Firenze: Gardens and Artwork

The very first thing that I noticed about Florence was that it was green. Everywhere! Trees, bushes, grass, gardens and flowers blooming everywhere. Just like in Rome, the flowers lent their heady scent to the breeze, perfuming the air and making it feel like summer. While the boys decided it was McDonalds time for lunch, I flat out refused. I don’t eat McDonalds anyway, heaven forbid I eat it in Italy! So my lunch? Delicious gelato once more (I do sound like an addict, don’t I?)!

One of the first buildings we saw, the Santa Maria Novella (there is always a Santa Maria in an Italian town) was once again formed of the alternating black and white stone, just like Genova. Firenze also has a huge dominating Duomo, however, we didn’t go inside as mass was being performed. However, across from the duomo were these incredible golden doors. Intricately carved with eight panels, each depicting a biblical scene. It was fun identifying which scenes I recognized from stories in the bible- like the plagues in Egypt, the 10 commandments or fall of Jericho.

Santa Maria Novella!

with really adorable turtle on the statues :)

Santa Maria- black and white theme

Duomo!

the Golden doors

Once again- loads of shops. Italy seems to be the perfects place for shopaholics to  spends loads of money, however I’m not in the shopping category, nor do I have the money, so we generally passed those by! Instead, it being the start of Italian culture week, we got into the Uffizi museum for free! Apparently it is usually quite expensive, so we were really lucky that day. The layout of the museum is perfect. A long corridor wraps around the center of the U-shaped building, lined with Roman statues, busts and several painting. Off of the this main corridor are more painting galleries, opening up into more rooms before leading you back to the marble statues.

 La Galleria degli Uffizie Corridio Vasariano. I was fascinated. I couldn’t tear myself away from the statues in the corridor, but had to inspect each one, and read the signs about who they were and what they meant, either confirming or correcting my early guesses. That Roman Art & Architecture class at McDaniel College suddenly blazed to life as I saw works I had only read about in textbooks! I noticed the changing hairstyles, the form of the bodies going from Greek perfection to Roman naturalism, Julius Caesar, Augustus, and gods and more! And that was just the statues. Inside the painting rooms were artists such as Da Vinci, Boticelli, Raphael and Michaelangelo. Meaning I got to see Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and “Spring” in person! While we didn’t make it in time to see Michaelangelo’s real “David” we did see a replica of it outside.

Really cool street art!

Little Pig Market? no idea why it's called that...

David replica

We finished out the day by walking along Ponte Vecchio, full of jewelry shops and a beautiful view of the river at twilight. Turns out that Firenze has the same tradition as Prague- write your love’s name on a lock, then throw the key into the river for a lasting relationship. Loads of cities have picked up this tradition, which makes me wonder where it originated in the first place…

The Lock tradition!

Ponte Vecchio

It was a really popular place to be!

Firenze at night

After a stop in the Piazza dei Pitti, we grabbed some dinner, a yummy freshly made sandwich as all the restaurants were quite expensive. A perfect day in a beautiful city! Full of tranquil greenery, artwork, sunshine, people and shops. I’d love to go back to Firenze- there was so much more to see, including loads of museums!

Well that about finishes out Italy for me. I had such a fantastic time- beautiful weather every single day, delicious food and lovely people in an ancient country. Can’t wait to go back! Maybe I’ll learn a little Italian before I do… For now, back to enjoying Glasgow for my last month!