Florence, Italy

Welcome back to the blog!

Just popping in here for a 10-day trip to Italy in February. We spent 4 days in Florence before making our way to Rome, Pompeii, and Herculaneum. I'm starting here with a Florence-specific post because it deserves it's own.

I mean, just look at this place in the heart of Tuscany and the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.

(This is from the top of the Duomo di Firenze).

I could have used an art history refresher course before going to Florence. That has to be the highest concentration of famous art in the world. I couldn't believe how much was there- which makes sense because in the 15th and 16th centuries you had Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio then Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael all creating their infamous works- not to mention the countless others working at this time. I will link this and redirect to other resources for more details on the Renaissance and the history behind it because it's too much for me to try to detail here. https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/the-early-renaissance-in-florence.html

I will say that we went to the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery, and the Pitti Palace while we were there and saw some incredible art! Famous art that really lived up to the hype. It was still really busy at all of these places even in the low-season, so maybe there isn't really a low season anywhere now. I bought tickets with timed entry ahead of time for the Accademia and to climb the Duomo. The Uffizi tickets also gave us entry into the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.

Some favorites of mine from the Uffizi.

Top middle- Michelangelo's Don Tondo, 1506.

Top right- Caravaggio's Medusa, 1597.

Middle left- Fiorentino's Cherub Playing the Lute, 1521

Middle right- Botticelli's the Birth of Venus, 1486

Michelangelo's David actually lived up to the hype, a must-see at the small Accademia Gallery. Although we walked around the rest of the gallery and they had amazing frescos.

And marble statues of course.

Brunelleschi's Dome, and the inside, "The Last Judgement" Vasari & Zuccari, 1579. This was really cool because when you climb the Dome, you walk around the edge directly below this fresco, so you get an even closer look at the details of it.

The Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace, a Medici Family creation. We thought these were even cooler than the Versailles Gardens. The views of the city were really nice and it seemed like you could get a little more lost in these gardens than Versailles's.