Lovely Florence

Lovely Florence

There are two places we almost always visit when we come to Italy.  One is Lucca and the other is Florence.  There are some amazing big cities in Italy, but only Florence has the most incredible medieval and renaissance towers, cathedrals, churches, and even an old-world bridge.  It doesn’t hurt that there are lots of photos opportunities.

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One of the biggest of the historic building is the Florence Cathedral.  It’s official name is Cathedral Santa Marie del Fiori (Saint Mary of the Flowers) which, if you can speak Italian, sounds very good.  It seems to be about 5 blocks long and 3 blocks wide.  It’s pretty hard to capture in one picture.

It took about 140 years to build, which is a bit hard to fathom in the modern world.  The last segment built was the Duomo or dome.  Even back then, the work was contracted out, but, the Duomo was (and is) to be the largest masonry dome in the world.  They could not find a suitable party to build it until Fillipo Brunelleschi came along.  Brunelleschi had no plans and no experience.  But, he had an idea.  He sold his idea using a simple egg.  He told those in charge that he would reveal his plans if any one of them could make the egg stand upright on the table.  After they all failed, he took the egg and smashed the bottom of it on the table’s surface, causing the egg to stand upright.  Although the judges protested that they themselves could have done the same, he slyly responded saying that if they knew what he knew, they could also build the dome.

To get around, we walked and walked.  If you have a Fitbit as we do, it’s relatively easy to achieve your daily goal of 10,000 steps by lunch time.  It’s not that there are not cars, but, finding parking spots is a big challenge.  And the cars are a little on the small side.  It’s hard to imagine the leg room of this cute little car.  I think the car would fit in the dumpster that is right behind it.

During World War II, the allied forces basically won over Italy from the south to the north.  As the allies neared Florence, the Germans left and blew up all bridges except Ponte Vecchio (meaning ‘Old Bridge’).  It was last rebuilt in 1345, not a bad life for a bridge.

Speaking of vecchio, Debbie and Jan went to the museums, but, the senior (vecchio) members of the group did not.  

We all did the Hop On Hop Off bus to see highlights of Florence.  My favorite stop remains the view tourists see from Piazza Michelangelo.  I hope that the renaissance is still taught in school history so that my wonderful grandkids learn what Michelangelo and Da Vinci (both of Florence) did for art and humanity.  The park where millions look into the old city of Florence is named for Michelangelo.  I love the view and think it is loved by many.