The last post about our Italian trip. Florence.

Rome I | Rome IIVatican City | Florence


As I said, I don’t like Rome, but Florence wis the same architecture was a real discovery for me. I think, I could live in this town, buy fresh bread every morning and commute to work by bicycle.
We were in Florence one day, but it was amazing day when we saw 95% of town, drank traditional lemonades with ginger and ate pizza Neapoly with anchovies. I can’t explain my emotions after this small travel into the vacation, but it was awesome. Highly recommended to visit Florence if you want to feel the real spirit of Italian cities.

Map

Santa Maria Novella is a church situated just across from the main railway station which shares its name. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city’s principal Dominican church.

The church, the adjoining cloister, and chapterhouse contain a store of art treasures and funerary monuments. Especially famous are frescoes by masters of Gothic and early Renaissance. They were financed through the generosity of the most important Florentine families, who ensured themselves of funerary chapels on consecrated ground.

Piazza Santa Maria Novella.

The dome of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Sometimes Florence looks like Tel Aviv…

…sometimes like Gaza…

…and sometimes like Moscow.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

Cappelle medicee are two structures at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and built as extensions to Brunelleschi’s 15th-century church, with the purpose of celebrating the Medici family, patrons of the church and Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

I don’t know what to say about this “Sean Torrens” from United Kingdom… Sean, if you read this post, you’re an asshole!

I like this Italian tradition- they placed their saints on city streets. They believe in their power and justice.

Mercato di San Lorenzo- central market. After this market I decided that I can live in Florence:) We bought delicatessen as berries and pears and we paid a few euros! We paid 17 cents for 2 pears. 2 of the largest pears in my life:)

On top of the facade is a series of niches with the twelve Apostles with, in the middle, the Madonna with Child. Between the rose window and the tympanum, there is a gallery with busts of great Florentine artists.

The three huge bronze doors date from 1899 to 1903. They are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna. The mosaics in the lunettes above the doors were designed by Niccolo Barabino. They represent: Charity among the founders of Florentine philanthropic institutions; Christ enthroned with Mary and John the Baptist; and Florentine artisans, merchants and humanists. The pediment above the central portal contains a half-relief by Tito Sarrocchi of Mary enthroned holding a flowered scepter. Giuseppe Cassioli sculpted the right-hand door.

The dimensions of the building are enormous: length 153 metres (502 ft), width 38 metres (124 ft), width at the crossing 90 metres (295 ft). The height of the arches in the aisles is 23 metres (75 ft). The height of the dome is 114.5 m.

Vasari’s fresco begun in 1568, and completed by Federico Zuccaro in 1579.

Italian graffiti. Yo!

copy

I note that in Florence is large Chinese community. In Florence are many Asian restaurants and shops, more than Eritrean restaurants in Tel Aviv.

Florence batanical garden.

I don’t understood what is it mean. No, I know translation, but what is it mean?! Пукни- fart, бедняк- beggar.

Also we found Jewish quarter, but it was Saturday and everything was closed.

Great Synagogue of Florence…was closed.

Basilica Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce.

Statue of Dante Alighieri in the Piazza di Santa Croce in Florence by Enrico Pazzi, 1865.

Hercules and Cacus by Bandinelli from 1533.

At the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, a copy of David. The original by Michelangelo is being kept at the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Loggia dei Lanzi is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines, that Michelangelo even proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.

The group The Rape of Polyxena, is a fine diagonal sculpture by Pio Fedi from 1865.

The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati from 1575.

Galleria degli Uffizi is an art museum in Florence, and among the oldest and most famous art museums of Europe. The narrow courtyard between the palace’s two wings creates the effect of a short, idealized street.

The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. The river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a southward curve. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Pisa.

The Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common.

Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. The Ponte Vecchio’s two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Ponte alle Grazie.

Real Italian men!

Florence street art.

The Ponte Santa Trìnita is a Renaissance bridge in Florence, Italy, spanning the Arno. The Ponte Santa Trìnita is the oldest elliptic arch bridge in the world, the three flattened ellipses giving the structure its celebrated elegant appearance.

Piazza di Santa Trinita is a triangular square , named after the church of Santa Trinita on the west side of the square. Near the middle of the square is an ancient Roman column known as the Column of Justice due to the sculpture of “Justice” on the top. Several Renaissance palazzos surround the square, as well as the medieval Palazzo Spini-Ferroni, now the headquarters, flagship store, and museum of famous Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo.