Florence
September 26-29, 2003
A Renaissance Theme Park?
I’ve been reading Frances Mayes’s “Under the Tuscan Sun” while getting ready for the Tuscany part of my trip. While she’s otherwise always upbeat about her new home region, she has a few negative comments about Florence, which she calls a “renaissance theme park”. Well, while there sure are a lot of tourists milling about the place, I haven’t found the roller coaster yet.
I did find some
of the “must-see” buildings. One of them is the cathedral. It’s actually split
into three parts: The main building, the baptistry, and the bell tower. In
an odd layout, the baptistry is located smack in front of the fancy facade
of the main building, so that it’s basically impossible to take a decent photo
of the entire thing. One has to admit though that the layout was decided about
500 years before the invention of photography, and the fancy facade came centuries
after the baptistry.
Anyway, the dome is the most famous part of the cathedral, and as in its enlarged version in Rome, St. Peter, it’s possible to climb to the top and enjoy superb views of the city and its environs.
Another part
of the theme park is the Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge. It’s quite build up
for a bridge: By order of the Medici, it’s packed with jewelry stores, and
also carries a private closed corridor connecting two palaces on different
sides of the river. While it took me about two minutes to cross the bridge,
I suspect many women will need more time...
The Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, even though everybody has to pass it
on the way to or from the station, doesn’t seem to be an integral part of the
theme park – it’s pleasantly uncrowded. 
The
crowds are actually missing something: I find the frescoes behind the altar
very interesting, because they’re populated with Florentines of the 15th century
and so give an impression of life during that time.
Then there are lots of other churches and museums. Over the days, I peek inside the Museo del Bargello (lots of sculpture, some ceramics in my colors), the Basilica di Santa Croce (graves of Galilei and Michelangelo), Basilica di San Lorenzo (nice architecture, but the supposedly best part has been unbundled into a separate museum and closed), Basilica di Santo Spirito (the only church that felt in use and comfortable), Palazzo Pitti (only the courtyard because it’s closing time). After a while, there’s a great danger of it all becoming a big blur.
Coming Up For Air
After several days of city sightseeing, I needed some fresh air. Fortunately near Florence there’s the little town of Fiesole, located on a hill above the city, and equipped with a little forest park. So I got some splendid views of Florence, marred only by the smog in the valley, and a three-hour hike.
While
the forest didn’t look very different from some in California, I was surprised
to find this little brown grasshopper. Is this its fall dress?
While picking up the park map at the tourist information, I was sternly reminded
that hiking is not really what tourists are supposed to do in Fiesole. After
all, Fiesole is older than Florence and has an archeological area with a Roman
theater and an Etruscan
wall (the Etruscans are the people that populated central Italy before the
Romans got around to building an empire).
So please, everybody admire this
wall: it may not look like much, but it’s about 2300 years old!
In the museum, lots of findings from digs around town, and a map dividing the town into areas that are reserved archeological areas, areas where they expect to find stuff if they could dig, and areas where they don’t know yet. Most of the town falls into the second category.
Candlelight Breakfast
Sunday it was Italy’s turn to have a blackout. I first noticed it when I went to the bathroom around 6 o’clock and the light didn’t work. I thought maybe the room light switch works as a main switch, and tried to turn that on too, and it didn’t work either. Then I looked out the window and saw that the entire city was pitch-black. Only a few cars provided occasional light.
Later, when I got up, still no light. No water pressure either – apparently pumps are needed. Fortunately I had taken a shower before going to bed. On the way to breakfast, candles in the staircase. The breakfast room has no windows, so candles there as well. The biggest problem: no coffee. The receptionist has some minimal information: It’s nationwide, started around 3 o’clock, trains and planes are stranded, and nobody knows when power will be up again.
Turns out, it didn’t take much longer. At 10 o’clock, as I leave the building, lights come on. I immediately start looking for coffee, but apparently most coffee bars still have some trouble – it takes several blocks before I smell something, and there’s a long line at the counter.
The other casualty: My visit to the Uffizi. They decide that to assure security they can’t open before 13:30, and then take groups with reservations first. I queue up before the opening time, but eventually give up when my line doesn’t move at all. There’s no shortage of other sights in Florence...