at least half a day (not counting the visit to the museum). If you like going up and down the hills, Boboli Gardens have some lovely statues and fountains.

Conclusions

This essential walking tour of central Florence takes you to some of the most beautiful artistic places in the world. If you have time, you can spend a full day in each of them to look at and appreciate their paintings and sculptures.

Around the places described above, there are numerous small medieval streets and other places to see including  different old churches. Many of these not-so-famous churches also have so many beautiful sculptures and paintings.

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Painted in Burnt Sienna

Siena is a tiny town in the Tuscany region of Italy. It has one of the most beautiful squares in the world - Piazza del campo, that holds the annual bare-back horse race called Palio. This post is about some of my favourite places in Siena.

The 8 minutes long opening sequence of the 2008 James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" was shot in Siena. This sequence was pure adrenaline with shots of the Palio race and a thrilling chase over the dark brown roofs of medieval houses around the square. You can watch this sequence on Vimeo for a quick and exciting tour of the Siena city centre.

TUSCANY REGION OF ITALY

Tuscany is considered to be one of the most beautiful areas in the world. Famous painters and artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giotto and Cimabue were born in this region and started here their artistic carriers.

Gentle hills of Tuscany with vineyards and cypress trees, with its painters, sculptors and other artists have been integral to the enlightment associated with the Renaissance period in Europe. Thus, Tuscany was an essential part of "classical learning" in medieval Europe - artists, writers and nobility from all over Europe visited Tuscany as part of their education. Many of them wrote eloquent words about the beautiful light of Tuscany that can not be replicated any where else.

Perhaps it is because of this tradition going back to the last 7-8 centuries, that even today most European heads of states have their holiday houses in Tuscany.

The centre of Florence, the capital of Tuscany, is considered as an open air museum. The region has many other famous cities including Pisa with the world famous Leaning Tower. However, in my opinion, the wonderful central square of Siena is among the most beautiful places in the world and I love going there.

THE EARTH COLOURS OF SIENA

As a child I loved painting and had first heard of Siena as the name of a colour - "Burnt Sienna". The land around Siena provides pigments for four colours that are called "the earth colours" - Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Ochre and Umber. All these colours have Iron Oxide mixed with Manganese Oxide. Ochre is more yellowish, Sienna is a darker yellow, Burnt Sienna is reddish-brown and finally Umber is darker brown.

These earth colours were used by Siennese school of painting in the renaissance period. These are also very much visible in the colours of the houses in the narrow medieval streets and buildings of the Siena city centre.

The next group of images is from Salimbeni square in Siena city centre and it shows the different shades of the earth colours. The statue of Sallustio Bandini, an Italian Jesuit priest and an economist, occupies the centre of this square - he was a fervent supporter of capitalism and free trade. Behind him is the building of the one of the first banks in the world.

A corner building in the square attracted my attention - I thought that it was macabre with heads of people adorning the area just underneath its roof. However, a closer look showed that these were not just heads but live persons peeking our from round windows, some of them with pronounced expressions.

Close to Salimbeni square, usually you can find a man playing a "live statue", covered with gold colour, with a gold plated old-style camera shooting a film. I don't know his name but he has also appeared in many films.

CENTRAL SQUARE OF SIENA - PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

The central square of Siena called Camp Square (Piazza del Campo), is a huge semi-circular bowl or shell shaped space with gently sloping surface. Narrow, winding medieval streets in the warm earth colours, coming in from different directions, when suddenly open in the large open space filled with light, it is a wonderful moment because it is so unexpected.

At the bottom of the square you can see the thirteenth century Republican building with its "Manja tower". When it was built, this tower was the tallest structure in whole of Italy. In 14th century it was fitted with a mechanical clock. Copenhagen city hall in Denmark is inspired by this building. There is a small chapel next to it. Nine traingular spaces branch out from this building, going out towards the periphery of the square.

The rest of the square is lined with beautiful noble family houses, all made in earth-coloured bricks. At the centre of the outer periphery is a fountain with beautiful sculptures and a rectangular water pond.

CONTRADE OF SIENA

The city is divided into 17 wards or contrade, each with its own symbol. Most houses of a a contrada carry its symbol near their entrance. Each year, 10 out of 17 contrade take part in the annual Palio race that is held on 2 July and 16 August. The images below show some houses from the Chiocciola (Snail), Pantera (Panther) and Tartuca (Tortoise) contrade with their symbols.

Young horse jockeys have to sit bare-back on the horses during palio, thus often some of them fall down during the race.

DUOMO - THE CATHEDRAL OF SIENA

The cathedral of Sienna was built in the thirteenth century. Its beautiful bell tower is in black and white, the two official colours of Siena. The facade of the cathedral with intricate sculptures is in Gothic style and the complexity of the sculpture and art work is one of the most intricate works in Europe.

OTHER PLACES IN SIENA

There are many other buildings and churches in Siena, full of beautiful sculptures and art works.

If you have time you can also go out from the old medieval town to look at the surrounding countryside with its gentle hills, vineyards, cypress trees and beautiful buildings.

CONCLUSIONS

I love Siena for the warm earth colours of its buildings and for the sensations of aesthetic pleasure in its central square. I can sit for hours in the central square, looking around and soaking the atmosphere of this magical place.

Most tourists to Tuscany, limit themselves to visiting Florence and Pisa, and do not think of Siena except during the palio horse races. I think that it is a great pity and Siena also merits a visit. Siena is connected to Florence by hourly regional trains - these are slow trains and take about an hour and a half to reach to Siena, but cost little (less than 10 Euro for a journey).

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A day in Florence

(Originally written in 2006, edited in 2013)

 

As I reached Florence, it was raining and it was cold. I shivered outside the Santa Maria Novella railway station. I had been trapped by my friend Roberto from the "School of health and sustainable development" in Florence. He was organising this big international meeting and one of his speakers had ditched him at the last moment. So I was co-opted.

It had been a long time since I had been in Florence. Perhaps the last time was in 2001, I am not so sure. It had been even longer since I had gone there as a tourist. As I looked around, hurried florentians were rushing off to work, holding on to their umbrellas. I had come an hour earlier, so I could afford to walk slowly, look around and smile at those who showed their irritation 'cause they were getting late for work or some appointment.

It is funny, how you can live next to the most beautiful place in the world and yet, how you stop seeing the beauty because you are too busy running. I guess, that happens to me as well in Bologna!

I love the old buildings on the street leading to the city centre from the railway station. I saw an ancient looking church on the way. The board outside said that it was first built around the end of ninth century. I decided to go inside. It was beautiful with old frescos on the walls that were peeling off. And, it was cold and dark. A young man in his impeccable business suit and briefcase, made the sign of cross hurriedly and rushed out. I like places that are still being used for the normal day to day life, even while the tourist stand around and gape.

The paintings and statues on the wall, gained more depth and life in the dim light. There was a beautiful painting of Joseph with baby Jesus in his hands, looking at the child with fatherly love, while Mary seemed like a self-satisfied mom, looking adoringly at her husband and the baby. Behind them in the painting, there was some high ranking priest speaking in a church with another younger priest kneeling on the ground. I am sure that painting was commissioned by that elderly priest, wishing to show himself off with the holy family to the congregation.

But what caught my attention was a group of statues with crucified Jesus in the middle. The saint like figure on the right, seemed to crush the head of a protrate man with his foot, resembling the Durga-Mahishasur statues.

After this brief stop-over, I proceeded towards the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence. It is one of the most beautiful squares in the world, with its pink, burgundy, cream and dark grey wedding-cake like church, bell tower and the round battistero.

While walking towards the Cathedral, my attention was caught by the plastic chairs under a tent outside a restaurant. The chairs at the outside edge had all been turned inside to save them from the rain. It thought it would make for a nice view of the cathedral, though the final result does not look very artistic!

While I admired the church, a group of tourists arrived, got down from the bus and immediately started clicking. All right, I know, with my own frequent camera clicking, I am no position to comment on the camera clicking of other tourists, but still it did look funny.

They must be Japanese, I thought. But as I came closer and heard them talking, I realised that they were Chinese. It must be a nightmare for these Europeans I guess, seeing all those Chinese, who are shown in the media as illegal immigrants, or as persons exploiting human labour to make cheap things and doing "dishonest" practices to dump their exports, to realise that now their bread and butter depnds upon these "lowly" tourists! Perhaps a day would come when Indian tourists will also descend here like a storm of birds, haggling over the prices with the souvenir shops. Perhaps they already are!

Chuckling to myself about the injustices of life, I walked towards the Piazza della Signoria, or the square of the Lords, with its magnificant old palace and the statues.

The famous statue of David by Michaelangelo, outside the gate of the old palace is a copy, the original is inside the museum. I am surprised that the church and all those self-righteous leaders have not cried to ban or cover those statues. Actually they must have tried. Two smaller statues next to the door, have the genitals covered by fig leaves, though they seem to have an opposite effect, in the sense, from a distance, they look like pubic hair.

Next to the old palace, the loggia has some of the statues for display, including two by Giambologna, the sculptor who did the Neptune statue for Bologna.

I think that this is a sign of civilization and of abundance, that city has decided to put some of good statues outside, so that general public can also admire them without going inside the museums and without buying any tickets.

In fact in Italy, Florence has the reputation of being a civilized and cultured city like Lucknow in India. When Italy was unified, it adopted the language of Florence as the "standard Italian", a bit like Avadhi-Khari boli were adopted as Hindi. My tourist time was almost over, so I rushed to have a quick look at the old bridge over the river Arno.

I almost ran to Piazza Santissima Annunziata to my meeting as I was getting late. But I was not satisfied with my tourist visit of Firenze and I wanted more. At lunch time, I decided to forego the official lunch and spend the hour walking around. The meeting was in Innocenti centre, an old orphanage and also the seat of Unicef in Italy. There is a statue of a boy sitting on the paperboat outside the Innocenti library, that is very nice.

Right outside the Innocenti centre, there are two fountains with science-fiction kind of Martian figures puking water on the back of flying turtles. Amrita Shergill had once lived around here, I had read once. I walked back to the Cathedral to see if I could go inside and have a look. In the morning, it was still closed. Inside, it was surprisingly very empty and quite unadorned. The sight of women lighting candles was beautiful.

Even if the cathedral is unadorned, it has a beautiful dome (the famous Brunelleschi dome, a marvel in the medieval world, when it was built) with wonderful paintings, though you need to have a mirror in your hand to look at them since looking up directly can strain your neck!

After the cathedral, I walked to the gallery outside the Uffizi, supposedly one of the most beautiful renaissance art museums in the world. There was no time to go inside but I could admire from the outside the statues of the great historical personalities of Florence over the past centuries, starting with Macchiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci.

Not just the big churches, or monuments, even simple doorways of some houses, probably belonging to some noble family, can give beautiful glimpses of paintings and statues.

It was time to go back to the meeting so I walked back to centro Innocenti. In the evening as the meeting finished, it was already dark. Before going back to the railway station, I had a quick look at Santa croce church with the statue of Dante, another famous son of Florence, who used to live around there!

It had been nice day, thanks to the time I had taken off to go around for my tourist visit. I had run around a lot, I had missed my lunch, but in the end it was more satisfying then just going to a meeting!

Here are some pictures from the day:

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This article was originally written in 2006