Fabled Florence

As a student of art history and art teacher names like Giotto, Brunelleschi, da Vinci, and Michelangelo have been rolling around in my head for a great number of years. I have always been in awe of their work and looked forward to a day when I would stand in front of the masterpieces myself.  Florence is a forward thinking city, a city of progress, in fact in 1339, Florence was the first city in Europe to have paved streets. That day has finally arrived, I will walk those famous pavers and see those famous works.

Florence is the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region and is home to many masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture. Surely its most iconic sight is the Duomo, a cathedral with a terracotta-tiled dome engineered by Brunelleschi and a bell tower by Giotto. The piazza in front of and around the Duomo is exactly as you would imagine an Italian Piazza to be, bustling with cafes, busy with artists and visitors alike and alive.  It is not really possible to not stare in awe as your enter the piazza from the tiny side streets that lead up to it.  No matter which direction you arrive the Duomo is imposing and inspiring and jaw dropping.  Since we are not climbers, and Brett is somewhat adverse to heights and especially since we didn’t have the foresight to book weeks in advance and the queues are totally sold out for days, there will be no photos of Florence for us from the top of Brunelleschi's dome, but the very image of his feat of engineering and architecture is imprinted on our minds.

Perhaps Florence exists because of the House of Medici, a prominent an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de’ Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church and two regent queens of France. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the grand dukes, that made the building, engineering, architecture, art and scientific achievements possible.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other families ruling in Italian signorie, the Medicis dominated their city's government, were able to bring Florence under their family's power and created an environment where art and humanism could flourish. They, along with other families of Italy, fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance, and we today get to see the fruits of that labour.

The collections in Florence’s galleries and there are many of them are world renowned.  Raphael, Donatello, Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Ammannati, Ghiberti… names from my education and life, names I learned as a child, names that inspire awe of such talent and vision.  Florence is home to all of these masters. Galileo, Dante Alighieri, Machiavelli, Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky, Elizabeth Barrett Browning all called Florence home at some point.  It is said to be home to over one-third of the world’s art treasures. Florence is the city of ideas, of lilies, of light, of modern thought, of progress. Florence is astounding.

Cheers,

Rachel