Arte Firenze

This restaurant was highly recommended to us so we went for lunch although we had a limited amount of time because we had booked a tour of the Uffizi.

Cantinetta means small wine cellar. This restaurant's unusual feature is its wines. Cantinetta Antinori is a small restaurant in the center of Florence housed in Palazzo Antinori. It's owned by the famous Antinori wine making family. The family also happen to be aristocrats. Famous wines, titles, wealth, property in the middle of Florence -- some people have it all, don't they? The interior courtyard has displays of the many vinyards owned by the Antinori family. The restaurant features every wine that Antinori makes and no other labels.

We did not have reservations but arrived at 12:30 when the restaurant opens for lunch and we had no problem getting a table. The restaurant is on 2 levels. When we went for lunch, we sat in the upper loft area. Be aware that there are not many tables, so if you want to eat at a more popular time, a reservation might be a good idea.

We ordered a bottle Tignanello, an outstanding red wine, for a mere €38. For the same bottle, we paid $80Cdn retail only weeks earlier. The wines of Antinori are not cheap, and some are really expensive, but the prices are very good compared to other stores in Italy.

We didn't have much time for lunch so only ordered one course. The menu offered a full range of traditional Tuscan fare. My husband had a fagiole e salsiccia and I had papardelle with meat ragu. Food was excellent, but not cheap for lunch. The primo was €14 and the secondo was €19.

The other patrons seemed to be a mix of tourists and business. The room, because of the two levels, is fairly quiet and feels very spacious with natural light coming in from the many windows. It makes for a very comfortable ambience. The bathrooms here are small but one of the most luxurious that I saw in our entire trip. The staff are friendly and efficient.

I would love to return here to try dinner. I expect the food would be great and this restaurant is a must for a wine lover.

Florence is so full of magnificent art, it amazed me that my eyes didn't pop right out of my head. What makes Florence even more amazing is that much of the art is available for viewing without paying anything or even going inside a building.

In the Piazza del Duomo are three buildings, each of which is a feast for the eyes. The Cathedral, more commonly known as Il Duomo for its famous dome, and the Baptistery of Florence stand in a huge rectangular area and occupy two separate but communicating squares: Piazza del Duomo and Piazza San Giovanni.

Piazza del Duomo contains the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore, the third largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. The basilica is the fourth reconstruction of the original temple, the result of the later and fundamental project by Arnolfo di Cambio (1296) and crowned by the revolutionary cupola by Brunelleschi (1420-1436), a symbol of the Renaissance demonstrating man's ingenuity. Many have commented that the cathedral seems turned inside out. So beautifully coloured and embellished by the marble on the outside, so plain inside.

In the centre of Piazza San Giovanni is the Baptistery right in the centre, thought by some to be the first Christian church in the city, as it was built in late Roman times, around the 4th-5th century A.D., on the ruins of what was possibly a Roman temple dedicated to the god Mars.

The Baptistery as we see it today, which has always represented an architectural reference point for Florentine artists, dates from the 11th-13th century, when the external covering of marble, the interior and the mosaics in the cupola were completed. There are three doors in gilded bronze, the most famous of which is the so-called "Doors of Paradise" designed by Ghiberti. These are clearly the most popular. When we saw the three doors, only this set were polished to a golden gleam and the crowds were packed around them, while few went inside the Baptistery and even fewer were looking at the other two sets of doors.

The third building is Giotto's 85 metre bell tower, or campanile, designed by the famous artist in the last three years of his life (1334-1337), continued by Andrea Pisano and completed in 1359 by Francesco Talenti, who also added the original terrace on the top. It stands on the right of the Cathedral facade.

Going to the top of the duomo and the top of the campanile appears to be a very popular thing to do for tourists. The queues were horrendous and as I don't like heights, I was glad to give them a pass. There's a fee of €6 for each of Il Duomo and the bell tower. There are no elevators, so if you like heights, be prepared for the 463 steps of the Duomo and 414 steps for the campanile. There is also €3 admission for the baptistery but the cathedral is free.

In the movie, "A Room with a View", Judy Dench's character sets a scene of her novel in the Loggia dei Lanzi. I've always imagined it is because the name sounds so romantic. The reality is romantic as well - a open air gallery of classical and mannerist art available to every visitor to Florence.

The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is on a corner of the famous and popular Piazza della Signoria. The name dates back to the reign of Grand Duke Cosimo I, when it was used to house his formidable landsknechts (In Italian: "Lanzichenecchi", corrupted to Lanzi), or German mercenary pikemen. After the construction of the Uffizi at the rear of the Loggia, the roof was modified and became a terrace from which the Medici princes could watch ceremonies in the piazza.

The Loggia consists of wide arches open to the street, three bays wide and one bay deep. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Although some of the works are now copies, it nevertheless forms a small art museum that a visitor can enjoy at any time and for free.

Underneath the bay on the far left is the bronze statue of Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini. It shows the mythical Greek hero holding his sword in his right hand and holding up triumphantly the Medusa's decapitated head in his left. The richly decorated marble pedestal, by Cellini, shows four graceful bronze statuettes of Jupiter, Mercurius, Minerva, and Danae. The bas-relief on the pedestal, representing Perseus freeing Andromeda, is a copy of the one in the Bargello museum.

On the far right is the manneristic celebrated group Rape of the Sabine Women by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne, better known as Giambologna. This impressive work was made from one imperfect block of white marble, the largest block ever transported to Florence. The original is now in the Galleria dell' Academia. This is the first group representing more than a single figure in European sculptural history to be conceived without a dominant viewpoint. It can be equally admired from all sides. The marble pedestal, also by Giambologna, represents bronze bas-reliefs with the same theme. This marble and bronze group has been in the Loggia since 1583.

Nearby is Giambologna's less celebrated marble sculpture Hercules beating the Centaur Nessus (1599) and placed here in 1841. It was sculpted from one solid block of white marble. The group The Rape of Polyxena, is a fine diagonal sculpture by Pio Fedi from 1865.

At the back of the Loggia are five marble female statues, Sabines and a statue of a barbarian prisoner Thusneldo from Roman times from the era of Trajan to Hadrian. They were discovered in Rome in 1541. They had been in the Medici villa at Rome since 1584 and were brought here by in 1789.

It is one of the amazing things about Florence - so much great art just waiting for you to stroll by and admire.

While walking in central Florence, you will likely stroll past Orsanmichele. It is on one of the busy streets full of great shops. A visitor doesn't even need to go inside Orsanmichele to enjoy the art. If you want to go in, it is open Monday through Sunday from 9am to noon and from 4pm to 6pm.

Compared to other religious buildings from the same period, this 14th century church is somewhat unusual in design. Rectangular in shape, with two naves, it looks more like a grain store. That's because when it was built, it was to be a grain market, but later in the 14th century, it was transformed into a church. As a church, it became a powerful symbol for the city guilds. Those guilds have given the building its unique character. On the exterior of the chapel, marble tabernacles were built to house statues of the patron saints of the guilds. They commissioned the greatest artists of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Today, the whole building is a museum. Inside the church is the imposing Tabernacle by Andrea Orcagna, painstakingly built and decorated in flamboyant Gothic style between 1355 and 1359. Two rooms above the church, on the first and second floors, exhibit works that could no longer be left on the building's facade and display works that had been explicitly commissioned for Orsanmichele and had been disseminated due to various reasons.

The first floor currently exhibits eight of the fourteen statues or groups of statues, in bronze or marble, which once adorned the niches dedicated to the Guilds on the outside of the building. Reproductions for some of the statues are now on the outside. The second floor displays the small stone sculptures representing the Saints and Prophets originally installed on the top of the columns that divide the windows with three lights and the doors.

The notable statues include St. Mark and St. George by Donatello, The Disbelief of St. Thomas by Verrocchio, St. John the Baptist by Ghiberti, Sant'Eligio and St. Philip by Nanni di Banco. The group also comprises the statues of St. Jacob, St. Peter and the Madonna of the rose respectively attributed to Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti, Bernardo Ciuffagni and Pietro di Giovanni Tedesco.

The museum has yet to be completed. The original statues that are still located on the outside of the building are waiting to be restored and replaced with copies, like the others already displayed inside the museum.

This art display on the outside of a building is one of the many reasons that Florence ranks as one of the great art cities of the world.

Piazza della Signoria has been the political heart of the city from the Middle Ages to the present day. For a visitor, it is a free outdoor museum.

It gets its name from the most important monument there, Palazzo della Signoria, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1298-99 for the seat of the Republican government. The palace continued to maintain this politically representative function in the city during the reign of the Medici and later under Duke Cosimo I, who lived here between 1540 and 1565, commissioning his court architect, Giorgio Vasari, to double the building in size. When the Grand Duke and his family moved to the new palace of Pitti in 1565, Palazzo della Signoria began to be known as Palazzo Vecchio (the Old Palace).

There is no admission to view the art and it is open every day all year around. We wandered around the piazza a number of times to gaze at the statues and bask in the sunshine. The square has a number of eye-catching statues, most famously, at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, is Michelangelo’s David. The statue is a copy of David while the original is kept at the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts or Galleria Accademia, but that hardly matters when you look up at one of the most iconic statues in the world.

David is not the only statue to admire. Also in the piazza are the bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna (1594); the Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1575); The Lion, referred to as "il Marzocco", with a copy of the Florentine Lily by Donatello; Judith and Holofernes, a copy of the one by Donatello; and Hercules and Cacus by Bandinelli (1533).

Just off to one corner is the Uffizi Gallery and across from the Palazzo Vecchio is the Loggia dei Lanzi. Two more great art venues.

Benvenuto Cellini's statue Perseus With the Head of Medusa is in the Loggia dei Lanzi gallery on the edge of the Piazza della Signoria. This is another splendid open-air museum that evokes centuries of greatness and power.

This is an easy to do must do. You can wander around to inspect everything in the piazza or just relax at one of the cafes or gelaterias and admire from afar.

The train station is not a tourist site exactly, but it may definitely be on your list of places to go because you want to get to and from Florence. Knowing some details about the station can be a key to a better vacation.

Florence has a number of train stations that link the main areas of the city, but the principle train station for national and international trains is Santa Maria Novella, (or Firenze SMN according to Trenitalia codes) located right in the city centre, in Piazza Stazione, across a busy intersection from the Santa Maria Novella Church.

In general, train travel in Italy is relatively inexpensive and rapid. High-speed, long-distance trains connect Florence Santa Maria Novella with other Italian and European cities via the the main north south line running from Milan to Rome. Connections from Florence to Rome and Milan are excellent, and Rome is roughly 1 hour 40 minutes away, and Milan is 3 hours away on the high speed trains.

The bus station for many regional and international buses can be seen nearby across the busy intersection outside the front entrance.

The station itself has many bars and cafes, where you will be able to find the most expensive bottles of soft drinks in Florence. Important to note for day trippers or those stopping in Florence en route to elsewhere, the station has a baggage deposit office where you can store your bags while you explore Florence. You pay by the length of time you store your baggage. A sign says there is a 22 kg limit for weight but when we went, they did not seem to be enforcing the weight limit and took my very heavy bag.

There is also a busy information center and shops where you can find that toothpaste you forgot to pack. Train tickets can be bought at the ticket office, but there are also self serve stations, some of which take credit cards. Many of the smaller train stations in Italy accept only cash.

Connected to the station is an underground shopping gallery which has a good selection of budget clothes and shoe shops, Internet cafes, music and book shops, and even a hairdresser. The underground complex lets you avoid crossing the busy intersection if you want to go to Santa Maria Novella church or the bus station.

The station and the underground shopping area have public toilets, something of a rarity in Italy, but you have to pay €0.80 to use them. When we were there, I was desperate, so willing to pay the fee. But you can avoid the payment by using the washrooms in the small restaurants at the station, especially at the McDonald's no one seems to mind if you go in just to use the washroom.

One amusing thing we saw were the police at the train station riding segways rather than walking. Florence police have uniforms designed by Armani. Talk about designer cops.

This is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world. Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings includes several universally acclaimed masterpieces of all time - an absolute must see for any art lover.

The Uffizi Gallery occupies the top floor of the large building erected by Giorgio Vasari between 1560 and 1580 to house the administrative offices of the Tuscan State - thus, the name uffizi, which means offices. The Gallery was created by Grand-duke Francesco I and subsequently enriched by various members of the Medici family, who were great collectors of paintings, sculpture and works of art.

We did this as a small group tour with Context Florence, whose website can be found at: florence.contexttravel.com. The group was potentially six people but it ended up being only me and my husband. So for €33 each, which included the ticket for the Uffizi, we got a private tour.

Context Florence, which is part of the Context Tours organization, uses only docents who have masters or PhDs in a related field. Our docent had her masters in art history and was teaching art history while researching for her further degree. She was a great resource so that we could make the best use of our time. With our pre-paid tickets, we avoided the wait to buy tickets and speedily negotiated the security queue.

The art gallery starts from the 13th century with Cimabue, and ends with Tiepolo, Canaletto, and Guardi in the last hall. In between, we found the Italian paintings of the Tuscan Macchiaioli, Carrà and Severini, the Frenchmen, Ingres and Delacroix, and also Durer, Rubens, and Rembrandt. There is an unbeatable Florentine and Italian Renaissance selection of paintings by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, with no less than 27 Botticelli’s, including The Birth of Venus and the Prima Vera. There is also the impressive Doni Tondo by Michelangelo.

When we visited, the Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci was on loan for an exhibit in Japan, causing great controversy to have allowed a masterpiece to leave the shores of Italy. Not Renaissance, but also a masterpiece is Caravaggio’s Medusa as well as his Sick Bacchus and Rest on the Flight to Egypt.

The Uffizi does not allow cameras but we were able to take photos on the outdoor terrace of the café, on the top floor, where we saw some unusual views of the Plazzo Vecchio and Il Duomo in the distance.

There are a number of bookstores on the ground floor and the public washrooms in the basement are some of the nicest I ever saw in Italy, although it was a rather long walk to get to them.

Despite the three hour tour, we focused on only parts of the collection. There’s so much more I’d like to return to and see. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8:15am to 7pm.