Duomo – Riveted

More Florence!

Laura Domela — Tue, 27 May 2014 19:14:56 +0000

This morning we slept in and it was glorious. Exploring Tuscany can take it outta you and it was a nice recharge this morning. We made breakfast and did some work, then popped down the street to the sandal shop, and then across the river to explore a little and grab a cappuccino.

This afternoon at 2pm we met up with most of the wedding group to do a walking tour of Florence. We all met in front of the palazzo where the bride and groom are staying, just one block over on Via Maggio, the Palazzo Ricasoli.

Palazzo Ridolfi was designed by Italian architect and sculptor Baccio d'Agnolo.

Across the street on Via Maggio, there's a lovely example of one of my favorite styles of architectural decoration: Sgraffito. This building is the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, and has some good Medici dirt history associated with it.

We wandered around listening to our fantastic tour guide, Cindy, as she skillfully gave an art and architecture of Florence tour to a group largely consisting of artists, art historians, and architects. Impressive!

The Palazzo Strozzi courtyard:

Ironwork on the outside, done by Florentine blacksmith Niccolo Grosso. Grosso was referred to as "Il Caparra" (which means "The Deposit" — due to his always asking for an advance before starting any actual work).

Beautiful iron work on this building, inside and out!

We wandered over toward the Duomo and were able to pop into the Cathedral to see the interior from the ground floor (which was cool, because when we visited before we only saw the cathedral from up inside the dome).

Dome from below:

Today we learned about how this dome was engineered (by Filippo Brunelleschi), and it's remarkable, really. More info here if you're into that stuff.

We made a stop at the Palazzo Vecchio — the town hall of Florence and the location for Thursday's wedding. The Palazzo Vecchio is a giant fortress/palace that overlooks the Palazzo della Signoria, has a copy of Michelangelo's David out front (replacing the original which is now inside the Gallerie dell'Accademia but stood here for several hundred years), and is one of Tuscany's most impressive public spaces.

The bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna (1594):

The ceilings/columns/walls inside the entrance:

And…fake David's butt:

A few more modified street signs:

We learned from our fabulous guide that these are the work of a French artist named Clet. Apparently this was not okay at first and the city kept removing the signs, but people complained and now they let them be. They're wonderful and whimsical, and everyone can still read "Do Not Enter" and "Go This Way" … so why not let them be?

We ended the tour at Gilli Cafe on the Piazza Repubblica (one of the oldest cafes in Florence…opened in 1733) for drink and a snack with most of the group…such fun! We left a bit early to meet our new friends Andrea and Beppe (of the 500 Touring Club) over in the Oltrarno for an apertif near Santo Spirito…we love these guys! Great people, running a great company…seriously…their tour in vintage Fiats is highly recommended. I wish we could have done it twice while here! (Mostly just so we could have more time hanging out with them! Hi guys!!)

On our way back toward the apartment as we were passing Santo Spirito, there was a side door opening into a cool courtyard area, and I decided we should go in and check it out. Kevin followed and it was quickly apparent we were crashing some church thing. No one seemed to care, and I took a couple of sneaky photos:

Also, cool shiny red new Vespa by textured really old door:

We headed over to where we thought we'd have dinner tonight: Il Santo Bevitore (where I had octopus a week ago and it was SO GOOD).

Awwww, full up. Second choice: Trattoria Casalinga, back where we started at Santo Spirito: awwwww, full up. (We didn't even ask, the place was tiny and there were about a dozen people standing, waiting.) Third choice: Olio e Convivium back near our apartment. Awwww, three strikes! (It was 8:15pm). Plan D: Osteria Il Cantinone…down a bunch of stairs into a caveish place (and yay, room for us!)…good house wine, stuffed zucchini flowers, ravioli with pesto, pappa al pomodoro, and a grilled chicken dish..all solid and plenty good.

Today was a really nice, chill day in Florence. (Oh yeah, and it was also kinda cool, and windy, and it rained this morning…totally different than every other sunny/warm day we've had since we've been there…the first day I've worn long sleeves!)

Tomorrow we'll pack our bikes into their suitcases and work on figuring out how to bring all the stuff we bought home. Tomorrow evening is the cocktail party over at the wedding party palazzo, which should be a blast, and Thursday at 12:30 the wedding day festivities begin at Palazzo Vecchio and will continue into the evening at the Antica Torre di Via Tornabuoni for reception and dinner with fantastic views of Florence. Friday morning early, we fly home…booooo. I really love Italy and could easily stay WAY longer. Guess we'll need to come back!

Around Florence

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 May 2014 16:52:28 +0000

Yesterday we moved over to the Oltrarno area of Florence into to the apartment we rented for the next two weeks. (That's our new neighborhood, above.) We're on the other side of the Arno river from the center of town, and it's a bit quieter here than say, over near the Duomo. It's fantastic! We rented this apartment through a company called Windows on Italy and if you're visiting Florence and want a sweet spot to call home, we highly recommend this company. Here's the inside:

It's got gigantic high ceilings, a loft bedroom with a queen bed (not two twins pushed together like everywhere else has), a full bathroom, laundry, nice dining area, small kitchen, two story windows that open out onto the street, Wi-Fi, A/C, bike parking downstairs (inside the courtyard)…and tons of charm. (Oh, and frescoes in the loft!) Here's a bit of info from the Windows on Italy website about the building:

The apartment is located on the first floor with lift of an impressive building dating back to the XVI century, called Palazzo Medici, which represents a typical example of true Florentine architecture. The palazzo is now home to 8 luxury apartments thanks to a recent restoration programme which has skilfully combined modern comforts and quality furnishings whilst preserving the building’s original historical features. Palazzo Medici can sleep up to a total of 35 people and is therefore a great option for large groups or families who wish to visit Florence and stay altogether in one building.

We settled in a little and then headed out to explore a bit. Hey, look at that!

The Ghiberti Gates, (dubbed by Michelangelo as the "Gates of Paradise") on the Florence Baptistry. The Baptistry building is undergoing renovation right now, but the gates were still viewable:

We'd planned to see the Florence Cathedral and the Duomo on a different day, but the lines weren't too long and we opted to go up into the Duomo. It was supposed to be a day of rest after 6 days of riding and all that climbing the previous day, but what's another 463 stairs to the top of Florence?

People just can't help themselves. The walls were covered, the whole way up. Eventually you get to a spot up high inside the dome where you get a pretty great view of the ceiling frescoes:

Here's a composite we made from our ledge inside the dome:

A few more stairs (okay, more than "a few") and you're as far as you can go, and you pop outside, and there's this view of the Campanile di Giotto:

And the city below:

I love the long shadows:

Detail at the top:

We took in the spectular view of the city for a bit and then made the trek all the way back down those 463 stairs. We paid way too much for an espresso and a snack across the square (1 Euro for the coffee, 3 Euros for the view/location) and then decided we needed a few more stairs, so we climbed up into the Campanile (412 steps, I think):

Inside, looking up:

Another (two photo) composite, inside the bell tower:

And then, from the top:

We were right over there with those people, just a few minutes ago!

View of the under construction Florence Baptistry:

And more great views of the city. The prominent building in the left of this photo is the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella:

The old center of the city:

Sunset over the Arno River:

Last night we had dinner at a spot right around the corner (literally, about 100 feet from our front door…we can see the tables from our window). It was fantastic: Il Santo Bevitore. We will definitely be coming back here during our stay.

This morning we headed toward Michelangelo Florentine Leather to look for some, well, leather stuff. This place has great reviews (and the quality is far better than what you can find in the stalls on the street) but he wasn't open, so we had some coffee and wandered around a bit. Here's the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella that we'd seen from afar the yesterday, taken from our morning coffee table:

We'll go inside the basilica when we come back to Michelangelo's…today was Sunday and we figured it was likely off limits to non-Catholic tourists like us. We wandered back through town and passed by the Palazzo Vecchio (the Town Hall of Florence, where our friends will be married on May 29th! … the reason we're here!):

Heading back toward our apartment…the Ponte Vecchio (a "Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge" over the Arno River):

Ponte Santa Trinita (the oldest elliptic arch bridge in the world):

We headed over to the nearby grocery store, but it was closed (oh right, Sunday) so we opted to stop at a little pizzeria near our apartment for a late lunch/early dinner. Inside the pizza joint:

Oh yeah, there are these "do not enter" signs all over the place at the one-way road intersections, and there's some fabulous grafitti on so many of them. Here are two right near our apartment, but I plan to gather more:

Tomorrow we're going to head over (by bike!) to the Mercato Centrale to gather ingredients for cooking and eating…one of the great things about having an apartment in another city/country: shopping for food!