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Florence Holidays, Hotels & Travel Guide
Travel guide to hotels & holidays in Florence
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Florence Holidays Overview
A guide to holidays in Florence - The principal Tuscan city of Florence (Firenze)
nestles below the wooded foothills of the Apennines, along the
banks of the Arno River. The works of Botticelli, Michelangelo,
Bruneschelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio, Alberti, Masaccio,
Donatello, Vasari and Fra Angelico imbue the city with the
magnificence of their contribution to art and life. The city itself
is muse to some and home to many stylish citizens who titivate the
cobbled streets and fashionable piazzas with their inimitable
Italian flair.
The heart of the city, where
everyone from tourist to tout seems to congregate, is the Piazza de
Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria. The statues dominating the
Piazza della Signoria commemorate major historical events of the
city's life and the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio still performs its
original role as Florence's town hall. The adjacent Uffizi is the
oldest gallery in the world with a collection of the greatest works
of the Renaissance commissioned largely by the Medici family. The
man who founded the great long-ruling Medici dynasty was Cosimo il
Vecchio. His legacy is imprinted in the city's northern area marked
by the churches of San Lorenzo, San Marco and the Palazzo Medici
Riccardi. The Western stretches of the city are
formed by Florence's railway station at one end and the Ponte
Vecchio at the other. The quaint Ponte Vecchio bridge was built in
1345 and was one of the few areas to emerge unscathed from the
wartime bombs. Little workshops that used to belong to butchers,
tanners and blacksmiths, peer onto the river from their timber
supports. Santa Maria Novella also rises from the city's western
boundaries in true gothic splendour preserving some of the most
important works of art in Florence. The Oltrarno
(meaning 'over the Arno') area became the place from which the
Medici ruled from the Palazzo Pitti. The magnificent Boboli Gardens
were designed and laid out around it. The area surrounding Via
Maggio and Piazza di Santo Spirito boasts a collection of other
palazzi built during the late 16th and 17th
centuries.
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Florence
holidays - Top Places To Go
1. The Uffizi (Gallerie degli Uffizi)
Loggiato degli Uffizi 6
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/uffizi |
What is it? The Uffizi is one of the world's greatest art
galleries with a collection of Renaissance paintings that include
the works of Giotto, Masaccio, Paolo Ucello, Sandro Botticelli,
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian and Caravaggio. The
collection is housed on the top floor of a building designed as the
offices (uffizi) of the Medici, commissioned by Duke Cosimo I. From
1581, Cosimo's heirs used the upper storey to display the Medici
art treasures. Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures line the inner
corridors of the gallery and a series of rooms jut off from here,
showcasing the chronological development of Florentine art from
Gothic to High Renaissance and beyond. The scale and magnitude of
the collection may need to be enjoyed over two visits. Rooms 1-15
(Florentine Renaissance) could be explored more thoroughly on the
first trip and on the next visit one could concentrate on rooms 16
to 45 (from High Renaissance to later Italian and European
painting).
Hours of Operation: Tuesday to Sunday 8.15am to 6.50pm. Closed on
Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December
Phone:(055) 238 8651 |
2. The Accademia Gallery
Via Ricasoli, 58-60
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/accademia |
What is it? Michelangelo's David stands self-assured
above the crowds that flock to admire him. In the hallway leading
up to the famous sculpture are further examples of Michelangelo's
genius in the figures of the four Prisoners. The statues were
deliberately left unfinished revealing the marble in its
unfashioned state.
Hours of Operation: Tuesday to Sunday 8.15am to 6.50pm
Phone:(055) 238 8609 |
3. Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square)
Piazza Duomo
www.duomofirenze.it/index-eng.htm |
What is it? Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo or Cathedral
of Florence, is set in the heart of the city and perches above the
metropolis like an emperor before his subjects. Its most
distinctive feature is the enormous dome designed by Filippo
Brunelleschi and built between 1420 and 1436. Visitors can climb
between the two shells of the cupola for an unrivalled panorama of
the city. The original Gothic exterior was destroyed in 1587 so
that it could be replaced by the styling of the High Renaissance.
This vision however died prematurely with its patron, the Grand
Duke Francesco de Medici and the funding to build the neo-Gothic
façade that we see today was not found until the 19th century. The
Campanile (bell tower) was built according to Giotto's designs in
1334 and is an elegant prop to Brunelleschi's stout Cathedral. The
tower is decorated with two garlands of bas-reliefs, strung around
its pink, white and green marble façade. Above, sculptures of the
Prophets and Sybils, carved by Donatello, look down upon the city
below. The Campanile can also be climbed for the magnificent views
over the square and the adjacent cathedral. The neighbouring
Baptistry, with its famous doors designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti, is
one of Florence's oldest buildings, and was originally a pagan
temple. The gilded brass doors, dubbed the 'Gates of Paradise' were
commissioned in 1401 to mark Florence's deliverance from the
plague. The original panels are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
(the Duomo Works Museum) that exists largely to safeguard the
sculptures removed from the doors and niches around the Piazza del
Duomo. The museum also contains the machines used in the
construction of the cathedral's dome and has displays devoted to
the problematic construction of the cathedral's façade. A room
containing Ghiberti's baptistry doors provides an opportunity to
closely examine the stiacciato relief technique used. Other
noteworthy artefacts found in the museum include Michelangelo's
Pieta, the carved figures of Donatello's Prophets as well as his
Magdalene sculpture. In the anteroom are Andrea Pisano's panels
from the first few levels of the bell
tower.
Hours of Operation: Cathedral: Daily 10am to 5pm (Thursdays until 3.30pm,
Saturdays until 4.45pm); Sunday 1.30pm to 4.45pm. Museum: Daily 9am
to 7.30pm, Sunday 9am to 1.40pm
Phone:(055) 215 380 |
Florence
holidays - Top Events
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