Off the beaten path in Florence

When the crowds of tourists surrounding the Duomo, Uffizi and David get to you, spread your wings and get out to some of the lesser known, but not in any stretch, less significant sites of Florence.

1) NO TIME LIKE THE RECENT PAST WITH A MODERN MAESTRO

There are a gazillion museums in Florence, but only a handful postdate the Renaissance. Start your circuit with the modern sculptures at Museo Marino Marini (Piazza San Pancrazio; www.museomarinomarini.it), a spacious and airy museum that features the work of only one Italian artist, known for his stylized equestrian statues. The museum is a Florentine anomaly: not only is the art from the 20th century, but there's also a good chance you'll have the whole place to yourself. Take full advantage. Open stairways, balconies and landings let you examine Marini's work from every angle.

2) THE OTHER PIETÀ

No one packs a house like Michelangelo. To see the artist's Pietà in Rome, you could wrestle the crowd in St Peters and try to glimpse the top of Mary's head. Or you could visit the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Piazza del Duomo, 9; www.operaduomo.firenze.it; 6 euros) and walk right up to the Pietà that Michelangelo carved just before his death. He never finished it (the woman on the left was completed by another artist). The museum, oddly empty and under the shadow of the duomo, also houses Donatello's masterpiece, Mary Magdalene, and the original baptistry door panels by Ghiberti.

3) FINDING RELIGION

The Museo de San Marco (Piazza San Marco) makes a compelling case for living as a monk. It's a former Dominican convent from the 15th century and, today, the stone hallways are as quiet as, well, a monastery. Inside, you can see the frescoes of ”The Last Judgment” and “The Annunciation” by Fra Angelico, but the highlights are the rooms — each with a small window and a fresco painting by him from the 1400s. The frescoes depict biblical scenes meant to encourage religious contemplation by the monk who lived in the cell.

4) STONE AGE

You can't go far in Florence before you bump into something from Ferdinand I de'Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609. In this case, it's the Museo dell'Opifico delle Pietre Dure (Via degli Alfani, 78), a humble gallery of stone mosaics and inlays. In the 1500s, the museum was a workshop that Ferdinand I set up to teach craftsmen the art of stonework. And the results are impressive: mosaics of precious and semiprecious materials like lapis, mother of pearl, slate, jade and seashells and so detailed you'll swear you're looking at a photograph.

5) THE LAST SQUARE

The Piazza della Santissima Annunziata is Florence's prettiest square. On one side is the Spedale degli Innocenti (Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 12), a 1419 beauty by the Renaissance architect and whiz kid Filippo Brunelleschi, which combines huge archways, Corinthian columns and geometric grace. A bronze statue of Ferdinand I by Giambologna is in the square's center. It depicts Ferdinand on a horse forever staring at the second floor of Palazzo Budini Gattai (www.budinigattai.com) — the former bedroom, locals will tell you, of his true love.

6) A FRESH VIEW

After a half-century of neglect, the 10-acre Villa Bardini Gardens (Via de Bardi 1r; bardinipeyron.it) reopened in 2005, and well-heeled Florentines now stroll its terraced flower and vegetable gardens. The sweeping hilltop views offer spectacular views of the Duomo, Santa Croce and Fiesole. If there’s time to linger, pop into the Roberto Capucci Museum in the 17th-century Villa Bardini, which recently opened as the impressive fashion archive of the Roman designer (Villa Bardini, 2, Costa San Giorgio; www.fondazionerobertocapucci.com).

7) PARADISE FOUND

In a town of blockbuster art shows, seek out smaller gems. Among the unsung works is Benozzo Gozzoli’s “Procession of the Magi,” which was recently restored to its Technicolor glory at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (Via Camillo Cavour, 1; www.palazzo-medici.it;). Commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici in 1459, the fresco turned the chapel into a vision of paradise, with cheetahs and birds, as imagined by the newly emerging merchant class. Book ahead — the intimate space is open only to small groups.

8) URBAN TAN

Taking a page from Paris  (www.paris.fr/parisplages) and Berlin, an urban beach has washed up on the Arno River by San Niccolò, a wide swath of sand studded with beach umbrellas, deck chairs and bikini-clad Florentines. Unlike the beaches in those other cities, however, the sand here is a natural phenomenon, an ideal spot for a sun-drenched espresso while watching the city’s younger set take their city back.

Contributions by DANIELLE PERGAMENT and ONDINE COHANE the NewYork Times

Self-Guided Tour of the statues in the main square Piazza della Signoria of Florence, Tuscany, Italy

The Piazza della Signoria is a must see experience in Florence as it holds numerous famous and artistically significant statues. Even though many of the originals have been moved from their original settings in the Piazza della Signoria and replaced with copies the grandeur is still present. However the originals can be viewed in the various museums in Florence.

The most famous statue is located at the entrance, on the left, of the Palazzo Vecchio, is a copy of David. David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504. Unlike previous depictions of David, which portray the hero after his victory over Goliath, Michelangelo chose to represent David before the fight contemplating the battle yet to come. It came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city state which was threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici themselves. This interpretation was also encouraged by the original setting of the sculpture outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence. The completed sculpture was unveiled on 8 September 1504. The original is being kept at the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts.

"Hercules and Cacus", by Bandinelli (1533), to the right of the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, depicts the demi-god, Hercules, who killed the fire-belching monster Cacus during his tenth labor, is the symbol of physical strength, which juxtaposed nicely with David as a symbol of spiritual strength, both symbols desired by the Medici. This marble group shows the basic theme of the victor (the Medici) and the vanquished (the republicans). The pause suggests the leniency of the Medici to those who would concede to their rule, and served as a warning to those who would not, as this pause can be indefinite or simply temporary.

Taking a step back from the Palazzo Vecchio, at the far northern end of the Piazza della Signoria, stands the Equestrian Duke Cosimo I by Giambologna (1594-1598). Designed to resemble the equestrian statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which stands in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome, it draws parallels between the power and might of Rome to that of Medician Florence. The three bronze relief’s on the base commemorate the key events of Cosimo’s life in Florence: the Florentine government granting him title of duke in 1537; his entering the conquered city of Siena in triumph in 1555; the bestowing of the title Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569 by Pope Pius V

The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1575). This work by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1563–1565) and some assistants, such as Giambologna, was commissioned on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de' Medici with grand duchess Johanna of Austria in 1565.
The Neptune figure, whose face resembles that of Cosimo I de' Medici, was meant to be an allusion to the dominion of the Florentines over the sea. The figure stands on a high pedestal in the middle of an octagonal fountain. The pedestal in the middle is decorated with the mythical chained figures of Scylla and Charybdis. The statue of Neptune is a copy made in the nineteenth century, while the original is in the National Museum.

"The Lion", referred to as "il Marzocco" with a copy of the "Florentine Lily". The il Marzocco is the heraldic lion, sculpted by Donatello in 1418–20, and is the symbol of Florence. The lion is seated and with one paw supports the coat-of-arms of Florence; the fleur de lys called il giglio, the lily. Donatello’s original, sculpted in the fine-grained gray sandstone of Tuscany called pietra serena, has been conserved in the Bargello since 1855. The version still exposed to weather, to the right of the fountain, in the Piazza della Signoria is a copy.

"Judith and Holofernes", by Donatello is a bronze sculpture created at the end of his career (1460). A copy stands in the sculpture's original positions between David and “the Lion”, in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by Judith. Judith is considered the symbol of liberty, virtue and victory of the weak over the strong in a just cause. She stands powerfully with a raised sword, holding the head of Holofernes by his hair. The statue was originally gilded. To facilitate the gilding the bronze was cast in 11 parts and is remarkable for being one of the first Renaissance sculptures to be conceived in the round, with its four distinct faces.
It stood in its place together with David, both depicting tyrant slayers. These two statues are among the earliest freestanding Italian Renaissance statues. The original can be seen in the Hall of Lilies (Sala dei Gigli), in the Palazzo Vecchio

Loggia della Signoria, or the Loggia dei Lanzi as it was where lanced Swiss guards were stationed, is a three arched open space that is filled with some minor and two major sculpted works. The most important works are those that face into the Piazza della Signoria.

In the left arch is the bronze "Perseus with the Head of Medusa", by Cellini (1554) and is Cellini’s attempt to surpass Michelangelo's David and Donatello's Judith and Holofernes. The statue was cast as a single piece and as such caused Cellini much trouble and anxiety because of the size involved. It was said while it was being cast Cellini through every bit of available metal from his house into it, including all the forks, spoons and pewter mugs. The result was the fully complete cast piece, except for three toes, which were added later. As a result it was hailed as a masterpiece as soon as it was completed. Cosimo I, who chose to represent himself and his rule with the figure of Perseus the classic Greek hero who defeated chaos and restored peace, commissioned the statue.

"The Rape of the Sabine Women", in the right arch, by Giambologna, is an episode in the legendary history of Rome in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. (In this context, rape means "kidnapping" [raptio] rather than its prevalent modern meaning of sexual violation.)
The sculpture by Giambologna (1579–1583) depicts three figures (a man lifting a woman into the air while a second man crouches) and was carved from a single block of marble. This sculpture is considered Giambolona's masterpiece. Originally intended as nothing more than a demonstration of the artist's ability to create a complex sculptural group, its subject matter, the legendary rape of the Sabines, had to be invented after Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decreed that it be put on public display in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria, Florence.

Each of these statues is considered a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance art and seeing all of them within one hundred feet of each other is truly a must see experience.



Here are the locations of each statue from Google Maps.  click on each icon to see where each statue is located

View Self-Guided Tour of the Statues of the Piazza della Signoria, Florence Italy in a larger map

A Self-Guided Walk of the Famous Gelaterias of Florence

Some people go to Florence and Tuscany for the art and history, some for the food and wine and others for the shopping. Whatever your reason for visiting, the one thing that you should not miss is the Gelato.
The exact origins of gelato are a bit of a mystery as some credit the ancient Egyptians, Chinese emperors, Alexander the Great or the Romans for being the inventors, but what everyone generally agrees is that the modern gelato, as we know it, began in the 16th century in Sicily when a cook of a noble family added milk to a mixture of ice and flavouring. It was an instant hit and gelato became a culinary rage. Supposedly Catherine de Medici of Florence had the finest collection of recipes in all of Italy and as a result, even today, people look to her city for revolutionary gelato.
How does gelato differ from ice cream? Primarily it is much lower in fat. Cream is never used. Low-fat milk is preferred as it is much less dense in texture. Less air is pumped into the final mixture and it is cooled at a lower temperature so it is less frozen to allow more robust flavours to emerge.
When you enter the gelateria the first thing you do is pay for your order. One, two, three or four scoops are served in a take-away bowl with a spoon; you are also able to get cones, but you are better off with the bowl in order to get as many different flavours as possible. You then hand your receipt to the server behind the counter and let the selections begin!

This self-guided walk will bring you to some of the top gelaterias in Florence and therefore, some would argue, the world. Perche No? (Via dei Tavolini, 19) Bar Vivoli Gelateria (Via Isola delle Stinch, 7) and Carabe Gelateria (via Ricasoli, 60)

Begin at Perche No?, literally translated as “why not?”. This gelateria has been around since the 1940s and has a large selection of different gelatos. It is located in the heart of the walking district of central Florence at Via dei Tavolini, 19-red 50122 Florence. From here, after you have made your selections, we will walk to Bar Vivoli Gelateria.
1. Head east on Via dei Tavolini toward Via de' Cerchi
2. Turn right at Via de' Cerchi
3. Turn left at Via della Condotta
4. Turn left at Piazza di San Firenze
5. Slight right at Via della Vigna Vecchia to Via dell'Isola delle Stinche
The walk from Perche No? to Bar Vivoli Gelateria is about 5 minutes

Bar Vivoli Gelateria is located in the San Croce district at Via dell'Isola delle Stinche, 7, 50122 Firenze, an area of narrow streets, small piazzas and shops, which serve the local community rather then tourists on the whole. Vivoli on the other hand attracts large crowds and its walls are covered with press clippings and photos of the people who have enjoyed its world famous gelato. Again after our selection of gelato we will walk to our last stop Carabe Gelateria
1. Head northeast on Via dell'Isola delle Stinche toward Via Ghibellina
2. Continue onto Via Matteo Palmieri
3. Continue onto Piazza di San Pier Maggiore
4. Continue onto Volta di San Piero
5. Turn left at Via Sant'Egidio
6. Continue onto Piazza di Santa Maria Nuova
7. Continue onto Via Maurizio Bufalini
8. Continue onto Via dei Pucci
9. Turn right at Via Ricasoli
The walk from Bar Vivoli Gelateria to Carabe Gelateria is about 11 minutes

Carabe Gelateria is owned by a Sicilian family who prides their gelatos as been made with authentic techniques and ingredients. Carabe Gelateria is located at Via Ricasoli, 60, 50122 Florence, just south of the Galleria dell’Accademia, which houses David.
This is by all means not the end for your self-guided tour of the gelaterias of Florence. These three gelaterias are just the starting point. Who knows, your favorite gelato could be from the espresso bar just around the corner from any of these gelaterias.