In Europe, Italy was one of the worst countries hit by the pandemic. As the country gradually makes a transition to what is the new normal, VISSA VENKATA SUNDAR remembers Florence, the centre of arts and culture
The confident and bold, orange octagonal dome soaring in the sky has bewitched the world for centuries. Duomo di Firenze, built by Filippo Brunelleschi, is both — a massive architectural and a mystery — even today. Just the description is enough to fire the imagination of most travellers and make them immediately cue into the city: Florence, it is.
Though travel is yet to open up, it’s time to plan ahead and imagine how exhilarating a trip to Firenze (Florence) would be. Not surprisingly, as the name immediately conjures up images of being the birthplace of Renaissance, a city of super-rich and super-egos, full of creative geniuses, connoisseurs of art and a place where innovation and excellence found patrons and flourished. A thriving centre of trade and finance in the 14th century, the city had money and the well-off spent much of it on commissioning dazzling works of art and architecture. It ushered in a new artistic grammar and flair, where nature’s beauty and the human body were celebrated and depicted to perfection, in a style known as ‘Realism’.
To the disbelief of a first-time traveller, the city appears low-key and provincial. But walk through it and the city gradually reveals its charms. The streets of Florence are akin to flipping through a fashion magazine or practically delving into it. The narrow-cobbled streets of the ‘homily’ city with an international flair lead to some of the greatest art treasures of the world. Each of these lies in close vicinity, within a few hundred yards, at the historic town square. Florence, alone, has half of Italy’s artistic wealth.
The rhythms of antiquity set in as you reach Santa Maria del Fiore. It is the tallest building in the city and the fourth largest church in Europe, which was completed in 1436. Built in Gothic style, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cathedral complex is famous for its bronze doors and magnificent exteriors. Michelangelo famously called them the ‘gates of paradise’. The cathedral, in a combination of white, green and pink marbles, is ethereal. While entry is free, you will have to brave long queues and crowds to get in. It is topped off by the iconic Duomo di Firenze. One can see wide-eyed tourists gazing at its beautiful ceiling, transfixed at the frescos of the Last Judgement (1572-9). Though credited to Giorgio Vasari, it was completed by Federico Zuccaro five years after the former’s death. It also has painter Domenico di Michelino's (1417–1491) most famous work, Comedy Illuminating Florence, on the north wall of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. It depicts Dante Alighieri presenting his famous poem, the Divine Comedy, to the city of Florence.
Reaching the top of Santa Maria del Fiore entails a climb of 463 narrow steps. While it might not be for the faint-hearted, the effort can be truly rewarding. From the top of the dome, you can catch breath-taking views of the entire city. The terracotta houses, spread like a meticulously painted canvas on the horizon, make it a delightful site to experience.
A few steps away from the main square is Piazza Della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio. The statutes at the piazza commemorate the city’s major historical events and it has a replica of, David, Michelangelo’s famous statue. The original, preserved in the Galleria dell’Accademia museum located a few blocks down the road, is one of the most intensely-studied and zealously-guarded statues. Sculpted between 1501-1504, the statue had consolidated the city’s artistic supremacy in the world by captivatingly depicting human anatomy in perfect proportion. With a watchful eye, pulsing veins on the back of the hands, taut torso, flexing thigh muscles and the almost invisible slingshot David carried over his shoulder to kill Goliath — the statue is realism cast in stone. This imposing 17-foot masterpiece in gleaming Carrara marble, the whitest of all marbles in the world, weighs 5,660 kg.
A visit to Florence is incomplete without witnessing the artefacts, Italian Renaissance paintings and European masterpieces at the Uffizi gallery. These were accumulated over centuries by the Medici family, perhaps the most important Florentine family that ever lived. The gallery houses one of the most priceless collections of art anywhere in the world. There are endless queues of visitors stretching out on the street, waiting to get a glimpse of the rare gilded collections.
If you wish to recover from the art overload, then you can wander around the Ponte Vecchio, the ancient bridge which spans the Arno river. This 14th-century bridge houses jewellery shops which easily have museums worth of high-quality goods. The storefronts have remained unchanged for centuries. Most of the shops lined along the bridge belong to families of goldsmiths who have traded here for generations, at least since 1345.
Towards the southern side of the River Arno is Palazzo Pitti, called the Pitti Palace. It was originally built for the banker Luca Pitti who wanted to outdo the Medici family in the display of wealth and power. In a reversal of fortune, the construction bankrupted the Pitti’s heirs and later Medicis purchased the palace making it their main residence in 1550. Today, the richly-decorated rooms of Pitti Palace display treasures from the Medici collections. Apart from the Royal Apartments, it consists of the Silver Museum, Porcelain Museum and Costume Gallery.
The Boboli Gardens, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, behind the Pitti Palace are some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens. Spread across 111 acres, the serene gardens have stunning contrasts and forms where you can see — an amphitheatre, boxed hedges clipped into symmetrical geometric patterns, groves of cypress trees, countless statues and fountains — all creating an extravagant visual theatre. While the palace appears stern, imposing and enormous under the weight of wealth, it is the stepped terraces behind the palace that make Boboli Gardens a destination for nature enthusiasts and garden lovers from around the world.
A visit to Florence means a lifetime of memories. It is a pilgrimage and a honeypot for connoisseurs of art and architecture for it is rightly called Italy’s premier citta d’arte (city of arts).
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