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Duomo & Roses
Spring view from Piazza MichelangeloIt's ironic that in our previous posts we've talked about the view from our accommodation while here in Florence, the city made famous by “Room with a View”, our current place really doesn't have a view. What we do have however is a big airy room, with tall windows and floods of natural light from a small inner courtyard and a window box filled with jolly red geraniums. And we also have as our hosts a Florentine-Japanese couple - Alessio & Asumi - who combine the besy aspects of charm and grace of both cultures to make this a great place to stay. All this, and just three minute's walk from the Ponte Vecchio.
Again our initial approach to the city was a loosely guided ramble, that took us across the river into the Santo Spirito neighbourhood and the Pitti Palace. My initial reaction to the palace's exterior is not a warm one - solid, unwelcoming stone walls rise up from a piazza that is a vast expanse of (and please excuse my lack of the proper architectural vocabulary here) brown pebblecrete. And strewn across this expanse clusters of people hanging out, enjoying the sun and people watching, and some
Ponte Vecchio
The tourist free side of the bridge even working on their suntans. It reminds me of an English pebble beach, except the stones are solid underfoot. Glimpses of the Boboli Gardens through the palace's side gates show a softer and more welcoming environment, however from the outside the Pitti's face clearly puts you in your place as a member of the hoi poloi, a message that was repeated by many of Florence's streetscapes. A bit more rambling and climbing on this other side of the river, guided by our host Alessio's advice, brings us to the Piazza Michelangelo, in a softer, leafier neighbourhood with a panoramic view across the whole of Florence with the familiar shape of the Duomo's dome right there in the centre. Yes this is picture postcard stuff, a terracotta cliché of images seen so often in books and movies before, but now here it is below us for real. As you might have suspected from the piazza's name it is also the site of our first encounter with a statue of David - this one in bronze. And of course the usual cluster of vendors' vans with refreshments, tatty souvenirs, and various assortments of clothing including (of course) leather goods and (oddly) pashmina
Florence's Posterboy
Copy of the real deal among friends in Piazza della Signore shawls. And in answer to Rome's photo gladiators there is a woman in Florentine renaissance dress who dresses and poses couples while she takes their photo with Florence in the background. This somehow lacks the punch of the gladiators of Rome, with their snappy selling patter, repertoire of poses, and their very active in shot involvement. Returning to the river via a rose garden, which is in full flower at present, we cross the river via the Ponte Vecchio and its cheek by jowl jewellery shops. At this hour of the day the bridge is full to overflowing with throngs of people, making the view from outside the bridge far more charming than actually being on it.
This start largely sets the pattern for our next day, which comprised some exploration of the main body of the town, starting from the outside and working in, and of course taking in one of the municipal markets for a look into the city's belly. The markets are impressive and are distinguished by the presence of the tripe sellers, both as a take-away-to-cook-at-home ingredient (the offal vendors here make it feel more like a Spanish market, but without quite the variety of
Twilight of the Gods
Neptune's fountain in the blue hour. bits found in Spain) and ready to eat from little cafe stalls. While I am a bit of an offal man, and it is nearing lunchtime, I pass on the tripe today as the weather is quite warm and not suited to my more wintery associations with tripe. My reticence is also enhanced by the fact that the local tripe specialty is not so much honeycomb tripe, which is served in fiorentina style in a tomato sauce, but another section (which I think is what is called paper tripe) known here as lampredotto, a greyish, crinkly looking thing when uncooked, and not much different in appearance after cooking. We also take in some squares and churches, and of course multiple views of the Duomo, a vast and dizzyingly decorated wedding-cake of a building, that gives new meaning to the term “over the top”; although smaller in scale it could certainly give the Vittorio Emanual Monument in Rome a run for its money in the excesses stakes. However our main objective today is the Accademia gallery to see the real David, and I have to say that Florence's posterboy lives up to his reputation. As for my earlier description of our
Wedding Cake Island
The Duomo at street level visit to the Sistine Chapel I am not even going to attempt to describe the work, other than to say it is sublime. Unfortunately you are not going to get a picture of the real thing in this posting as photography is not allowed in the gallery, although this doesn't stop people taking photos of the statue. Instead you will have to be content with an image of the copy that now stands in Piazza della Signoria where the original once stood before being transferred away from the ravages of the external environment to its safer home in the Accademia. In the Piazza della Signoria the copy is in good company as it sits happily amongst a profusion of other sculptures, including Ammannati's Neptune fountain, Perseus slaying the Gorgon by Cellini, Hercules and Cacus by Bandinelli, and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women, just to name a few.
The following day it is an early rise to make the start of the queue at the Uffizi gallery, having not made advanced bookings. Again the good advice from our host Alessio pays off - to avoid the crowds go late (post 4pm) to the Accademia for David, and arrive at
Another Day in Founding an Empire
Rape of the Sabines at Piazza della Signore 7:45am for an 8:15am entry into the Uffizi - for it is just us, another five people, and the sparrows who are there to work the waiting line for any “breakfast on the run” dropped crumbs. As a renaissance jewel the Uffizi is very impressive with lots of the biggies there including Botticell's big two - the Birth of Venus and the Allegory of Spring. Again lots of images so very familiar from books and media right here in the flesh, or rather should I say in the canvas.
However man cannot live by art alone, and so I should put in a brief comment about our food experiences in Florence, in addition to the previous reference to tripe. We found a very serious contender in the best gelato contest here in Florence, that goes by the unlovely name of Grom. As a late entry it stormed to second on the list, but it is still San Crispino in Rome that carries the day. In a way this echoes our whole food experience in Florence, and possibly our overall experience of the city. While the food was good, we had been spoiled by the fresh simplicity of the sea
The Pig and I
An uneasy truce is established in our war on swine flu. in Cinque Terre, the rich abundance of Lucca, and the robustness of Roman cuisine. We even went to one of Florence's supposed culinary heavy hitters (no, Enoteca Pinchiorri was way off our budgetary radar), Cibreo, or at least to its trattoria which serves identical dishes to the main restaurant at one third to one quarter of the restaurant price, and came away feeling that it was adequate but not among our top ranking meals in Italy (for reference, our first place goes to Canuleia in Lucca, with La Pigna in Rome a long second). And they are so hard core at Cibreo that they don't serve coffee in the restaurant or trattoria - there must be an Italian law against this surely! And so it was with Florence overall - adequate with some bright spots, its palazzi and their foreboding frontages not really inviting exploration in the way that Rome's streets do, and a sense of a city held in some kind of Victoriana bell jar as a display object, a bygone time of renaissance artistic glory captured in amber, rather than the living layers of Rome, or the gentle delights of Lucca. Well now I will have all those Floro-philes hunting me down, but you will have to take a number and join the queue as the folks from the Vatican are after me since my comments about St. Peters.
And so this is our time in Florence, and almost the end of our holiday. Tomorrow we will take the train from Florence to Milan and then via the mountains to Geneva for a couple of days before the flight home. Still there are a few days left, and we are determined to squeeze the last few drops from them, so do drop by again.
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Rose
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travel blog extraordinaire
Hi Peter, Just catching up on the latest portion of your travels.. methinks you have fallen well and truly in love with Rome and Italia in general.. as I thought you might...love your detailed descriptions of the places (and food!!) you travel.. you really do ring every ounce of atmosphere, history, art and way of life from your travels... if only we all could do as well!! looking forward to the always erudite Peter regaling us at Sutho on his return.. enjoy all the last moments.