Vacation to Florence: city of art and culture in Italy

An itinerary to discover the masterpieces of the Tuscan main city: Florence. Artistic city for excellence, where lived and worked illustrious personages as Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Galileo Galilei and that was adorned by the works by Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Donatello and Giotto.

Art city for excellence, Florence never deceives, not even the most taught tourist. Thanks to a cultural and artistical heritage with rare comparisons in Italy, Europe and worldwide, that was grounded in Middel Age and was resplendent in the Ranaissance, Florence is a compulsory destination for anyone desiring to know the past of our civilization. The basis of artistical and cultural reflourishment of our peninsula were set here in the XV century. Here the Italian language was born. Such artists as Botticelli, Michelangelo and Donatello made it one of the artistical capitals of the world.

Florence and the whole Tuscany were dominated by the Medici family three centuries long. This was the period of major splendour of the city in art, culture, politics and economy. The cosmopolitan atmosphere and the richness of its protectors allowed the city a grow without records. Painters, sculptors, architects filled streets, churches and palaces with the greatest works of Renaissance. In the XVIII century the Lorena family succeded to the Medici until when, in 1860, Tuscany entered the Italian Kingdom of which it was capital from 1865 to 1871.

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Our visit starts in Piazza del Duomo (Square of the Cathedral), historical and geographical centre of the city and ideal position to admire the Bell Tower, the Baptistery and the Museum of the Cathedral Works. This is the only part of the city preserving a Medieval aspect, just as Dante saw it. He live in these streets and his presumed natal house lays between Dante Alighieri road and Magazzini road. Dante also loved the Florentine Abbey, Benedictine church founded in 978, where he met and felt in love with Beatrice.

In Piazza del Duomo we see the city cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore (forth in Europe as for dimentions). It has a gothic structure decorated outside with red, green and white marble and is crowned by a huge cupola by Filippo Brunelleschi. Its building began in 1296 by means of Arnolfo di Cambio and continued by means of his successors. Beside it there is a bell tower of the XIV century, started by Giotto and ended by Andrea Pisano in 1359. It is 85 meters high but nevertheless 6 meters lower than the cupola.

Piazza della Signoria, political and social heart of the city, is flanked by Palazzo Vecchio, Florence city hall, and by the Uffizi, one of the most important art galleries in Italy. On the square there are many statues and monuments, such as the Nettuno Fountain by Ammanati (1575), the statue of Cosimo Ier and the copy of Michelangelo's David. Palazzo Vecchio is a Gothic construction to which they added a tower 94 meters high. Built between 1299 and 1314, it became seat of the municipality in 1550. In the main hall, decorated with extraordinary frescos by Vasari, we can see the Vittoria statue by Michelangelo.

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The Uffizi palace lays between Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno river, it was built in the XVI century by Vasari to host the government offices and the justice courts. Today it hosts one of the most beautiful museums in Europe: it gathers the major Italian works of art - but also French and Dutch paintings - collected by the Medici family until the XVII century. The collection was divided in the nineteenth century: antiques were placed in the Archeological Museum, sculptures in Bargello and only paintings were kept in the Uffizi. Among the masterchiefs that you may admire here: "Nascita di Venere" ("Venus Birth") by Botticelli, the "Sacra Famiglia" ("Sacred Family") by Michelangelo and the portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and his wife by Piero della Francesca.

Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) is flanked by juweller's shops. It was built in 1350 in front of Palazzo Pitti and it was the only bridge that was not bombed during World War II.

At the extreme East of the city centre there is the Basilica of Santa Croce, where there are the tombs of illustrious Florentines such as Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, it also hosts marvellous frescos of the earl XIV century by Giotto and his trainee Taddeo Gaddi. In the cloister beside the church there is the famous Cappella de' Pazzi, a masterpiece of Renaissance by Filippo Brunelleschi. Last stage, the impressive Museum of History and Science (in de' Giudici Square), a sort of temple for the scientist Galileo Galilei, where science themes are exposed through many objects and ancient perfectly rebuilt instruments.

Vacanze a Firenze

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