We popped off the train in Firenze aka Florence at a rather nondescript train station and followed the multitude of American college students down the cobblestone road passing the obligatory Italian shoe, perfume chain stores, jewelry stores and souvenir stands. Then, around the corner, there it was…. THE RENAISSANCE! The massive and spectacular Florence Cathedral, the nearby and also impressive Baptistery of St. John and Giotto’s Campanile. Florence was ranked as the most beautiful city in the world in 2010 by Forbes, and it has continued to age well.
Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance (15th and 16th century) which occurred right after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages (14th and 15th century). Our nomadic travels could be considered late middle age crisis, at times they did feel a bit dark, and so paralleling, we must now be hitting a renaissance.
The hordes of study abroad American kids, even more than Rome, were right to have chosen Florence because there was a lot to see, and we saw a lot, but of course we didn’t see everything because we were too cheap. Also, we had begun to hit the religious art wall (mural?). There’s just so many Jesus, Mary and Josephs you can see. Actually, there were very few Josephs, he was, at least artistically, an absentee father. There were though, oddly, plenty of St. Sebastians and his Arrow shirts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sebastian . Plenty of Ascensions, crucifixions, halos, angels, saints (known and unknown), and lambs …. we saw them all. Rows and rows, walls and walls- more paintings than a Bob Ross warehouse, and enough statues to fill Dodger Stadium.
The sheer volume of religious art, well, all art in Florence was overwhelming. While the Vatican’s collection felt like hoarding, the Uffizi’s huge collection, from ancient to Renaissance, felt more discerning; like the product of a zealous collector with unlimited funds filling almost unlimited space. Oh, that actually was what it was. https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi.
The lack of crowds, stunning building plus the respectful and thoughtful curation made it a claustrophobic-free pleasure stroll.
And, it had an accidental(?) Hyperart Thomasson (https://www.messynessychic.com/2017/01/18/the-inexplicably-fascinating-secret-world-of-thomassons/)
After marveling at paintings and sculptures by every Renaissance artist and then some, we were a bit awestruck with the Botticelli’s and discovered that he was a lifelong Florence resident spending his entire life in the neighborhood where he was born. We visited his Parrish church for the fresco he painted and found a nun mopping the church floor and yelling at people. Yikes! Childhood flashbacks!
The wonders of Florence were both inside and outside. Walking was a series of “oh, wow, look at that”.
It was pretty amazing to experience the Renaissance where it began. Exhausted, we were ready to move on to the next period, Enlightenment and Reformation or at least Bologna.
Chosen Fugue 