A Traveler Doesn't Do A Place --- Can you Do Florence and Be Done with It? No, You Discover and Experience Great Places Again and Again

I cringe when I hear someone say "Oh I've done Rome or I've done London."

But it was only a few weeks ago that someone said to me as I was effusing on Florence...."Oh I've done Florence"....and I finally stopped short and looked straight into her nonchalant eyes and asked what that meant.

"You know I've seen David, the Uffizi.."

I thought for a moment.....well David was a good answer....seeing David in Florence is a very defining moment...a moment a true traveler never forgets.  When I first went to Florence I wandered endlessly around David gawking at his magnificence from every angle...and still I think of that moment when I first caught a glimpse of him with the awe of a child first seeing a snowflake.  The Uffizi wasn't a bad answer either...I thought...as I recalled climbing its magnificent staircase and floating from room to room marveling at the original Botticelli's Birth of Venus, the one I'd seen duplicated everywhere, gaping at the DaVinci's, roaming the Uffizi's sculpture galleries and, from it's windows, beholding one of the most incredible and recognizable sights in the world -- the view of the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio with the fading backdrop of the rooftops of Florence.  Ah perspective!

But doing Florence...is Florence ever done?  Couldn't it's Renaissance streets be wandered for endless hours.  What about the food markets with redder than red tomatoes, more varieties of pasta than I've ever seen anywhere, and the luscious looking meats. And shopping -- window along Tournabuoni and then discovering little shops everywhere with amazing things like incredible paper and leather concoctions and perfumes.  And oh let's not forget the food...and wine.  Tiny little cafes, gelato shops, pizzerias, wine bars abounding.  One night a cheap pizza in a cute bar in the Oltrano on the other size of the Arno....another time, a dish of unspeakable pasta in little cafe on a back street near the Medici Chapels just visited, and then of course, a Florentine steak, reminiscent of the "Old 96er" that  John Candy devoured in the "Great Outdoors" only I am certain much, much better, at one of the many impeccably designed, chique ristoranti.

And Florence has neighborhoods and piazza after piazza with their own distinct charms and interests.   Of course, I personally could explore the art of Florence forever...in its countless churches and tucked away in unexpected places, and the city itself -- a work of art.   Specific places to visit...read my blog...I've already covered some...more to come.   But Florence as any great city in the world is more than about places to see, its about exploration, discovery... it's about being somewhere where great people who contributed much to the way we live and enjoy life today walked and lived their lives.

Would Galileo, daVinci, Michelangelo, the Medici, Fra Angelico, Giotto ever have said "Oh, I've done Florence."  Of course, the realities are you may not have the time or money to spend as much physical time in any one place that you might like to...but realize that even if your time is brief...you need to take it in.. absorb it and experience it again and again through reading, film art whatever.....

And please, don't tell me that you've done Florence.  She is never done, I am sure of that.

Not to miss -- the Brancacci Chapel and Masaccio part of Florence's Living Art Textbook

Studying art without visiting Florence is like learning to read without a book. Being in Florence is being in a living textbook of art history. At times the amount of beauty and art is so overwhelming that it becomes difficult to focus as you become lost in whirlpool of color, impressions, and texture. That is why it is important if your trip to Italy, and in particularly Florence, is in part to learn about and view the art, and it seems silly to suggest that it wouldn't be, that you decide ahead what art you want to focus on and know the places to find it.

Of course, you will go to the Uffici, but that is a book in it's own right. You may as I did want to explore, in a smaller space, some of the very early Renaissance artists -- the innovators who were the first to start depicting people, not as stiff, flat caricatures, but as living, emotive beings. Masaccio is certainly one of these. And it is because of Masaccio's work there that a little chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno neighborhood of Florence has been well-trodden over centuries by an endless stream of art students, masters and enthusiasts. While gazing at the walls in the Brancacci Chapel, your eyes will see what helped inspire Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo and many others.

We crossed the Arno early in the morning for the short 20-minute pilgrimage through the medieval streets where Masaccio once roamed. We had called the day before for reservations, which are mandatory, and arrived at the Piazza del Carmine about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled appointment. The large, unfinished, stone-faced facade, of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, loomed before us in stark contrast to the dazzling interior of the Chapel, whose entrance is tucked away to the right of the the church.

Prior to visiting the Chapel, we took in the 40-minute film reviewing the history of the church, the chapel and its magnificent frescos. This is well worth the time...the animated view of the panels within the chapel make for a much more enlightened visit of this Renaissance masterpiece.

The Chapel itself is tiny, and for that reason, self-tours are limited to 20 minutes . The works most of which tell the story of St. Peter were created by three artists Masaccio, Masolino and some Filippino Lippi (son of the more famous Filippo Lippo). While all the tableaus are notable, it's the Massaccio frescos that stun, especially if you realize that prior to these creations, the art world was for the most part, flat and emotionless.

You need only study what is viewed by some as the first modern painting, one that places people in a real setting with one station point, the "Tribune Money," to make your trip over the Arno worthwhile. The human beings, Masaccio depicted, using painting techniques novel for the time to create an illusion of three-dimensional space, bring you into the scene. Also, note the painstaking blending of midtones, shadows and highlights to create the flow of the silken garments, important perhaps considering Branacci, Masaccio's patron was a silk merchant. The politics of early 15th century Florence are also reflected in "Tribune Money." A new tax system to help support a war with the duke of Milan was raging, and the story of the painting provided a precedent for the debate on whether the clergy should be taxed.

Below is an outline of the frescos. The red blocks are works by Masaccio, the yellow, Masolino, the purple both Masaccio and Lippi, and the blue Lippi.

1. "Expulsion from Paradise" -- An astonishing depiction of the anguish of the first human beings after being deported from the Garden of Eden.

2. "Tribune Money"

3. "Raising of the Son of Theophilous and the Enthronement of St. Peter"

4. "Saint Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow"

5. "Saint Peter Baptizing Neophytes"

6. "Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias"

Florence, Italy tweeps I follow:

arttrav

tuscanycious

katerinafiore

tuscanytourism

discovertuscany

abouttuscany

Seduced by An Enchanting Hotel Above the Hills of Florence -- Villa San Michele

It was a hot Sunday in Florence...very hot... but high above in the hills of Fiesole a pleasant breeze blew and birds tweeted incredibly entrancing songs. I had decided to visit Fiesole on my next trip to Florence after having read "Loving Frank," the fictionalized story about Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The descriptions of Fiesole and its appeal to Lloyd Wright and Cheney drew me there.

Some travel advisors say "skip it"...well perhaps if you only have a very short time in Florence. But for me, it would have been a mistake not to have seen this magnificent view and experienced for a few hours what attracted people like Lloyd Wright, Gertrude Stein, and other artistic people here. For afterall, you don't go to Fiesole for Fiesole, you go to see Florence spread before you in all its magnificance.

The tourbooks advise that one of the best places to enjoy the view from Fiesole is the small Parco della Rimembranza on Via di San Francesco, public gardens with benches, shady trees and a panoramic view. But I also wanted to visit the well-touted Villa San Michele situated on the site of a monastery founded in the early 15th century.

So we took a taxi from Florence and stopped by the Villa for lunch to sip cokes and nibble on lovely sandwiches on the terrace of one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever visited. The present building with its facade attributed to Michelangelo dates from 1600 when it was enlarged and renovated by Giovanni di Bartolommeo Davanzati. The property was owned by the Franciscan monks until 1818, when Napoleon dissolved monastic orders returning the Villa to secular use. One can imagine the monks walking the loggia of the then monastery and wandering through the now public rooms of the hotel. Inside the hotel, antique chairs, altars, stone walls, frescos and other religious artifacts all come together to create a sense of spiritual retreat somewhat at odds yet strangely compatible with the current purpose.

One of the public rooms that is used now as a lounge and informal dining space off the interior restaurant was the refectory of the old monastery. A magnificent fresco, completed in 1642, and later restored by Orient-Express Hotels, the current owner of the hotel, adorns the back wall in a three-part alcove. This is only one of the many interesting public spaces where you can sit quietly and read or write (as I noticed several hotel guests were doing.)

The guests rooms are either in the main building of the old monestary or in the new space blended into the setting in the garden area. There are also junior suites on the hillside between the garden and the pool and in the old Limonaia. The most coveted room I was told is the one situated in the former chapel with perhaps some of the most magnificent views.

I climbed up the hill near the small 17th century building to take some photos and get a glimpse of the view the hotel guest in the chapel might have. Ah I thought, some day I will stay here. From here I truly knew why Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright loved Fiesole so much.

Some tweeps I followed for Florence:

www.twitter.com/toscanamia -- for Italian Cooking Lessons in Florence

www.twitter.com/tuscanyvillas -- for Information on Florence

www.twitter.com/aroadretraveled for Information on Florence

www.twitter.com/TuscanyTourism

Another interesting blog article about Villa San Michelle.