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Published: October 14th 2012
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Looking down on Florence from Fiesole
Fiesole is a tiny little hamlet at the top of the narrow winding Italian road. I would not down on to Florence on the way up in the bus and I sat with my back to the driver on the way down. Brendon, much braver than I enjoyed the view. I am sure the bus wheels spent some time in the gutter on the way up! Buongiorno from Florence,
This is our last day in Florence, we have enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed the opportunity to get to know that city well having been here for a week.
One thing, I neglected to discuss in the first Florence blog was our visit on our first day to the photographic archives that are housed here in Florence. There is a museum and archive of hundreds and thousands of photos taken as early as 1850 from all over Europe. The archive is the official repository for these photos and the original plates and still reproduces photos for purchase from the original plates which it is the archives’ mandate to preserve and protect. We had read about the archive in a Lonely Planet travelogue and we were anxious to see what was there. Actually, I am sure that we both could have spent days in the archive itself. We found the archive almost by tripping over it not very far from our hotel. The door to the retail part was closed and locked despite a sign telling us it should be open. We went looking for another entrance and could not find one and came back to the start
The very top of the hill
The top of Fiesole, looking down on Florence. point, this time the door was open. It’s an Italian thing for the sign not to match the availability.
We have purchased some views of Venice and Paris taken in the early 1900’s and reproduced from the original glass plates of the photographer. We will get them framed when we return to Australia. It’s very humbling for us as avid amateur photographers to see the work of people whose equipment then was so primitive compared to the digital equipment we have today and compare the images; those early photographers were true masters. We have also purchased some books of images of Venice and Florence taken from 1850 – 1920.
Whilst we have been here, we have been searching for an electronic store, similar to JB Hi Fi or Dick Smith’s in Australia. Here in Florence, you cannot move for tripping over Cartier and Gucci (They even have a Gucci Museum!) but there are no electronic stores in the main part of Florence. We did an extensive internet search and found a store some considerable distance from the city by bus in their equivalent of a shopping centre. Its call Igigli and it is quite new to Florence and
Florence - Duomo -The intricate carving on the marble facade
Many of the buildings here in Florence are decorated similalry with the grey and white marble. This is probalbly the most intricate. open 7 days a week. It takes 2 buses and 1.5 hours to get there and well………….let’s say it’s no Chadstone! We got what we needed and exited the building very quickly. They have a 16 cinema complex about 4 km from Igigli that is not connected to Igigli. The bus driver driving the bus we took to get there told us that Igigli was in way in the country! We agree! To get to Igigli it’s a one bus line or a car only. We wondered what it was like there on the weekends.
In the afternoon, we decided to take the bus to Fiesole which is a small separate city in the hills outside of Florence. Fiesole is the hills resort area of Florence and has a history that is pre-roman. Once Florence started to flourish it became the residential area of the rich and famous and the quarry for some of the famous marble and stone used to build the historic buildings in Florence. The hills between Florence and Fiesole are dotted with olive groves that date back to the mid 1800’s. We were unable to find out how old the trees were but some of
The real reason for the trip to Italy!
Gelati every day! There must be a health message I can work on! the specimens we saw looked very old and gnarly. Fiesole has two beautiful churches the Cathedral which has an 11
th century façade from the original building and the rest was built in the mid 1400’s. Inside it is beautiful and sparsely decorated with a beautiful 3 panel icon over the altar and some amazing frescoes. The signs outside the church request that no photos are taken inside. We do not use flashes for any of our photos because flashes destroy paintings and frescoes but we believe in honouring the requests of the church so no photos. At the top of the hill which is a 1.2-1.5k climb above the cathedral in Fiesole there is a small church that was once part of Benedictine monastery it is Saint Francesca’s church and it is small and lovely and has some fabulous frescoes and renaissance icons inside it. Again, no photos, but a fabulous view from the outside.
On the way back from Fiesole in the evening we stopped at the Duomo and
Brunelleschi’s magnificent dome, we thought completely mistakenly, that the crowds would have dispersed. Also, the marble is better displayed in the evening and night light. The crowds around the
Fiesole - well worth the walk up!
I did not know how far to the top when I started but once I was on the way, I needed to see the view from the top. area are the same of an evening as they are during the day. There is a high police presence in the piazza and there are always several ambulances in the piazza; we cannot work out if the ambulances are needed for those who climb the 400+ steps to the top of the dome or for fights that break out. We have seen no fights, so we have assumed the ambulances are for the dome climbers. The marble exterior is intricate and over the top and amazing. The marble is locally quarried from near Fiesole and whilst I would call it green, here it is called grey.
Yesterday, we planned as a shopping day. We braved the San Lorenzo leather market and wandered through the shops and car free streets. The pavements here are not uniform and neither are the buildings, some of which look to be incredibly old and are beautiful. It is difficult not to trip when looking up and around. We ventured back to the Palazzo which contains the Museum Vecchio or former palace of the de Medici’s for dinner and to get some photos of the museum when it is lit up. Late in the evening,
Fiesole.
It was a pretty walk all the way up and down. On the walk up there is a restaurant and a leather shop and numerous lovely shrines. after 8:30pm we saw the Florentine equivalent of the camel train; the stalls of Florentine stall holders being towed to their safe places for the night. There was one man at the front of the train with an electric motor pulling his stall and 2 other stalls by a chain. Each stall holder was guiding his own stall. We saw several of these ’camel trains’.
We leave Florence tomorrow commencing the trip back to Australia.
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