Naveen Agnihotri    Photos    Italy 2005    Florence

Florence Tweet

Florence gave birth to the Renaissance and changed the way we see the world. And for centuries it has captured the imagination of travelers, who come here to walk in the steps of Dante, Donatello, Botticelli, and Michelangelo. Sublime art is everywhere, almost reducing the city to one giant museum. As far as the tourist is concerned, it is like visiting a city still in the 16th century.

Our train pulled in to Florence at about 6:30pm, and we walked to our hotel, Hotel Bavaria, who's big selling point was that it is part of the historical Palazzo Ramirez (16th century). Whereas the staff was very friendly, and the hotel may have had some fancy rooms still decorated like a palace, our room was highly spartan, and reminded us more of a large hostel room. The lighting was dim, the walls needed paint, the sheets were clean but the blanket was not. The guidebooks say that Florence is expensive, but we expected our €50 to go farther. The guidebook had also said that the hotel is popular with American students, and sure enough, there was a whole pack there that night, and we could hear them even through the thick ston walls. The photo of the lobby gives a feel for the hotel.

That night, we had dinner take-out, from the ultra-fancy Frescobaldi, which is billed as a wine bar, but is more of a fancy restaurant which serves fancy appetizers along with good wine. I got some cheese-and-tomato wraps, and they heated them up for me. Those and a Coke made for good dinner.

The next morning, we woke up and had enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at our hotel. Whereas our room was simple, the breakfast was anything but: it was a lavish continental spread, complete with coffee in fancy china. We filled up and stared on our tour of Florence.

We first walked to the Duomo, the overarching grandiose monument around which the city is organized. But right in front of it is a much smaller but even more spectacular sight: the east gate of the Baptistry, designed by Lorenzo Ghilberti in the fifteenth century. It took 28 years to design them, and it shows. Each individual panel on the doors is a major piece of art, all of them depicting scenes from the Old Testament. It is said that Michelangelo stood before the gate, in rapture, and declared it the Porta del Paradiso, the Gate of Paradise.

I took a closeup photo of the second-from-bottom panel on the left door, which is below. You can see the details for yourself.

After our tour of the Duomo, we walked the ancient streets of Florence to the ancient Piazza della Signoria, featuring the ancient Palazzo Vecchio, where they hung sinners in ancient times (or at least so I learned in the movie Hannibal). We didn't see any hangings that day, but Shivani did take my picture in front of the Neptune fountain, largely acknowledged to be the biggest failure of major Florentine art. Even the artist, Bartolomeo Ammannati, considered it a failure. Michelangelo, to whom many a Renaissance quip is attributed, took one look at it and shook his head, moaning "Ammannato, Ammannato, what a beautiful piece of marble you've ruined."

From the Signoria, we walked down Via Por Santa Maria to Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence (probably from 1345). The bridge contains a quaint marketplace, some old houses, and affords some nice views of the Tuscan countryside.

We crossed the bridge, and decided to have lunch in Pino's Caffeteria, on Via de Guicciardini. The service was friendly, the food was sumptuous, and we had a good time. As a bonus, we also took what has turned out to be our favorite photo from the entire trip.

After lunch, we took a leisurely walk down Via de Guicciardini to the nearby Palazzo Pitti. The palace, one of Florence's best architectural set pieces, houses several museums. However, our destination was not the museums, but the fabulous garden behind the palace: the Giardino di Boboli. Even though one of us (I won't say who) was getting really tired, we persevered to the top of the gardens, from where we got great views of the Tuscan countryside (below) as well as that of city of Florence itself (phot near the top of this page).

After our tour of Palazzo Pitti, we walked back to the hotel, having an overpriced gelato on the way. From the hotel, we walked to the train station, and by the time we got there we wre so tired that we could have fallen asleep right there on the platform. We tried to use the ticket vending machines to buy our tickets to Milan, and after 30 minutes of trying, did succeed in obtaining the tickets.

The trian we took to Milan was on its way to Zurich, and we were very tempted, but decided to forego that travel to another time. Another time.