For many tourists, one's first vacation in Italy must include a visit to Florence... the city which settles in the imagination as somehow the most Italian experience one can have. We may love the Italian coastlines, but the fact is, fabulous beach vacations can be had all over Europe. We come to Florence for the art. UNESCO estimates that sixty percent of the world’s great works of art are in Italy, and of those, more than half are in Florence. To appreciate Florence's great artistic legacy, we must begin with Florence's history.
 

History and Heritage
Florence was founded by the Romans as a small settlement on the banks of the Arno river. It's hard for we tourists and vacationers to imagine now when we behold the magnificent city which blossomed here, but for the first millennium of her existence, Florence was an inconsequential backwater whose fortunes ebbed and flowed under a procession of Byzantine, Goth, Lombard and Frankish rulers.

As Florence's population grew and her borders expanded, feuding factions took root, and by the end of the thirteenth century two opposing groups called the Guelphs and the Ghibellines had spent a hundred years fighting to control this city which would become the heart and soul of the Italian Renaissance. Gradually the merchant class in Florence grew in political and economic importance until the city overtook Pisa as the center of the Tuscan universe.

The de'Medicis were a powerful Florentine family who made their fortune in commerce and banking. Specifically, they became bankers and accountants to Papal Rome, and it was the Medici fortunes which financed much of the growth and subsequent enrichment and prestige of the city of Florence. In 1434 Cosimo the Elder, then head of the Medici family, opposed the ruling Albizi family and became Duke of Firenze. Cosimo commissioned many of Florence's great buildings and works of art, knowing that to fill Florence with the world's greatest artists and their visionary creations was good for Florence and good for the de'Medicis. Cosimo's nephew, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, became a respected diplomat and politician, and Italy's greatest art patron. He presided over the grandeur which was Florence's golden age during the high Renaissance.
 

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Florence's Best Sights

Your first stop on any tour of Florence is likely to be the Piazza della Signoria as it sits in the center of Florence, flanked by some of the city's key historic buildings including the 14th century Palazzo Vecchio and the 16th century Palazzo Uffizi.

The Piazza della Signoria was and still is the heart of Renaissance Florence. It now resembles an outdoor art gallery... you can stroll around Neptune's Fountain, marvel at Cosimo de'Medici mounted on horseback, see a copy of Michelangelo's David and a copy of Donatello's Marzocco... the heraldic Florentine Lion, (the originals of both are now housed in the Accademia and the Bargello, respectively.)

In the Loggia della Signoria you will find Benvenuto Celini's Perseus With The Head of Medusa, and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women.

The Accademia
Founded as Florence's, and possibly Europe's, first art school, (the Accademia di belle Arti or Academy of Fine Arts) in 1563, the Galleria dell'Accademia's holdings consist of mostly religious paintings by Florentine artists from mid-13th to late 16th centuries. The collection includes some wonderful late-gothic polyptychs, the work of 19th-century sculptors Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni, plus a section of Russian icons. More recently the Gallery has added a fascinating collection of historical musical instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory.

But though the Accademia, like all Florentine galleries, is home to a large collection of spectacular art and sculpture, inevitably, the piece which every visitor comes to see, the top of every tourist's must-see list, the piece which resonates, whose image will linger long after you have returned home from your vacation, is...

David
You see him from a distance, eighteen feet tall, mounted on a pedestal above the heads of the crowd, glowing, pristine marble illuminated by a skylight in the vaulting above. He takes your breath away... first the size and scope of him, which no one expects, then the sheer, aching beauty of him, the exquisite, pulsing detail. He represents humanity breaking free of oppression, but the perfection of his form is beyond human.

Michelangelo was 29 years old when he created David from a single block of marble, a miraculous, inspired work of art in every sense of the word. To even begin to fathom how such a feat was possible, you have to back track into the Hall of The Prisoners, so called. They are a series of Michelangelo's unfinished figures which seem to be unfolding out of their marble blocks with a desire to be free, clearly showing the master's eye for the natural form, and his chisel at work.
 
In Florence Today
A GUIDE TO FLORENCE TODAY - Florence guide to discover both museums and exhibitions. Photo Tour to Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and other monuments. Besides, suggestions for hotels, restaurants and nightlife: concerts and events, fashion fairs.

About Florence
About Florence - Information about the town of Florence, from the history of the city, passing by the art and the culture.
 

The Duomo
The other landmark sight which leaps off the page of every Florence tour guide because of its brilliant and unique colors, is Florence's Basilica Santa Maria del Fiori, known simply as the Duomo for its magnificent dome. There's a sense of complete familiarity when you see it in person, so distinctive is the facade of pink, green and white marble.

Designed and begun by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296, work on the landmark cathedral by the best Florentine artists and craftsmen continued for over 150 years. It was finished, minus the cupola, around 1367, but it was not until 1415 that master architect Filippo Brunelleschi won a public competition for the assignment to complete the dome by coming up with the bold and innovative design which would allow the massive cupola to be built without underlying framework, a technique known in antiquity to the Greeks and Romans but which had been lost during the dark ages.

Opposite the cathedral stands the Baptistry Once the site of a Roman temple and one of the oldest buildings in Florence, it is an octagonal structure built between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Dedicated to San Giovanni di Batista, it is famous for its bronze doors (pictured below).

The city of Florence awarded the commission for their creation to Lorenzo Ghiberti in a public competition in 1401, and he subsequently worked on the ten panels and their carved surrounds for twenty seven years. Sculpted in bas relief they depict scenes from the old testament and were so exquisitely executed they were dubbed the 'Gates of Paradise' by Michelangelo. The panels that you actually see in the Baptistry doors today are reproductions. The originals have been restored and are housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
 

Medici Chapel
Called the New Sacristy, this chapel is the final resting place for the tombs of two of Florence's Medici rulers. It was designed by Michelangelo as a funeral chapel and memorial for Lorenzo de'Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Giuliano, his grandson.

The sarcophagii are draped by the exquisite reclining forms of Dawn & Dusk, and Day & Night, allegorical figures for the passing of time, rendered in Michelangelo's characteristic, larger-than-life, heroic style. An idealized statue of each of the two Florentine Dukes sits framed in an alcove above each tomb. Lorenzo represents thoughtful, contemplative man, while Giuliano with his soldier's baton across his knee, is active, dynamic man... the two aspects of the human soul in Michelangelo's lexicon.

Along a side wall a Madonna and Child are framed between St. Cosmas and St. Damian. Michelangelo spent fifteen years creating the chapel and the statues it contains, and ultimately left them unfinished as he was called to Rome to begin work on the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgement. There was never a suggestion that they be completed by anyone else as the emotional impact of every piece is fully realized, and would not be improved upon were they finished.
 

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The Uffizi
Florence's most famous art gallery, the Galleria degli Uffizi situated in the Palazzo Uffizi, literally, the Palace Offices, was originally built to house Florence's administrative and judicial functionaries, and its guilds. It now contains the world's largest collection of Italian and Florentine art.

This was the de'Medici family's private art collection which was bequeathed to Florence in 1737 on condition that it never leave the city. The extraordinary opulence and magnitude of the collection speaks to the wealth and sheer reach of the de'Medicis. This is a place to see treasures... there are two-thousand-year-old sculptures here.

Some special things to look out for as you tour the Uffizi galleries:

Early works by Fra Filippo Lippi, Cimabue, Giotto, and Masaccio.

Central to the collection are the Botticelli Rooms. You will also find Leonardo's Annunziazione, and Michelangelo's Holy Family. There are literally rooms full of Raphaels, of Titians, of Veroneses, Tintorettos, Caravaggios, Canalettos.

Plenty of non-Italians are well represented too: Rubens and Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Breughel the Elder, Durer and Goya. When you visit Florence give the Uffizi Galleries as much time as you can. It will not be nearly enough.
 
Photographs © 2003 Elaine K. Beckham

 
More Firenze
The city of Florence, as the cradle of the Italian Renaissance, has an over-abundance of magnificent sights for the tourist and world traveler. If your Florence vacation isn't over yet and you still have time to explore, take a walk across the 650 year-old Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno (the other side of the Arno). You will find another extraordinary collection of Medici art and treasures in the five galleries of the Palazzo Pitti. Stroll the Boboli Gardens and then walk up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for the most famous and breathtaking view of the entire city of Florence spread out below.
 

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