After a morning of exploring Florence one of your most tantalizing decisions will be where to grab a bite to eat? As you explore the various corners in Florence you will find numerous ‘Ristoranti and Pizzeria” from which to choose. These Ristorantes are in the Piazza della Signoria.
One may enjoy delicious pizzas, pastas, salads, and sandwiches from any number of places. All are delicious!
It is also the perfect time to relax, rest your feet, and ready yourself the afternoon’s tour.
Florence 1401, a competition was announced to design the baptistry North Doors.
Seven sculptors competed, including Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia, with 21-year old Ghiberti winning the commission.
At the time of judging, only Ghiberti and Brunelleschi were finalists, and when the judges could not decide, they were assigned to work together on them. Brunelleschi’s pride got in the way, and he went to Rome to study architecture leaving Ghiberti to work on the doors himself.
It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors.
These gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty panels depicting a biblical scene from the New Testament.
The eight lower panels show the four evangelists and the Church Fathers Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine. The panels are surrounded by a framework of foliage in the door case and gilded busts of prophets and sibyls at the intersections of the panels. The doors in the baptistery are a copy of the originals which are in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.
Volterra is an Etruscan city of great architectural interest. Built on a high plateau, 1770 feet above sea level between the Rivers of Bra and Cecina, there are spectacular views of the surrounding hills.
Enclosed by yellowy-gray volcanic hills, it has a bleak and isolated appearance.
In the Etruscan period, Volterra, called Felathri by the Etruscans and Voltarrae by the Romans was one of the most important cities in the Etruscan Confederation. From the period of the kings, it was at war with Rome. Remains of the ancient surrounding walls, including the Etruscan Porta dell’ Arco, may still be seen today.
Also surviving are ruins of the baths, an aqueduct, an amphitheatre, and Etruscan burial places.
The city is famous for its craftsmen who carve statues out of the locally mined alabaster. Points of interest with Sabrina Bertelli:
Palazzo dei Priori, the medieval seat of the government on the Piazza dei Priori, is the oldest of its kind in Tuscany probably inspired the design for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence It is in the heart of Volterra, enclosed by an almost totally medieval group of buildings.
Built between 1208 and 1257, it is still used for town council meetings. It is situated on the medieval rectangular Piazza dei Priori.
It was a market place as early as 851. Baptistry was erected on an octagonal base that has been dated as 13th century.
The façade is adorned with stripes of white and green marble and the main entrance is surmounted by an architrave decorated with the sculptured heads of Christ, the Virgin and the apostles, a work of an artist close to Nicola Pisano. It is said that Brunelleschi offered advice for the construction of the dome in the 15th century. Duomo has a Romanesque façade and is interposed by the geometric intarsia marble framework of the main entrance added in the 13th century and attributed by Vasari to Nicola Pisano.
The entrance is through the baptistry, as you couldn’t enter until you were baptized. One of the most spectacular sights is the 1580 ceiling that is carved and embossed in gold and azure and is filled with portraits of Volterran saints. Guarnacci Museo is one of Italy’s major archeological museums and one of the earliest public museums in Europe. It consists entirely of local finds, including some 600 Etruscan funerary urns. Carved in alabaster, terracotta or local sandstone or limestone, they date from the fourth to first centuries BC. Alabaster Workshops in the historical center today are few, but those which remain have been entrusted with the preservation of this ancient tradition and the creative evolution of the craft. Volterra’s alabaster is of the chalky variety ( hydrated calcium sulphate) and was formed during the Miocene period as the sediments of calcium sulphate contained in the sea water underwent a process of concentration. A soft white stone, alabaster is more easily carved than marble. Once the stone of the gods, the Etruscans were the first to carve alabaster for their cinerary urns.
The Etruscans chose the highest quality pure alabaster which they painted with minerals and sometimes decorated with a very thin layer of gold. Very few artifacts from the Medieval and Renaissance periods have been found which suggests that alabaster was seldom carved during that era. The alabaster craft was reestablished in the 17th century and flourished at the beginning of the 18th century as skilled artisans and sculptors launched the reproduction of classical art and high quality artifacts renowned throughout the world.
In 1780 the Grand Duchy of Tuscany registered 8 or 9 artisan workshops in Volterra. By 1830 the number had risen to more than 60 thanks to the innovative spirit of the “traveling craftsmen” who traveled the world selling their wares, opening shops, taking part in fairs and auctions. Until 1870 the alabaster craft flourished and harvested an excellent repute in Italy and abroad.
In spite of long intervals of regression, the alabaster industry has continued to conserve the age-old tradition of the craft. Pinacoteca is a 14th century palace filled with great paintings such as the Annunciation & the Deposition of the Cross. Sacred Art Museum is small 3-room museum of church art Arco Etrusco is a badly weathered Etruscan/Roman arch, dating back to the 6th century BC. Even if a good portion of the arch was rebuilt by the Romans, the three dark, weather-beaten, 3rd-century BC heads carved in basaltic rock (thought to represent Etruscan gods) still face outward, greeting those who enter. Teatro Romano is situated just outside the city walls. It is an ancient Roman theatre dating from 5 to 20 AD. The monument was built at the end of the first century BC. Its construction was financed by a rich family of Volterra Caecina. Il teatro era parzialmente scavato nel pendio naturale di un’elevazione, in analogia ai teatri greci . Alla fine del III secolo il teatro venne abbandonato e in prossimità dell’ edificio scenico venne installato un impianto termale .The theatre was abandoned at the end of the third century. It is one of the best preserved in Italy. A good view can be found at the city wall promenade or from Via Lungo de Mere.
Firenze’s recorded history began with the establishment in 59 BC of a settlement for Roman former soldiers, with the name Florentia. Julius Caesar had allocated the fertile soil of the valley of the Arno to his veterans. They built a castrum in a chessboard pattern of an army camp, with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica.
This pattern can still be found in the city center.
Florentia was situated at the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the North. Through this advantageous position, the settlement rapidly expanded into an important commercial center.
Of a population estimated at 80,000 before the Black Death of 1348, about 25,000 are said to have been supported by the city’s wool industry: in 1345 Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool combers (ciompi), who in 1378 rose up in a brief revolt against oligarchic rule in the Revolt of the Ciompi. Cosimo de’ Medici was the first Medici family member to essentially control the city from behind the scenes.
Although the city was technically a democracy of sorts, his power came from a vast patronage network along with his alliance to the new immigrants, the gente nuova. The fact that the Medici were bankers to the pope also contributed to their rise. Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero, who was shortly thereafter succeeded by Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo in 1469.
Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli.
Following the death of Lorenzo in 1492, he was succeeded by his son Piero II. When the French king Charles VIII invaded northern Italy, Piero II chose to resist his army. But when he realised the size of the French army at the gates of Pisa, he had to accept the humiliating conditions of the French king.
These made the Florentines rebel and they expelled Piero II. With his exile in 1494, the first period of Medici rule ended with the restoration of a republican government.
During this period the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola had become prior of the San Marco monastery in 1490. He was famed for his penitential sermons. He blamed the exile of the Medicis as the work of God, punishing them for their decadence. He seized the opportunity to carry through political reforms leading to a more democratic rule.
His monomaniacal persecution of the widespread Florentine pederasty and of other worldly pleasures both influenced and foreshadowed many of the wider religious controversies of the following centuries. But when Savonarola publicly accused Pope Alexander VI of corruption, he was banned from speaking in public.
When he broke this ban, he was excommunicated. The Florentines, tired of his extreme teachings, turned against him and arrested him. He was convicted as a heretic and burned at the stake on the Piazza della Signoria on 23 May 1498.
Restored twice with the support of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of Florence, and in 1569 Grand Dukes of Tuscany, ruling for two centuries.
In all Tuscany, only the Republic of Lucca (later a Duchy) was independent from Florence.
The extinction of the Medici line and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany’s inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown. Austrian rule was to end in defeat at the hands of France and the kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1859, and Tuscany became a province of the United Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Florence replaced Turin as Italy’s capital in 1865, hosting the country’s first parliament, but was superseded by Rome six years later, after the withdrawal of the French troops made its addition to the kingdom possible. After doubling during the 19th century, Florence’s population tripled in the 20th with the growth of tourism, trade, financial services and industry.
During World War II the city experienced a year-long German occupation (1943-1944).
The surge in artistic, literary, and scientific investigation that occurred in Florence in the 14th-16th centuries was precipitated by Florentines’ preoccupation with money, banking and trade and with the display of wealth and leisure.
Points of Interest:
· Pitti Palace is lavishly decorated with the Medici family’s former private collection: Palatine Gallery, Royal Apartments, Museo degli Argenti, Galleria del Costume.
· Boboli Gardens adjoining the Palace, elaborately landscaped and with many interesting sculptures. Amphitheatre, La Grotta Grande, L’Isoletto
· Brancacci Chapel houses frescos depicting The Life of St. Peter. Masolino started the frescos around 1424. Many of the scenes are by his pupil, Masaccio, and finished by Filippino Lippi.
· Ponte Vecchio, whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, is held up by stilts. The bridge also carried Vasari’s elevated corridor linking the Uffizi to the Medici Palace. First constructed by the Etruscans in ancient times, this bridge is the only one in the city to have survived World War II intact. Corridoio Vasariano if Giovanni can get a special appointment.
San Miniato sits at a historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno Valley between Florence and Pisa. Evidence indicates that the site of the city and surrounding area has been settled since at least the Paleolithic era. It would have been well-known to the Etruscans, and certainly to the Romans, for whom it was a military post called “Quarto”.
The first mention in historical documents is of a small village organized around a chapel dedicated to San Miniato built by the Lombar’s in 783. The first walls, with defensive towers, were thrown up in the 12th century. During the latter years of the 13th century and the entire 14th century, San Miniato was drawn into the ongoing conflict between the Ghibelline and Guelph forces. By 1347 San Miniato was under Florentine control, where it remained, but for brief periods from 1367-1370 and 1777- 1779. It was still part of the Grand Duchy of Florence when the Duchy was absorbed into the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy in 1860.
Points of interest:
Duomo was dedicated to both Sant’Assunta and Santo Genesio. The cathedral’s capanile is called the Matilde Tower and features an asymmetrical clock. Diocesan Museum a museum-gallery contains works by Filippo Lippi, Empoli, Neri di Bicci, Fra Bartolomeo, Frederico Cardi and Verrocchio. Palazzo Comunale, a 4th century building, is still San Miniato’s Town Hall. Its great hall was decorated by Cenno di Francesco Cenni. It also features a small oratory, containing a 16th century altarpiece. San Domenico, a church originally constructed in the 14th century, has an incomplete façade. Its interior contains terracotta works by Luca della Robbia, a fresco attributed to Masolino da Panicale and a burial monument sculpted by Donatello.
