Firenze (Florence)

We have continued our meetings on a weekly basis with Alex our amazing tour guide. It has been really hard to make friends here (Much more difficult than I thought that it would be) but it is safe to say that Alex will be a friend of ours for many years to come. She is not only an incredibly intelligent woman (She has her doctorate in art history) but also has an energy about her that you only find once in a while in your life. Ten minutes with Alex and you are immediately in a good mood. We cherish the day each week that we spend with her. This past month we visited three main sites in Florence…

Santa Maria Novella -

Santa Maria Novella is one of the oldest churches in Florence. Founded by Dominican monks and built in 1221, the church is for the most part unassuming from the outside. The inside however is stunning and in our opinion is every bit impressive as Santa Croce and certainly more beautiful than the Duomo. The inside of the church is shaped like a cross and its main feature is that its walls are covered with Frescos. Our time there was much more peaceful and spiritual than most experience in a famous Italian Church as the tourist season is really starting to slow down here in Firenze. We are finally getting to experience the more intimate side of the city now, which is what we were looking forward to when moving here.

The Piti Palace –

Palazzo Piti is the palace of the Medici family, who ruled Firenze for nearly four centuries. In our travels, we have visited many palaces and castles in the world (Hearst Castle, The Alhambra in Spain, Doges Palace in Venice, etc…) and Piti stands on its own as one of the most impressive displays of sheer wealth that we have ever encountered. It is impossible to see all of Piti in one visit, so there will be further explorations with Alex in the future. For this, our first trip to Piti, Anna, my mom and I went on a cold morning to visit the private art collection of the Medici family. Unfortunately, this amazing display of art will need to remain our memory as we were not allowed to take photos or video, but the combination of Alex’s narrative and the beauty of the art will stand in our memory for quite some time.

The history of the palace dates back to the 16th century when the Elenora, the wife of Cosimo the 1st (The Medici that ruled Florence at the time) determined that the Palazzo Vecchio (See last month’s blog) was too small! The last word in the world that I would use to label the Palazzo Vecchio is small! Apparently her tastes for living quarters were a bit extreme, but she managed to convince her husband to buy her one big old honking palace along with gardens that total over a 100 acres (The Boboli Gardens).

One of the more fascinating facts about the Piti Palace besides its amazing opulence and historical significance is the corridor that connects it to the Palazzo Vecchio. While the Piti Palace was being built in the middle of the 16th Century, the Medici continued to occupy the Palazzo Vecchio during construction, and the family needed to travel back and forth between both buildings (To simply walk the city streets would be far too beneath them :>). For this reason, they had a corridor built to connect the two palaces. The interesting thing is that the palaces are nearly a mile a part!!! Most visitors to Florence would never notice the corridor as it runs through residential streets, over store fronts and even across the tops of the stores on the Ponte Vechhio! It is so mind boggling to think that this long hallway with all of its twists and turns that connects the two palaces was built in just four months. Hell it took me almost as long to get Italia Telecom out to the castle to hook up high speed internet!

For those that come to visit Florence in the future, Piti is a must and we look forward to returning to see more of its treasures in weeks to come.

Fiesole –

Another day trip with Alex took us to the beautiful town of Fiesole. Fiesole is actually an ancient Etruscan village situated on a hill top high above Florence. The main feature today of Fiesole is its ancient Roman ruins and the amazing views of the city of Florence below. The Romans overthrew the Etruscans in Fiesole in 300 BC, making it their first settlement in the Florence region. My mom and dad and Anna and I met Alex in the main square and toured the church of Fiesole briefly, which was built in 1028! There is a saint who is buried in the church by the name of Romolo. The historical significance of this saint is that he was responsible for converting the residents of Fiesole to Christianity following Roman rule (Remember that the Romans were pagans and therefore not only worshiped different ideological figures but more than one).

Following the brief tour of the church, we ventured off to the site of the ancient Roman Amphitheatre and Roman Ruins of Fiesole. The ruins sit on top of a plateau that overlooks the countryside and makes for quite a view. As is the case with all ancient archeological sites, they are nothing more than a bed of old rocks without the narration of a guide to bring back life to the area. Alex explained to us that to this day every summer there are live concerts in the amphitheatre. Unfortunately they are held in July the one month that we are not in Italy over the course of this year. I could only imagine how magical it would be to sit under the stars on seats that are over 2000 years old while listening to music. The amphitheatre was also used for live plays back in Roman times and served as the central place of entertainment in Roman villages and cities.

Another interesting location within the ruins was the Roman bath. All Roman cities had baths and termes for the residents to use (Terme is another term for sauna). Its amazing that over 2000 years ago they had infrastructure in place (Terracotta pipes etc...) to create rooms with varying degrees of temperature, including steam rooms! These baths all had swimming pools, saunas and public toilet facilities. In Roman times residents did not have bathrooms (Running water and piping was a luxury) in their homes so the Roman bath served not only as a place to relax and socialize, but also a place to…well you know what I mean! My dad and I could not resist the temptation to verify that the piping still was operable after all these years (See photo).

Following our visit to Fiesole we took the opportunity to visit one of our favorite restaurants (Godo) which was written about in last month’s blog. Without question, this was one of the great meals of the past month (Home made meat balls, pork loin in an amazing balsamic vinegar demi-glaze, home made pasta with cauliflower leaves and the best freaking cheese cake of all time! It was so good that Alex said it brought tears to her eyes!)