Charlsie’s Guide to Florence, Italy
- charlsiedoan
- Dec 18, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 22, 2023
Florence was founded in 59 BC by the Romans and is named “florentia,” Latin for “blooming flower,” because the city was founded during the springtime. Florence is the capital of Tuscany, and sits in a valley on the Arno River. During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the world thanks to its banks, especially the Medici bank, owned by the Medici family (duh). For more background, watch The Medicis on Netflix…the actors are much more attractive than the portraits of the actual Medicis I saw in the Uffizi. Because Florentines were so wealthy, they could afford to commission all kinds of artworks and become patrons of individual artists. Florence attracted the best and brightest artists from around Europe for this reason.
The city center of Florence is exactly what you’d expect a Tuscan city to look like. It’s walkable, with narrow streets and ample piazzas, and you can see the hills rising up around you. There are high-end fashion retailers like Valentino and Prada next to rinky-dink little cafés that are open from 7am until midnight, serving everything from espresso to pastries to wine. I went to Florence in December almost completely for the art. Winter is a great time to go to Italy—it's cooler and there are fewer tourists, plus hotel prices tend to be a little lower. I was only in the city for one full day, plus a half-day, but I managed to hit Florence’s highlights: the Uffizi Gallery, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flower), which you might know as the Duomo, and the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David.
Michelangelo Buonarotti is the most recognizable Florentine artist—he was a sculptor at a time when painting was the dominant medium for Italian art. He only did two paintings in his entire life: the Sistine Chapel (at the request of the Pope, because when the Pope asks you do something, you better do it), and a circular painting that hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. At age twelve, he was apprenticed in a painter’s workshop, but moved to a school for sculpture established by Lorenzo de’Medici as soon as it opened (Lorenzo is also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, and he was one of the most influential members of the Medici family. Also the actor who play him in the Netflix show is really attractive). Lorenzo took Michelangelo under his wing, and Michelangelo lived with the Medici family for a few years until Lorenzo died. Everywhere you look in Italy, you can see Michelangelo. He designed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, painted the Sistine Chapel (where the cardinals gather to elect a new pope), designed the piazza on top of Capitoline Hill, and so much more.
Michelangelo’s style marked a turning point in Renaissance art: like Leonardo, he was obsessed with anatomy, often dissecting unclaimed bodies to learn about muscle and bone structure so he could create statues that were as accurate and lifelike as possible. Michelangelo sculpted people—especially men—frozen in unnatural and uncomfortable positions specifically to highlight muscular tension. He also worked in an unusual way, using the natural form of the block of stone to guide his work, instead of changing the block’s shape to fit what he wanted to sculpt. He also sculpted from the front only, as if his statues were stepping out of the stone.
His most famous statue, of course, is probably the David, a twelve-foot-tall, five-and-a-half-ton statue of the biblical character before he fights Goliath. The David was originally supposed to sit on the façade of a cathedral, but when the Florentines saw it, they fell in love with it and adopted it as a cultural and political symbol of the city (ironic, because Florence was usually Goliath in a fight, not David). It sat in the Piazza Signoria until about 150 years ago, when it was moved into a museum constructed to house it.
Florence’s Duomo (Italian for “cathedral”) took over half a millennium to build. When it was built, it was the largest cathedral in Europe, but today it’s only the fourth-largest (St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican is number one). The famous dome wasn’t built until 150 years after the construction of the main nave, because no one could figure out how to build it without it collapsing in on itself in the process. It wasn’t until the 1420s that amateur architect Filippo Brunelleschi came along and said, “hey! I can do this!” His idea was inspired by the ancient Romans, and it took more than twenty-five years to build the two-layered, self-supporting dome we see today. The interior of the dome is covered with a mural of the Last Judgement.
I climbed 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo—it was amazing but also really exhausting, not only because of the physical exertion but also because we were climbing in between the two layers of the dome, so you are really squished. If you are a larger person, afraid of heights or small spaces, or you have knee trouble, I wouldn’t recommend doing it. When you get to the top, you’re standing on top of the tallest (not the largest) dome in the world, and so you have a beautiful view of the entire city of Florence.
If you visit Florence, I really liked the hotel I stayed at: the Student Hub, a budget hotel and co-working chain with locations around Europe. The three mornings I was in the city I would enter the first coffee shop I passed and order an espresso macchiato, a single shot of espresso “marked” with a little bit of milk. I had a margherita pizza and a glass of Chianti one night at Simbiotic Pizzaria, close to my hotel. While you’re in Tuscany, make sure you try the wine (I am officially in love with Chianti now), pecorino (sheep’s cheese), and the black cabbage, which we call Tuscan kale in the States.
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