Tuesday 13 June 2023
Florence exploration, day one. We started leisurely, with coffee and pastry in the little cafe at the end of our road, but managed to squeeze in San Marco, San Lorenzo, the Medici Chapel and the Bardini Gardens. Santa Croce was also in our sights, but was closed just this one day for a saint’s festival.
Of course, to get to San Marco we had to stroll over the Ponte Vecchio, the legendary bridge lined with jewellery shops that stretches over the River Arno (a river that is the same warm terracotta colour as the buildings on the bridge!). We also had to walk right past the Duomo, to be visited properly another day. But I must say your first sight of the Duomo of Florence is breathtaking. I don’t think it’s quite like any other church in the world. The boldness of the three bright colours of stonework and the gigantic central dome are very wow.
General impression of the middle of Florence. Lots of narrow cobbled streets, with mercifully little traffic (apart from pedestrians), always lined with huge four-storey buildings in four acceptable earthy tones and dark shutters. Very few long sight lines, no greenery anywhere, and even the grand squares are not truly grand. I think all this reflects the fact that Florence’s glory days ended around the 17th century, preserving a more medieval character.
Of today’s sights, the sublime (really apposite word here) works of Friar Angelico in San Marco were the best thing. The convent setting is peaceful and contemplative too and it’s fun to walk around and see what he chose to fresco in each monk’s cell. Around the back in the junior monk’s wing he got a little repetitive with Jesus on the cross spurting gushes of blood on his praying disciples. It’s the kind of thing junior monks like I guess!
San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapel had a good mixture of things: the cool perfection of Brunaleschi’s nave, the intricate bronze friezes of Donatello’s pulpits, the awe-inspiring interior of the Princes’ Chapel, the fleshy curves of Michaelangelo’s figures in the New Sacristy.
The Bardini Gardens were a pleasant green break from the city, and the villa’s belvedere is one of the few places with a great view over the centre of Florence.
Lunch and dinner were contrasting, both recommended by writers. Lunch was at a trattoria “for locals” so of course it was full of tourists but at least very good (delicious liver). Dinner was a recommended osteria called Zeb which they have bizarrely made as entirely counter dining, even though the counter doesn’t look over the kitchen or anything. Just requires you to perch uncomfortably on stools next to each other and eat food that was of a higher aspiration than lunch yet somehow less well balanced and executed. Trad wins over modern in Florence, at least today.
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