Visiting Florence in two days

Before starting to see FLORENCE one should first look down from the top of one of its grey stone towers at the red sea of roofs lying between the hills, scattered with villas, cypresses and olive groves. The natural setting of the city is superb. From Porta Romana climb up the Bellosguardo hill to Piazzale Michelangelo. From this point go up the monumental staircase of San Salvatore to San Miniato, with its facade of inlaid polychrome marble; this is more than decoration, it is colour serving to express the architecture; the serene beauty of this facade is a foreshadowing of the Renaissance. In the interior this quiet expression of beauty in marble is continued. In the nave the Chapel of the Crucifix by Michelozzo, in the north aisle, the fine tomb by Manetti for a Portuguese Cardinal. In the Sacristy there are frescoes by Spinello Aretino, a pleasing minor master of the late 14th century.

From here we can go down to Fort Belvedere (late 16th century) which houses detached frescoes from various parts of Tuscany. Beneath is the Boboli Garden. Going through the rusticated Porta San Giorgio, we come into the almost country lane of Via San Leonardo down which we walk towards the monumental complex of the Baptistery and the Cathedral.

The Baptistery is of the 11° century and has the same clean and linear architectural lines as San Miniato; it is the most ancient building in Florence. The interior is an- elegant octagon with a glittering Venetian mosaic m the dome. On either side of the altar stand the impressive Mary Magdalene and the Papal Tomb by Donatello. The bronze doors are of different periods; that facing the Cathedral, which Michelangelo called << the Gate of Paradise >>, is the masterpiece of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455).

Opposite is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The facade is 19° century, but the interior impresses by the simple harmony with which the Florentines adopted (or perhaps adapted) the Gothic style. Giotto tookpart m the building of the Cathedral, which was completed by that genius of the early Renaissance, Brunelleschi, with his mighty dome. In one of the transepts there is the most dramatically eloquent of the four Pieta carved by Michclangelo, the one that the sculptor intended for his own tomb. In the north aisle there are the fresco portraits of Dante, by Domenico di Michelino, of two captains of the Florentine army, the Essex knight, Sir John Hawkwood ("Giovanni Acuto") by Paolo Uccello, and Niccolo da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno. Leaving by the door at the end of the church, in the south aisle, we note the sharp curve of the apse and the rich shape of the Campanile, or bell-tower, which Giotto planned at seventy years of age. In the Opera del Duomo Museum, there is some important sculpture, including the Choir, with its garlands of putti and the realistic statue of the Prophet Habbakuk (known to the Florentines as lo "Zuccone", or "Old Baldpate" by Donatello.

Florence The Duomo

Along Via Calzaioli we pass Orsanmichele, a church as solid as a fortress. Round its sides, between the richly decorated windows there are statues by Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Ghiberti, Verrocchio and Giambologna. The shadowy interior is commanded by the Tabernacle, a masterpiece of sculpture as minute as goldsmith's work, by Andrea Orcagna (14th century). Next to Orsanmichele there is a fine example of Medieval civic architecture, the Palazzo dell'Arte delta Lana. From this point it is only a few yards to Piazza della Signoria, centre of Florentine life for ten centuries. Here the people rejoiced in happy times and gathered in time of trouble; here Savonarola was burnt, here artists displayed flit works they had just finished, here took place the festivals, the wedding processions, the Medici theatrical performances. Here they still play the football match in 16th century costume, which recalls ancient Florence.

When the Renaissance came along, this Piazza was already built, and it hadto look elsewhere for space to express itself. The Palazzo delta Signoria was finished in 1314, but it took two more centuries to create the interior as we know it today. Gazing up from the ground, it makes one giddy, not so much from the height (308 ft.) but for the boldness with which the tower soars from the facade - a rare example of strength and elegance combined.

The Loggia delta Signoria demonstrates with its semicircular arches that the Renaissance spirit was already mature in Florentine artists a century before. It is of 1381. Here Benvenuto Cellmi left his masterpiece, the Perseus, with its four base statuettes, perhaps even more perfect than the larger statue. Passing a copy of Michelangelo's << David >> we enter the Palace. The left-hand courtyard has remained as it was in the 14° century, but all the rest was transformed in the following centuries. From being the seat of government of a Republic it became a royal palace. Michelozzo built the first courtyard in 1453: Tadda made the fountain, Verrocchio decorated it with his bronze putto; a century later, at a loss to know how to add to the splendour, they applied stucco ornaments to the columns. This profusion of wealth is continued on the upper floors. There is the vast Salone del Cinquecento with Vasari's Battle Paintings and the statue of the << Genius of Victory >> by Michelangelo. Then there is the Studiolo (small study) which Vasari planned for Francesco I and which his pupils trasformed into a document of sensual Florentine Mannerism. The whole of the first and second floors are taken up with the Medici apartments which Vasari and Bronzino built; they alternate with wonderful loggias and terraces giving views of the whole of Florence. Going down into the street again, we enter Piazzale degli Uffizi with its noble Palazzo which Vasari, the great town-planner of Renaissance Florence, built for Cosimo I, who wanted to set the central bureaucracy of the state there. Instead, it houses themost famous Gallery in the world (See ,The Ten Capitals of Italian Painting ).

The morning might well finish with the Uffizi. One can have lunch in one of the restaurants in Piazza della Signoria.

Ponte Vecchio - Photo (c) James Lawson

We start again in the afternoon from Piazza degli Uffizi, going from here along the Lungarno (along the Arno - riverside drives) to the Ponte Vecchio. It is not called the Old Bridge for its aspect today, but because when it was built it took the place of another bridge with Etruscan foundations. Through Via Par Santa Maria past the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, with its flower stalls and craft stalls, we reach Via Porta Rossa and the tall brick building of Palazzo Davanzati, a 14° century dwelling with a 15° century loggia. We go back to Via Carpaccio to see the Palazzo del Capitani di parte Guelfa (Palace of the Captains of the Guelph Party), of the 14° century. Brunelleschi modified the facade and Vasari added the graceful loggia. From here we pass Borgo Santi Apostoli, where the atmosphere is heightened by the tall stone buildings and narrow alleyways.

After the Church of the Santi Apostoli, by the side of the massive outline of Palazzo Spini Ferroni, we come out into Piazza Santa Trinita. This takes its name, like the bridge it leads to, from the Church of Santa Trinita, begun by Nicola Pisano in 1258, with a 16th century facade by Buontalenti. The interior is one of the earliest examples of Italian Gothic. In the chapels there is important sculpture by GmFaun da Sangallo, Desiderio da Scttignano. Benedetto da Maiano; in the Sassetti Chapel there are frescoes by Ghirlandaio, and his masterpiece a The Adoration of the Shepherds.

After a glance at the lofty Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, we come out on to one of the finest of the Lungarni, which takes its name from Palazzo Corsini, one of the very few Baroque palaces in Florence. In the interior is the Corsint Chapel, with several important works such as a Madonna byFilippo Lippi, another by Luca Signorelli- and Raphael's Cartoon for the portrait of Julius II. Our tour of private dwellings in old Florence brings us to Palazzo Rucellai(1451), and the splendid Palazzo Strozzi, begun by Benedetto da Maiano. We are now in Via Tornabuoni, the most elegant street in Florence, and here we will end our first Florentine day.

The second day's tour begins with the Etruscans. We start from Piazza delta Santissima Annunziata, a calm quiet island of early Renaissance peace. Begun in the XIII century, the church was altered by Michelozzo and Antonio da Sangallo: the atrium preserves fine frescoes by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Franciabigio and Alessio Baldinovetti. In the Baroque interior there are frescoes and paintings by Perugino, Bronzino and Tombs by Benvenuto Cellini, Andrea del Castagno and Pontormo.

Chimera
La Chimera - Photo (C) J. C. Cuesta

Beside the church is the fine Ospedale degli Innocenti, by Brunelleschi; in the refectory there is the joyful Epiphany by Ghirlandaio, and a Madonna by Piero di Cosmic. Opposite the Hospital is the Archeological Museum. Let us go to the Topographical Museum of Etruria with the exhibits grouped according to their place of origin, all Etruscan cities to be visited Orvieto, Chiusi, Tuscania, Tarquinia. The Antiquarium contains a wealth of Etruscan and Greek sculpture, the Sarcophagus of Larthia Seianti (2^° century BC), with the majestic figure of a woman preparing herself for the journey beyond the grave, the statue of the Orator (3rd cent. BC) and the fantastic bronze Chimaera (5° cent. BC) found at Arezzo in 1555. We now pass, with a jump of twenty centuries, from the Etruscan and Hellenic world to the mystical world of Beato Angelico, in the nearby Convent of San Marco, where this Dominican friar, in eight years (1437-1445), painted one of the most amazing cycles of frescoes of all time. Also in San Marco, there are some of Angelico's most important panel paintings still in Florence. From San Marco to the Cenacolo di Santa Apollonia, to admire the rugged and powerful Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno and the vigorous a Portraits of Famous Men by the same artist. Nearby is Via Ricasoli and the Academy Gallery, with many paintings, famous above all for its statues by Michelangelo-the David (work of his youth) and the tortured sketches for the Prisoners, intended for the tomb of Julius II, which was never finished. Michelangelo awaits us again in the Sagrestia Nueva of- San Lorenzo with the tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. First one should glance at the luminous interior of

San Lorenzo, the collection of works by Brunelleschi in the Sagrestia Vecchia, and in this way, passing from the old to the new, one can see how, in less than a hundred years, a new world had been born. The relationship between sculpture and arhitecture is stated in new terms. Architecture is itself sculptural and the figures are incorporated in it. The tombs are not against the wall, but form part of it; the statues in their turn become an integral part of the tombs; the whole complex of structure and statues expresses powerful allegories of life and death, and the world to come, in which pagan and Christian concepts are mingled.

In the same monumental complex Michelangelo built the Biblioteca Laurenziana (Laurentian Library), the first public libray in Florence. Let us now go on to Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, with its Medici Museum and the fascinating Procession of the Magi painted in the Chapel by Benozzo Gozzoli (1459).

Going through Via del Ciglio one arrives at the Church of Santa Maria Novella, begun in 1278 and finished in 1470 by Leon Battista Alberti, with the lateral scrolls on the facade which here appear for the first time. The church is packed with works of art - the Giottoesque Crucifix in the Sacristy, frescoes by Lippo Lippi, Oreagna's Last Judgment, carved tombs by Rossellino, Ghiberti, Bene detto da Maiano and, above all, the powerful Trinity which Masaccio painted at the age of twenty-six, a decisive page in the history of Italian painting; the frescoes of Paolo Uccello in the Green Cloister where the frenzied rhythm of the dance seems to evoke the spirit of Etruscan painting, and the great decorative painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the dome of the apse, in which the sacred stories become a mere excuse for sumptuous paintings of the lives of the wealthy Florentine middle class, in the 14'h century.

There are excellent restaurants in this district, where one might end the morning with some refined Tuscan cooking.

Let us start the afternoon by going to Borgognissanti, passing by the Church of Ognissanti (All Saints), which contains the tomb of, and a noteworthy fresco (St. Augustine) by Botticelli; opposite this there is Ghirlandaio's St Jerone, painted after the Last Supper in the Refectory.

After the Lungarno one crosses Ponte Vespucci to arrive at the Church of San Frediano, on the far bank of the Arno and from here to the Carmine, of the late 13° century, destroyed by fire in the 18° century. The Brancacci Chapel, one of the sanctuaries of Italian painting, was saved; a huge work by Masaccio which represented the liberation of painting from formalism, the impetuous out bursting of the Renaissance: all the great Renaissance artists from Botticelli to Leonardo and Michelangelo, studied and pondered here, before the masterpiece of the re-creator of the art of painting, who died at the age of twenty-seven.

Through Via Santa Monica and Via Santo Agostino, we reach Santo Spirito, one of Brunelleschi's finest buildings (1446) and shortly after, the proud mass of Palazzo Pitti, also planned by Brunelleschi and added to in the succeeding centuries. Here is the other great Florentine Gallery, the Palatine Gallery (See a The Ten Capitals of Italian Painting).

On leaving the Gallery, we end the afternoon by resting our eyes in the Garden of Boboli, begun in 1549 on the slopes of the hill rising to Fort Belvedere. We have a morning left to spend in Florence. Let us go to the Ponte alle Grazie to visit two museum left to Florence by private individuals, on either bank of the Arno; one was Bardini, the antiquarian, and the other the English writer H.P. Horne. The Bardini houses mainly sculpture (works by Donatello, Pollaiolo, Michelozzo, Andrea della Robbia). and the Horne Museum painting (works by Simone Martini, Lorenzo di Credi, Lippo Lippi, Sassetta) and decorative objects. Through Via dei Benci we arrive at the great Piazza and Church of Santa Croce (1294) with its powerfully severe Gothic interior, full of works of art: frescoes by Giotto, Taddeo and Angelo Gaddi, Maso di Banco; sculpture by Donatello, Rossellino (the fine Tomb of Leonardo Bruni) and Canova. Santa Croce is a kind of Italian Pantheon: Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Vittorio Alfieri and Rossini are buried here. In the 13th century Cloister to the right of the church, is the Paz ,zi Chapel, a fine work by Brunelleschi (144). Leaving Santa Croce, one can see the brilliant painted facade of Palazzo dell'Antella, passing through Via Ghibellina, to arrive at Casa Buonarroti, once Michelangelo's house and now a Museum of youthful works, manuscripts and drawings by him. Continuing along Via Ghibellina we arrive at Palazzo dei Bargello, which houses the National Museum, with an exceptional collection of sculpture (Michelangelo, Verrocchio, Ghiberti), majolica, frescoes, miniatures and bronzes.

Text courtesy in part of www.aboutflorence.com