Florence
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Florence in a Nutshell: All You Need to Know
Florence is the capital of Tuscany, the Renaissance, art.
Due to its cultural and historical importance, Florence was also for a brief time the capital of Italy in 1865, between Turin and Rome. Turin became the first capital of the newly-unified Italian state in 1861, and then eventually in 1871 Rome, after a war with the Vatican State which was then much larger than now, was taken, so to speak, from the hands of the Pope to become Italy's capital and remain it to this day.
Florence is not a big city. It has around half a million resident population (without counting the flocks of tourists, obviously).
It's simple to visit its historical centre, which is all contained in a relatively small area, easy to walk around.
The main railway station, Santa Maria Novella, is also in walking distance from the main sites and the heart of the city. The first thing to see coming from the station is the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria Novella (pictured right), one of the city's major churches and Florence's main Dominican church, which stands in the square by the same name just around the corner from the rail station.
The Arno river divides Florence in two parts. It separates the district called 'Oltrarno' (literally 'beyond the Arno'), a traditionally poorer, working-class area, from the main, posher city. But that's not entirely true. 'Beyond the river' you'all also find many great treasures, including the Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens, the churches of Santo Spirito and Carmine, San Miniato, a church on the hills that you can see from the Lungarno (Arno embankment), and the magnificent Piazzale Michelangelo, dominating the city from above, from which you have the best view of Florence, the one most traditionally pictured in cards and portrayed in films.
Florence has two main centres around which the life of the city has historically revolved: Piazza della Signoria and Piazza del Duomo. The first is associated with the political power, the second with the religious one.
Piazza della Signoria (which in Italian means 'Lordship Square') is the square where Palazzo Vecchio stands, the building which has always been the seat of government of both the city and, when Florence was the Medicis' capital, the state.
In the square itself there are many other things to see, including the Loggia dei Lanzi, an astonishing lodge with priceless sculptures like Benvenuto Cellini's masterpiece 'Perseus with the head of Medusa', Giambologna's 'Rape of the Sabines' and 'Hercules fighting the centaur Nessus' and others, the Fontana del Nettuno fountain, and a copy of Michaelangelo David standing on one side of Palazzo Vecchio (the original is in the Academy Gallery).
On the pavement covering the Piazza della Signoria you can see the exact spot where the Dominican friar and preacher Girolamo Savonarola was burnt at stake for heresy in 1498, marked by a plaque.
From one side of Palazzo Vecchio the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world's major art galleries, starts, connected all the way through the Vasari Corridor, a unique passage-way, over 1 kilometre long, linking Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery to Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river, passing across the Arno over the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). The Vasari Corridor is today an art gallery.
Piazza del Duomo is the Cathedral Square. The cathedral church is called Santa Maria del Fiore, and has an enormous, magnificent dome designed by Brunelleschi (Cupola del Brunelleschi), that can be seen from a long distance anywhere in Florence and nearby. Next to the main church is the bell tower designed by Giotto (Campanile di Giotto), and in front of it the Baptistry with its golden and bronze doors of spectacular beauty.
Among the many other artistic and architectural gems of Florence is also worth seeing Basilica di San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence), one of the main and oldest churches in Florence, located in the square by the same name where is the busy street market Mercato di San Lorenzo, which extends snakelike to the surrounding streets and squares. The Basilica is the burial place of all the main members of the Medici family including Lorenzo il Magnifico (Lawrence the Magnificent) and Cosimo il Vecchio.
Because it is lying on a plain surrounded by hills, Florence is not suited for a large airport. Although it has an international airport, Peretola, it is small and the number of its airlines and destinations is limited. In 1990 Peretola Airport was called Amerigo Vespucci Airport, after the great Florentine explorer whose Christian name was chosen for the new continent of which he helped the discovery, America (from the Latin version of his name, Americus). The other airport in Tuscany, larger and with more traffic, is Pisa's Galileo Galilei International Airport, which is directly connected to Firenze Santa Maria Novella rail station by frequent and regular trains.
Florence is the birthplace of an endless number of great men, including painters, sculptors, architects, statesmen, writers, poets, thinkers, too many to list here. I will just mention the author Vasco Pratolini, whose novels, set in early 20th century Florence, are probably the most suited to give a feeling of the life of the city among its common, working class people with their everyday dreams and feelings.