Piazza della Signoria and other Florence, Italy Things to Do Tips

As soon as I found a hotel to stay I went to Piazza della Signoria to meet my niece and her boyfriend. It was nice having someone with me there to some pinch in the arms ( to believe I was not dreaming... ) and to share all the ooohhhhs and aahhhhs.

I believe this is a nice place to start in Florence.
Piazza della Signoria has been the political heart of the city from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Piazza della Signoria was built on a site once occupied ( in the period of the Roman Florentia ) by a large theatre.
In the Middle Ages, modest houses and alleyways sprang up there.
The land was property of the powerful Ghibelline family of the Uberti, and when the Guelphs took power, they destroyed the properties and established that nothing should be built on it again.

Today, it is a ( sometimes TOO) lively spot with many restaurants, bars and ice cream shops

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The Piazza della Signoria is an open-air museum in the center of Florence.

On the corner of the Palazzo della Signoria ( or Palazzo Vecchio ) there is the famous fountain with the figure of NEPTUNE in white Carrara marble by sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati. The fauns and the marine divinities are works fused in bronze by Giambologna.

In the back of the picture there is the Loggia dei Lanzi. Under the elegant arches of the loggia - which were erected between 1376-1382 for the public ceremonies of the Signoria - there are many sculptures on display.
If my photo wasn't so stupidly taken you would be able to see that....
There are six Roman statues representing heroines. There is also the RAPE OF POLISSENA, a 19th century work by Pio Fedi. HERCULES AND THE CENTAUR is by Giambologna. To the sides of the loggia there are two masterpieces: PERSEUS WITH THE HEAD OF MEDUSA by Benvenuto Cellini and the RAPE OF THE SABINES by Giambologna.
As my photo was indeed stupidly taken... all you can see in the distance is the PERSEUS...

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Abstracting the scaffolding.... It is a impressive and interesting building and is the main complex in Piazza della Signoria.

Do you remember the story about the Guelphs and the establishmet of nothing being built on the ground where the Ghibelline properties once exist? For this reason, the Palazzo Vecchio, which faces onto the piazza, is irregularly-shaped and both the main entrance and the tower are somewhat eccentric.

The Palazzo Vecchio was so called to distinguish it from the "new" palace, the Palazzo Pitti, to which the Medici family moved in the sixteenth century.
Today the Palazzo Vecchio is the seat of the municipal government and is only partially open to the public.

As we are going to see in some of the pics to come, Palazzo Vecchio is connected with the Pitti Palace through the Vasari corridor which runs through the Uffizi and over Ponte Vecchio to the other side of the river Arno. The corridor was constructed by Vasari after the Medici family moved into the Pitti Palace.

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... You have just found more scaffolding and this is just a copy of the famous David by Michelangelo, situated at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio ( where for almost four centuries the original statue had represented the power and dignity of the Florentine Republic ),

The original you will find at the Accademia Gallery where it has been since 1873 for reasons of conservation.

Galleria dell'Accademia
Via Ricasoli 60
open 8:15am-6:50pm Tues-Sun (Last admission thirty mins before closing); closed Mon; admission €6.50

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Address: Piazza della Signoria - Palazzo Vecchio

The pic shows the Piazzale degli Uffizi and Loggiato degli Uffizi - beginning at the Palazzo Vecchio and stretching to the river Arno.

Here you find the entrance to the Museo degli Uffizi or Uffizi Gallery, wich houses numerous famous art works such as the Birth of Venus and the Primavera by Botticelli, The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci as well as works by Michelangelo, Titian and Rubens.

Because of its popularity and because only small groups are let into the museum at one time, people have to wait in line for several hours to visit the Uffizi Gallery.
There is a number that you can call in advance and reserve a specific time to visit the museum. For only about US $1 extra, you can call 39-055-294-883 (Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and buy your tickets.

VASARI CORRIDOR:
The Vasari Corridor goes from the West Corridor of the Gallery, heads towards the Arno and then, raised up by huge arches, follows the river as far as the Ponte Vecchio, which it crosses by passing on top of the shops. On the other side of the Arno, the corridor passes through the interior of the church of Santa Felicita, over the tops of the houses and the gardens of the Guicciardini family until it finally reaches the Boboli gardens and the apartments in the Pitti Palace.

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Address: City Center
Directions: next to Palazzo Vecchio

There are 28 sculptures in niches along Vasari's court.

All the grand Tuscan artists, writers, poets, philosophers, men of arms and statesmen representative of Florentine History:

Cosimo the Elder
Lorenzo the Magnificent
Andrea Orcagna
Nicola Pisano
Giotto
Donatello
Alberti
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Dante Alghieri
Petrarch
Boccaccio
Machiavelli
Guicciardini
Vespucci
Galileo
Antonio Micheli
Francesco Redi
Paolo Mascagni
Aandra Cisalpino
Sant'Antonino
Accorso
Guido Aretino
Cellini
Farinata degli Uberti
Pier Capponi
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
Francesco Ferrucci.

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Address: City Center
Directions: next to Palazzo Vecchio

The corridor allowed Cosimo I to pass from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti, via the Uffizi, avoiding contact with the public and unexposed to the sun.

It sounds like a nice idea... when you see all the crowd under the arches....

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The section that stretches over the Ponte Vecchio holds the famous Collection of Self-portraits, which include paintings by Vasari and Bernini. There are also works by Italian artists such as Annibale Carracci, Guido
Reni, Artemisia Gentileschi and by foreign ones such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Velazquez.

IMPORTANT:
The corridor is sometimes open to the public and can be accessed from inside the Uffizi.
BUT:
It is not currently possible to arrange any tours by now...
The Vasari Corridor may be reopening in mid-September 2004. Information will be available in August 2004.

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Now, let's do a rewind on the film....
Few steps back, again, on the banks of the Arno and looking at Ponte Vecchio - the oldest bridge in Florence crossing the river Arno.

I couldn't stop myself of saying THANKS for this bridge have been the only one in Florence to survive WW II.
And in 1966, when a massive flood wiped out the shops on the bridge, the bridge itself was strong enough to withstand the waters.

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Originally the bridge was built just to allow access over the Arno. Slowly, with so much traffic going over it, merchants decided to set up shop on the bridge itself.

As that early traffic consisted primarily of traveling soldiers, it isn't surprising that the first merchants to set up shop were blacksmiths, butchers, and tanners.

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