The Treasures of Florence

We had chosen the Oltrarno historic district in Florence as the place we were going to stay a week. The western part of the area was traditionally an artisans' quarter, while many of the ruling families chose to settle in the central or eastern Oltrarno. The apartment which we booked through the InterHome, is in a wonderful position to explore Florence on foot. Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Pitti and the Boboli Gardens are approx. 100 m away. It takes 5 to 7 minutes walk to reach Piazza della Signoria or Galleria degli Uffizi. Access to the apartment from Via Guicciardini is through a courtyard which has one of the best ceramic shops in Florence. Here also you will find a memorial plate informing that Niccolo Machiavelli lived here. In the building there is a miniscule lift, no more than two can use it at a time (if they are fit and without luggage). The one-bedroom apartment has been renovated and furnished in Tuscany country style. The large windows of the living rooms overlook the characteristic courtyard making this quiet apartment very luminous. You will find double bed in the master bedroom, another reclining bed in the living room, kitchen with small fridge, 4 hotplates, and microwave. Shower is rather small, there is also bidet and WC. From the bedroom and hall there is access to a narrow balcony overlooking the internal courtyard.

Palazzo Pitti is my favorite place in Florence. Yes, the Ufizzi Gallery is great but remember that the Medici family actually envisioned the Ufizzi, the Pitti Palace and linking them to the Vasari corridor as a whole; your pilgrimage to Florence will not be complete without the palace. I found that here you can easily get in without standing in line for several hours and there are no crowds, which are so typical of the Uffizi Gallery. The paintings are well placed and you can sit down and look at the walls and ceilings; you can really pay attention and not wait for a chain of tour groups to pass through so that you can come up to the painting. Back to the palace though. In 1549 Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, bought the palace from Luca Pitti, a rival of the Medici, whose fortunes began to decline. Bartolomeo Ammannati took up work on the building in 1560 and converted the two side doors of the facade into elaborate ground-floor windows. Giulio and Alfonso Parigi then copied the doors after 1616 when they enlarged the façade to its present colossal dimensions. Maria de' Medici, Queen of France (1573-1642), used the palace as a model when she had the Luxembourg Palace built in Paris. Under the Lorraines, architects Giuseppe Ruggeri, Gaspare Maria Paoletti and Pasquale Poccianti, added the Palazzina of the Meridiana and the two wings curving around the square. The wings called Rondòs were added at the end of the 18th C (on the right), and in the 19th C on the left. The various ruling families of Florence continued to occupy the palace, or part of it, until 1919 when the King Victor Emmanue III presented it to the State. Today the apartments have all the original wall coverings, tapestries and furniture. I was disappointed when I found that the biglietto cumulativo ticket does not exist anymore. (It used to give access to Galleria Palatina, Galleria de Moderna, Galleria de Costume, Museo degli Argenti, Giardino di Bóboli and Museo delle Porcellane.) Now you have to buy separate tickets for each attraction, and they are valid for one day only.

Although the Pitti Palace doesn’t quite compare to the Doge’s Palace in Venice or the Hermitage in St Petersburg, our family agreed that it was a top sight in Florence. You must see it no matter what. The central door of the palace leads you into the atrium. The splendid court (1560-70) by Ammannati serves as a garden façade to the palace. It is a masterpiece of Florentine Mannerist architecture. The night spectacles were held here from the 16th to the 18th century. The lower fourth side is formed by a terrace with the Fontana del Carciofo. The grotto beneath the terrace has another fountain with a porphyry statue of Moses Roman. The Grand Staircase ascends past the a bronze statue of Genio Mediceo (the rulers were not particularly modest) to the entrance of the Galleria Palatina (Palace Gallery). Passing through the rooms of the planets - Venere's (Venus), Apollo's, Marte's (Mars), Giove's (Jupiter), Saturno's is a beautiful experience. The Gallery is packed with masterpieces by Botticelli, Cavaraggio, Fra Bartolomeo, Rapael, Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Veronese and the others. You'll need at least the best part of the morning to see it properly. When Raphael settled in Florence in 1505, he was besieged with commissions from patrons. There are 15 excellent works by Raphael here, including portraits of Angelo Doni and his wife Maddalena (her pose copied directly from the Mona Lisa). Seven of his paintings grouped in one of the large halls. You will see the celebrated Madonna della Seggiola, or Madonna of the Chair, in which the figures are curved into the rounded shape of the picture with no sense of artificiality. An even larger contingent of supreme works by Titian (25) includes a number of his best portraits. Among them Pietro Aretino, the preening Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, and famous Portrait of an Englishman. Rubens' Consequences of War is full of the Baroque allegories. The gallery's outstanding sculpture is Canova's Venus Italica, commissioned by Napoleon as a replacement for the Venice de’Medici. Don’t miss the ceilings by Pietro la Cortone. The Gallery maintains the character of a private princely collection of the 17th - 18th. The arrangement of the pictures which decorate the walls produces a remarkable effect of magnificence. The elaborately carved and gilded frames are remarkably fine.

The Appartamenti Monumentali (former Reali) - the Pitti's state rooms, renovated by the dukes of Lorraine in the 18th century, and then again by the King Vittorio Emanuele when Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (1865-71). The museum is located in the right-hand wing (same hours and ticket as Galleria Palatina). This series of state apartments, most of them decorated in the 19C by the Dukes of Lorraine, are notable particularly for their numerous portraits of the Medici by Sustermans, the Flemish painter who was appointed to the Medici court in 1619 and remained in their service until his death in 1681. On display also a fine group of 18th century tapestries. The rooms contain the furniture of the periods; and Appartamenti Monumentali is one of the few museums where you allowed to sit on it! You mustn't look down the whole time – the ceiling frescoes are fantastic!

The left-side wing of the palace is given over to the Museo degli Argenti (Silver Museum), arranged in the summer apartments of the grand-dukes, is entered from the garden courtyard (combo ticket with Museum of Porcelain and the Boboli gardens). Some of the most valuable objects are the vases belonged to Lorenzo di Magnifico. The rooms towards the Boboli gardens were the living quarters of the Grand Dukes. Here, and on the mezzanine floor, are displayed their bizarre collection of personal items and gifts presented by other ruling families. Also during our visit, the museum hosted an exhibition from the Pompeii excavations giving us a great chance to prepare ourselves for the visit to the Vesuvius area next week.

The Bóboli Gardens is the huge formal park behind the Pitti Palace. It is the most visited garden in Italy. The park is open 8:15am–6.30pm, closed first and last Monday of the month; entrance: €2.00. Five million people annually used to visit the most typical and splendid "Italian Garden" of the later Renaissance for free until the government in Rome decided to charge admission fee in 1992 (local residents still have free access and the EU residents pay €1 – with their passports in hand). The park was laid out by Tribolo in 1549, when Cosimo I took possession of the Palazzo Pitti. The gardsens were and continued after his death in 1555 by Marco del Tasso and Ammannati. After 1569 Francesco I employed Buontaolenti to direct the works. The design of the Boboli Gardens was used as a basis for all the royal gardens in Europe, including Versailles. Pietro Leopoldo decided to open the garden to the public in 1776. There are five entrances to the gardens - from the piazza through an archway in the left wing of the palace; through the main courtyard of the Pitti Palace, from the Annalena gate at Via Romana , and Porta Romana. The Forte di Belvedere gate is also usually open.

We will tour this huge park clockwise, the trip will take 2 – 4 hours (you can escape earlier). Turn left from the entrance arch and you will find the so-called 'Fontana del Bacco', really an amusing statue of Pietro Barbino, the dwarf of Cosimo I, seated on a turtle, created by Valerie Cioli (1560). Here can be seen the last stretch of the Corridoio Vasariano from the Uffizi Palace. A path descends to the most popular place in the park - Grotta del Buontalenti, named after its architect (1583-93). The two statues of Apollo and Ceres in the niches on the façade (begun by Vasasi) are by Baccie Bandinelli, and the decoration above was added by Giovanni del Tadda. The walls of the 1st chamber are covered with weird figures and fake stalactites carved in the limestone by Piero Tommaso Mati (again, designed by Buontalenti). In the four corners are copies of Michelangelo's unfinished Slaves (the originals are in the Academia). The charmingly painted vault is by Bernardino Poccetti. Beyond an erotic group of Paris abducting Helen, by Vincenzo de’ Rossi, the innermost grotto contains a beautiful statue of Venus emerging from her bath (1565) by Giambologna, and pretty murals by Poccetti. From the Grotta del Buontalenti a narrow path leads up to the Grotticina di Madama , commissioned by Eleonora di Toledo, and the first grotto to be built in the gardens (1553-55), by Bandili and Giovanni Fancelli. It was locked during our visit but you can see the most of it from outside - stalactites and bizarre goats. Now return to terrace behind the Pitti Palace. The main path emerges on the terrace, overlooking the courtyard and Fontana del Carciofo (by Francesco Susini (1661). It replaced a fine fountain by Ammannati (now recomposed in the Bargello). From the terrace there is a magnificent view of the Duomo and Campanile behind Orsanmichele. Ammannati laid out the area around the Amphitheater, in imitation of a Roman circus. The first opera Dafni was performed here in 1597 (remember, I told you that Florentines invented opera). The vast amphitheater facing the palace courtyard was designed in 1630-35 Giulio and Alfonso Parigi for the spectacles held here by the Medici which culminated in the festivities for the marriage of Cosimo, son of Ferdinand II with Margaret Louise of Orleans in 1661. The earliest opera whose music survived in its entirety, is Euridice, premiered in the Pitti Palace on occasion of the proxy marriage Maria de’Medici to Henry IV, the King of France. The huge granite basin comes from the Bath of Caracalla. The genuine obelisk of Rameses II (1500 BC) was taken from Heliopolis (or from Luxor?) by Romans in 30 BC, and somehow found its way to the Villa Medici in Rome in the 17th C. The obelisk was brought here in 1790 from Rome.

On the 1st terrace behind the Amphitheater are three Roman statues. On the upper level is a large fishpond surrounded by terraces planted with trees. Here is the famous Neptune Fountain. A short detour to the left leads through romantic winding alley overshadowed by ilex trees and a cypress grove, to the rococo Kaffeehaus, built in 1776(unfortunately it was closed for restoration during our visit). In the garden in front (where we enjoyed fantastic view of Florence) is the Ganymmede Fountain. From the Neptune Fountain steps continue to the top of garden and a colossal statue of Abundance. From here another breathtaking view embraces the whole city, beyond the Pittti Palace and the tower of Santo Spirito. A short double flight of steps continues to the Glardino del Cavaliere, a secluded garden on a bastion constructed by Michelangelo in 1529. The fountain has three monkeys and a cupid. The view the terrace is awesome, embracing the outskirts of the city. On the left is the bastion of Forte di Belvedere, then, behind a group of cypresses, San Miniato with its tower. To the right is the residential area of Bobolino beside a splendid stretch of the city wails. Here, in the Casino Cavaliere, you will find the Museo delle Porcellane (Chinaware museum). Admission to the garden includes the museum as well. Do not miss the museum. The flight of steps brought us down between Muses to the Prato dell' Uccellare, with a grove of cedars of Lebanon. To the left the magnificent long Vittolone descends steeply through the gardens. The majestic cypress avenue is lined with marvelous statues. A path left ends at a colossal bust of Jupiter. Alfonso Parigi laid out Isolotto, the fountain island, in 1618. It is a circular moat with fine sculptural decorations and a copy of Giambologna's Fountain of Oceanus (original in the Bargello. In the niches in the surrounding hedge are restored 17 century statues. A path turns right and continues past more greenhouses to emerge by the charming 18th century Meridiana of Palazzo Pitti wing (with the Costume Museum, closed during our visit).

Giardino delle Rose (the Rose Garden) located on the slopes of the hill below the Piazzale Michelangelo, offers the best view of Florence. There are three ways to reach the beautiful place: First one, our favorite - from the San Niccolò Church walk up along Via Monto alle Croci. At the fork turn left on Via San Salvatore al Monte running along the Rose Garden. You can enter the garden at the lower gate or two hundreds yards up, halfway to the Piazzale Michelangelo. Second way – walk or drive up along Viale Giuseppe Poggi; you will see the garden’s sign on your left. Finally, you can walk down from Piazzale Michelangelo (one level / terrace below). In 1865 Florence became a capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Municipality of Florence commissioned Giuseppe Poggi to design new public places showing the beauty of the new capital. Giardino delle Rose became one of the first such places in 1865. Atillo Pucci designed first layout of the gardens. Today visitors will find here 1,020 types of roses with total of around 4,000 plants. The terrace in the middle of the garden divides the park in four distinct areas. Below the main terrace is the Japanese Garden. In 1998 the landscape architect Yasuo Kitayama worked here creating the Japanese Garden "Shorai" (the city of Kyoto donated some works from the Zen Temple "Kodai-Ji"). On the very top of the park you can find the Secret Garden, discover it yourself. Of course there is much more then the roses here; the cityscape, the Arno valley and the hills beyond will take your breath away. I bet you will remember the view till the end of your life. Gardino dell Rose is free but open only 6 weeks a year, May 1 through June 16 so plan you trip to Florence accordingly. During the time the gardens open seven days a week 8 AM – 8PM.

Il Giardino dell’Iris (the Iris Garden ) is located on the slopes of the hill east of the Piazzale Michelangelo. The garden hosts the International Iris Competition three weeks in May (this year it was May 2 – 20). Since 1954, varieties of irises from around the world have been sent to be judged in this amazing flower show. When you are tired of churches and museums, come here to escape the rigors of sightseeing. Can you imagine - more than 2,500 types of this flower that has symbolized Florence since 1251 are in bloom at the Iris Garden. We stayed in Florence for a week only but visited Giardino dell Iris twice because the tranquility of the place and the beauty of the flowers bewitched our family. From the gardens terraces you will enjoy also the view of the olive groves, villas and the Arno River valley. The garden offers free admission from 10AM – 12:30, 3 - 7PM but open only 3 weeks a year - in May. Entrance to the garden is on the eastern side of the Piazzale Michelangelo.

The Galleria degli Uffizi holds Italy's greatest art collection; it means every visitor goes to the Uffizi first. There are three ways of getting into the gallery. First, and the worst one – you stay in the line from 30 minutes (in a rainy November day) to three hours. Second way – book in advance over the Internet, €5 or so extra (or over the phone €1.5 extra), then pickup your tickets at a separate entrance (you will spend some time in the line to get your tickets, up to 45 minutes). The best /easiest / cheapest way is to buy a ticket in another museum. We bought our tickets to the Uffizi at the Bargello museum at no extra charge and entered the Uffizi Gallery without staying in the line a minute. Giorgio Vasari designed the elongated U-shaped building in 1560 for the Duke Cosimo I offices. His son Francesco I de' Medici created an Art Gallery on the second floor of the Palazzo moving some treasures from the Palazzo Pitti. We enjoyed wonderful collection of the Roman sculptures in the first corridor. On the vaults are frescoes that depict horrible monsters, weird animals, and the history of the Medici family. The Botticelli masterpieces (Primavera, the Birth of Venus, Adoration of the Magi, Madonna della Melagrana, Coronation of the Blessed Virgin) will take your breath away. The museum’s vast collection is the Renaissance Who’s Who - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, Pontormo, Vasari etc. You will need half a day to fully enjoy the collection (better to come one more time). Next to the last room is located the entrance to the café and to the terrace of the Gallery where you can admire the Florence cityscape.

Palazzo Vecchio (the Old Palace) open Mon – Wed, Fri: 9am–7pm; Thursday, Sun 9am–2pm; entrance: €6. Bear in mind that in addition to casual visit Palazzo Vecchio offers several interesting tours. The Activities Tour ticket includes the Secret Routes and Invitation to the Court tours. First allows you to visit stairwells tucked in the walls behind beautiful paintings, an area between the ceiling and the roof of the Salon, and the private chambers of Duke Cosimo I. Invitation to the Court , conducted by a guide playing Eleonora di Toledo, includes re-enactment of Medici Court life. The Encounter with Giorgio Vasari tours through the Monumental Apartments (I believe it will cost you €2 extra per tour). Back to the palace though. The building was designed by Arnoldo di Cambio and built in 1299 – 1304. The clock was added in 1667 and still ticks (I wish I had a watch that good). Palazzo Vecchio served as the home of the Signoria, the Florence government until 1540, when Cosimo I, Duke of Florence – moved in from the Palazzo Medici. But his wife Eleonora did not like Palazzo Vecchio, therefore 9 years later the Medici moved again – to the Palazzo Pitti (I love the palace) and Palazzo Vecchio got its name – the old palace. The Palazzo today contains the offices of the City Council, but much of it can be visited. The entrance, which is alongside the copy of Michelangelo's David (original in the Accademia), leads into a internal courtyard with the stone lions and a copy of Verocchio’s Putto Fountain (15th century). The Hall of the Five Hundred is awesome, you must see it. My favorite room in the palace is the Sala delle Carte, decorated with 57 maps painted in 1563 by Fra' Ignazio Danti.