"Tower houses" Florence Off The Beaten Path Tip by leics

In the early Middle Ages it was very much the fashion in parts of Europe (but never the UK) to build towers or tower houses as a very obvious display of your wealth and power.

You can see such towers in Pavia, for example (which once had 100 of them!), and in places further afield like Bamburg in Germany.

I've only recently started to notice them (since my visit to Bamburg, actually) and now I have begun to look I am finding their remains in many places.

Florence has quite a few, although some have clearly had their top stories removed over subsequent centuries.

I found one or two in the Medieval Bargello district and three close together in Oltrano (attributed to the 12th century) along Via Santo Spirito.

They must have been truly impressive in their day, so very much taller than the buildings of ordinary folk, hung about with flags and banners and with their torches lighting the area surrounding them.

Many are still lived in; I think I'd like a tower house apartment. :-)