Florence - Un bel posto dove vagare (A beautiful place to wander)

Day 7 was spent exploring Florence in the most wonderful ways! Gayle started off the morning with an early morning walk to just wander through the city. It was a perfect way to get oriented for what the day would bring. Shop keepers were just getting ready for the day, and most of the tourists hadn’t come out yet. It was relatively quiet, with rowers out on the river, joggers in the streets, and people popping into shops for an expresso and quick morning pastry. Highly recommend getting out early in the morning if you aren’t totally exhausted from the days before!!

We had a private guided tour with Kate (from England) for the morning. Educated in furniture restoration and art-architectural history, she was a wealth of knowledge! One fact she shared is that the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, shown above, is the only bridge in Florence that survived WWII. The Germans destroyed all the bridges just before Florence was liberated. A nazi commander who had lived in Florence convinced his superiors to spare the Ponte Vecchio. Today, the other bridges have been replaced, and replicated to look original.

Honestly, most of Florence looks like it was built in the Renaissance, so it was fantastic to have a guide who could point out the oldest buildings, tell us about the Medici, Strozzi and other families who were important in the Town’s history, and point out architectural features on buildings that have survived the past 1000 years!

Need to tether your horse (we did almost get run over by a few horse drawn carriages, so there are still horses in this town), use one of these metal rings on the buildings (and stow that torch you are using for light in the top of the ring!).

A word to the wise…the streets of Florence were built for the middle ages. They are narrow and made of cobblestone. There are tiny sidewalks, usually on both sides, but not big enough to hold all the pedestrians. So, everyone walks in the streets and just jumps to the sides when cars, vans, motorcycles, bikes and horse/buggy come zipping by. It is madness in the most charming way! Be on your toes, or they’ll get run over!

We saw too many things to list, but Gayle will never forget the full “goosebumps” moment when we came out of a tiny little street and the Florence Duomo was looming before us. It is just extraordinary! We get a full tour of that tomorrow, which will be amazing!

A few other sites:

Orsenmichele Church (above) - rebuilt in 1336 AD after fire destroyed the original building in 1239. Over time, beginning in the 1400’s, the 14 niches on the exterior of the church were filled in with statues. The statues were not sponsored by the church, but by the rising middle-class, as tribute to the town’s major guilds (the unions that represented the town’s arts and laborers). Those guilds hired the finest artists of the times to sculpt the statues!

Basilica of Santa Croce - Santa Croce Church is a museum itself and houses many richly frescoed chapels dedicated to the rich Florentine families who financed the building, and many tombs of famous Florentines in the 13th century. The frescoes in this church are stunning! In the photo below, Dan and Lori are in the church Crypt.

Piazza Signorio and Palazzo Vecchio (above) - This Piazza was the center of Florence’s government functions from the beginning.

The “Old Palace”, and fortress-like City Hall is where the City Council met in the 1400’s! Although it had other uses through the ages, today, this building is again the City Hall! The “David” reproduction is here (below), where the original David once stood before it was moved into the Academmia Gallery for its own protection.

Gayle’s Best City Hall Selfie Ever!

To the right of the Palazzo Vecchio stands the The Loggia, which was originally built as a magnificent stage for political speeches, but was converted to an outdoor sculpture garden by the Medicis in the 1400’s.

The statues lining the back wall of The Loggia are original Roman statues from 1000 BC. Can you imagine having something like this in your town square? And that they aren’t fenced off for protection?!

Other highlights were the Strozzi Palace, strolling on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, seeing the walkway the Medici’s built so they could walk from their palace at the Town Hall across the bridge and to their second palace! It went on and on!

This afternoon, we have a Foodie Tour! We were warned not to eat beforehand, as we’ll be feasting all afternoon!

Tours: Discovery Florence Private Walking Tour by Freya's Florence Tours