May 24, 2024 - Classic Italy
Florence:  Walking Tour
From the Accademia Gallery, our tour guide Tony led us on a walking tour of Florence.  The first thing we came to we was the Florence Duomo, or Cathedral.
   
This is the Duomo's left side.
   

More left side.  It's a long building with the third-longest nave in Christendom.
   
As you can see, the crowds were large in Florence.
   
"The church's noisy Neo-Gothic facade (from the 1870s) is covered with pink, green, and white Tuscan marble.
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   

Across from the Duomo's facade is the Baptisery.
   

"Michelangelo said the bronze doors of this octagonal building were fit to be the gates of paradise." ... Rick Steves

The originals are in the Duomo museum.
   
Looking down the Duomo's right side.
   
Zooming in on the Cathedral's dome.   It is possible to climb the dome -- all 463 steps -- but the wait was long.
 
"The cathedral's claim to artistic fame is Brunelleschi's magnificent dome -- the first Renaissance dome and the model for domes to follow." ... Rick Steves
   
The Campanile, or Bell Tower, which is 270 feet tall.  You can climb its 414 steps -- 50 less than the Dome.  Lynnette and I would climb it later.
   
We walked down the Via de' Calzaiuoli -- the main axis of the city -- and passed this huge arch that celebrates the unification of Italy in 1870.  On the other side of the arch is the Piazza della Repubblica.
   
Now inside the Piazza della Repubblica which was where the original Roman Forum was.  All that survives of Roman Florence is the column at center and the city's street plan.  Cafes and stores line the square.
   

We came next to the Orsanmichele church.

Located on the Via Calzaiuoli, the church was originally built as a grain market  in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione. Between 1380 and 1404, it was converted into a church used as the chapel of Florence's powerful craft and trade guilds. On the ground floor of the square building the 13th-century arches that had originally been open, forming the loggia-style grain market, were walled up. The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city's municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege.

As early as 1339 the main guilds had each been assigned a space between the arches to make a framed niche, with a statue of their patron saint in it. At this time, only the Arte de Lana (wool guild) seems to have done so; this figure was later replaced.

Towards the end of the 14th century, the guilds were again charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to embellish the facades of the church.  The majority of the statues date from 1400 to 1428, with two of the earliest from that period later replaced, in the 16th century. The sculptures seen in the exterior niches today are copies, the originals having been removed to museums, mostly the one on the upper floor of the building.
   
A better look at the top floor which used to be a grain warehouse.
   
One of the 14 statues (actually, a replica).  It is Saint Luke, a bronze statue of Luke the Evangelist by Giambologna, commissioned by the Arte dei Giudici e Notai and completed in 1597–1602.  The original is in the Museo di Orsanmichele.
   
We arrive at the main civic center of Florence:  the Piazza della Signoria.
   
Popular spot.
   
A good look at the Palazzo Vecchio, the palatial Town Hall of the Medici -- a fortress designed to contain riches and survive the many riots that went with local politics.
   
 
   
The Loggia della Signoria.   The loggia, once a forum for public debate, was perfect for a city that prided itself on its democratic traditions.  But later, when the Medici figured that good art was more desirable thanfree speech, it was turned into an outdoor sculpture gallery.
 
The statues lining the back are Roman originals brought back to Florence by a Medici when his villa in Rome was sold.  One of the two statues in front is Giambologna's The Rape of the Sabine Women.  the other is Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus (1545 - 1553), the loggia's most noteworthy piece, showing the Greek hero who decapitated the snake-headed Medusa.
   
 
   

The fountain of Neptume by Bartolomeo Ammanti.

Ten steps in front of this fountain is the Savonarola Plaque.  Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) was an ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence.  He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.

In September 1494, when King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, Savonarola's prophecies seemed on the verge of fulfillment. While the friar intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medicis and at Savonarola's urging established a "well received" republic, effectively under Savonarola's control.

Eventually popular opinion, and most importantly, the Pope's opinion, turned against him. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the bodies of Savonarola and two of his supporting friars in the main square of Florence.
   
Per Rick Steves, Florentines, including Michelangelo, consider this statue a huge waste of marble.  Looks OK to me but what do I know?
   

Cosimo I, one of the post-Renaissance Medici.
   
 
   
As we know, the David statue on the left is a replica.  But the original stood in this spot until 1873.
   
Leaving the Palazzo Vecchio
   

The Santa Croce Church where notable Italians from the Italian Renaissance such as Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli are buried.

Unfortunately the Piazza Santa Croce was filled with temporary bleachers.
   
Close-up of the Santa Croce Church's facade.
   
The Statue of Dante Alighieri in Piazza Santa Croce, outside the Basilica of Santa Croce.  Erected in 1865, it is the work of the sculptor Enrico Pazzi.
 
Dante was Italian poet, writer, and philosopher.  His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
   
 
   
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