- it's the capital city of the Tuscany Region.
- it's the birthplace of a lot of famous people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Donnatello, Botticelli, Guccio Gucci, Salvatorre Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Emilio Pucci, among many others.
- it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
- and probably the most popular of all - it's considered the art capital of the world.
Being the art capital of the world, I was most excited to see what art treasures Florence has.
When I woke up from our land trip from Rome, the first view which greeted me was the Arno River.
When we got off the bus, we walked through narrow alleyways and entered Piazza Signoria. Here was the first art piece which greeted me -
Neptune’s behind! Wahaha…
But here's a better view of the Neptune Fountain at Piazza Signoria. Piazza Signoria is the political center of ancient Florence.
There are a lot of sculptures by famous artists there but sorry, I couldn't remember each of them.
Here's one that I could remember - the bronze sculpture of Perseus holding Medusa’s head -
The most prominent structure at Piazza Signoria is the Uffizi Gallery. It’s considered one of the world’s best art museums. It receives about 1.6M visitors yearly. Wow…
At the entrance of the Uffizi Gallery stands a replica of Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of the biblical hero David (of David and Goliath, left sculpture in photo below).
And though we weren’t able to get inside Uffizi, we were able to visit the Accademia Gallery (owned by the Medici Family) which houses the original David sculpture of Michelangelo, among many other famous artworks. Picture taking is prohibited so here’s a photo I got from Wikipedia.
Michelangelo sculpted David at age 26 in 1501 and he finished it in 1504 (more than 2 yrs). It’s 17 ft tall and weighs 6 tons! Whoa…
We also visited the famous Gothic Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Holy Mary of the Flower). The cathedral was built in 1296 and it took 140 years to structurally complete it. The dome was designed by Brunelleschi and the belltower by Giotto.
It's one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.
It's breathtaking at any angle -
Here's inside Santa Maria del Fiore.
Beside the Cathedral is The Baptistry built around 1050.
One of its 8 sides (the east door) features 10 panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament. This was made by an artist named Ghiberti which took 27 years to make.
Michelangelo called this the “Gates of Paradise”, a name which stuck and this is what the east door is called until today.
Near the Piazza Duomo, the tour guide pointed to us a white marker on the wall (the white rectangle on the wall) which is a marker where water reached on this specific spot during Florence’s Great Flood in 1966. This specific marker wasn’t so high, maybe about 8 feet high, but at the peak areas, floodwater reached 22 ft! Whoa...
We also had the chance to drop by Santa Croce.
Inside Santa Croce, you'll find tombs of famous people. Here are some -
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| Galileo Galilei's tomb |
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| Michelangelo's tomb |
Here are some random shots around Florence -
Our hotel was strategically-located near the Florence market and some churches. So during our free day in Florence, we explored around the area.
Here's the tiangge - Florence style.
Near the market is the San Lorenzo Church. It's one of the oldest in Florence, and it used to be the parish church of the Medici Family and where most of the principal members of the Medici Family are buried.
(Who are the The Medicis? They were a wealthy, politically powerful Florentine family in the 14th century. They made their fortune in banking and commerce, and are best known as arts patrons whose financial support of the arts and humanities helped make Renaissance-era Florence a thriving cultural center. Source)
We were also able to visit Santa Maria Novella. It houses works of Botticelli, Brunelleschi and other famous Italian artists.
This is part of a 3-day Florence package we booked via Italia Tours which costs about USD520/pax. The fee includes transfers (Rome to Florence, then back to Rome), 2N hotel accommodations in Florence and 1-day escorted tour around Florence.