The Pod Abroad: Tuesday 29 May Florence

Why don’t we call Italian cities by the names that the Italians do? They have such a beautiful ring to them - Venezia, Firenze, Roma, Milano, Napoli - Firenze in particular, so much more musical than Florence.

Anyway.

Today was an explore Florence day. My two non-negotiables for the day were the Uffizi Gallery, and the Duomo, otherwise we were free to wander. We started by walking from our apartment, which is about two blocks from the Duomo and in the same block as the Medici’s palazzo, into the heart of Florence. This is a very compact city, so everything is within easy walking distance. We meandered past the Duomo, and down to the central piazza, which is filled with copies of famous statues, with Michelangelo’s David ruling over all. From there we walked to the river, and crossed over the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence.

We traced the course of the fabled Vasari corridor, an elevated walkway which links the Uffizi (meaning ‘office’ - this is where the city was governed from in Medici’s day) with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. This corridor was ordered built by Lorenzo Magnifico - Lorenzo the Magnificent - a very humble and shy Medici prince (not!), who disliked mingling with the commoners when he had to visit the Pitti’s. The corridor was built over the roofs of the shops lining the Ponte Vecchio, which were mostly butcher shops. Lorenzo’s nose was offended by the smell from these shops, so he ordered that they all go away, and that only jewellery and gold shops be allowed on the bridge. This duly happened, and even today, that is what you find on the Ponte Vecchio.

Back into central Florence and we joined the queue for the Uffizi. The hour and a half(!) passed fairly quickly, broken by half of us going in search of sandwiches, and chatting to the other people in line. And the treasures inside made every second worthwhile. Even the kids maintained interest in the fascinating series of famous painters and paintings. Highlights for me were Botticelli’s Birth of Venus - an iconic image, but so much more beautiful and delicate in real life - and huge, too! Da Vinci’s Annunciation showed a masterly skill in miniature background landscape and a lovely use of perspective. The Doni Tondo by Michelangelo was like looking at one of his sculptures, but in 2D - he paints the virgin Mary with lovely muscly arms, and there are some very well-built angels in the background. The scheming and intrigue of the Vatican is beautifully represented in the faces of Raphael’s portrait of three bureaucrats. Fantastic.

After the obligatory gelato break, we visited the Basilica di Santa Croce to pay our respects at the mausoleums of some of this city’s greats - Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, Rossini - and then headed back to the Duomo. We paid our money and climbed the 463 steps (although Kia reckons there were only 458) - but these were not ordinary steps! They consisted of a series of tight spiral stone staircases, interspersed with narrow passages right in the hearts of the walls of the church. At two points, the path took us out onto narrow gantries (so narrow you could not pass another person on them) clinging to the walls of the dome’s interior, with sweeping views down into the cathedral, at a dizzying height. Up here, we were right among the stunning frescoes that decorate the ceiling. The theme was once again the contrast between the angels in heaven looking down upon the poor souls in hell, being subjected to all manners of horrific torture and unpleasantness by a series of beasts and devils. The final staircase was a curved ascent of the dome itself, between the ceiling and the outer brickwork, from which we emerged onto a narrow balcony at the very top of the dome, for 360 degree views of another beautiful and ancient city. Absolutely stunning. We were even looking down on the top of the campanile (bell tower) next door.

That pretty much finished off the day. We stopped at a street market on the way home, and Romy bought herself a very flash Italian leather jacket (don’t worry, I made sure that it fits me too), and then we went home to collapse.