Florence Italy (Palazzo Vecchio, Bologna, Basilica Santa Croce, Medici Chapels)

 24 June 2024 - Florence Italy (Palazzo Vecchio, Bologna, Basilica Santa Croce, Medici Chapels)

Our last days in Florence have been very busy. The weather is getting hotter and more humid and the crowds seem to be growing bigger everyday.  It is a challenge to get around the tour groups in the narrow alleys. But there is still so much to see and experience.

We took a guided tour of the Palazzo Vecchio (built in the 1300s), the town hall of Florence.  Florence was a republic for hundreds of years and this building was where the republic power resided. This became the home of the Medici ruling family until Eleanor bought Pitti Palace and her husband had the walkway from Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace constructed. She did not like the ancient look of the old home and wanted a bigger place to live. 

We took our last day trip out into the country and went up and through the Apennine mountains to Bologna (many tunnels). Bologna is known for having the oldest university in Europe, almost 1000 years old.  In order to provide housing for the growing number of students during the medieval times, the apartment building owners extended the front of their properties over the roads and built porticoes underneath to support the new housing.  These porticoes are very nice because they provide protection from the hot sun and rains while you walk along and window shop.

Back in Florence, we trekked out to the Basilica Santa Croce to see the tombs of Michelangelo and Bernini, and several others.  The roads there and back were rough and in disrepair, so it was indeed an adventure.

We finished up our stay in Florence by visiting the Medici Chapels, where the princes of Tuscany are entombed. Michelangelo designed one of the chapels and the sculptures so it was a feast for the eyes.  The Church that contains the chapels was very nice but the Medici chapels overwhelm it.

Our visit to Florence has been filled with so much famous art and sculptures and famous buildings. Even though we had lots of time to see it, I still feel like we need more time to go back and revisit some of the places.  Florence is like one giant art museum!

Palazzo Vecchio looks out over a large plaza filled with sculptures and restaurants.  All the sculptures are replicas, the originals are in the Uffizi Gallery which is next door.

The Neptune fountain ran sporadically during our stay. In the background is a loggia which was used for hundreds of years as a place for the community to gather.  Cosimo turned it into a public art gallery.

The inside of the palace is elaborate painted and decorated with statues.  This is the Hall of 500, built around 1500, during a short time when the Medici’s had been ousted by a priest who was trying to create a more democratic government by having a larger group of citizens make decisions.  It didn’t last long, he was burned at the stake (commemorated by a plaque in the plaza) and the Medici’s went on a vendetta, killing and imprisoning many.  

The room was huge and quite an engineering feat for the time period. After the priest’s death, the walls were painted with battle scenes. Both Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo worked on the scenes.  Unfortunately, Leo’s method of painting failed and the scene started to droop.  Rather than fix it, he left permanently for Milan. Michelangelo got called to Rome.  So their paintings are lost and were replaced with what we see now.

Eleanor’s apartment rooms were painted with scenes from Ancient Greece.  

A Pieta in Eleonora’s private chapel.

A map room in the palace included this drawing of Florence in the 1400s.  It looks very like today’s Florence.

I think this is called Madonna of the UFO because of the object just behind Mary.  No one know why it is there or what it is intended to be.  It was not added on after the painting was done.

A closeup of the object looks a bit like a flying boat to me.

A desk in her apartments.

Thought to be a death mask of Dante.  This figured prominently in Dan Brown’s, Angels and Demons, as did the Hall of 500.

A portrait of Machiavelli.  The guide implied he got an undeserved bad reputation in his role as advisor to the Republic.  But he was very powerful and was known for unscrupulous acts, justifying them as “the end justifies the means.” His writings became known as a DIY for tyrants.

Florence was run as a modified republic from the 1100s. A small group of men were selected (by lottery) for a term of two months.  They were locked up in the palace and could only conduct government business and prayer during that time period. These articles were used in the lottery process.

A small open air loggia on the corner of the palace provided some fresh air to the place.  Our favorite restaurant is directly below.  This looks out over the Arno river to the other bank.

Basilica San Croce in the distance.  All the roofs are required to be the same color and material composition.  The guide told us this creates no end of problems if you want to reroof or repair an existing roof.

The inside patio was beautifully decorated with frescoes.

The last Medici donated all the arts and buildings to the city of Florence with the requirement that it had to stay in Florence. Her generosity goes a long way to making Florence the attraction it is today.

The town hall in Bologna looked a lot like Florence’s town hall.  It has been the seat of government in Bologna since the 1300s.

There are many of these porticoes in the downtown section of Bologna.  A very pleasant way to stroll through the town’s shopping area.

This is a standard for measurements used in medieval times: the Bolognese feet, the root, the arm and the double arm.  You could use this to make sure what you are making or buying is the right size.

On the wall of the town hall is a memorial to citizens who were killed for being suspected to be part of the resistance movement. After Italy was liberated, families started a memorial on the spot where their loved ones were hung or shot against this wall.  Eventually, so many photos were placed that someone had the idea to make a permanent memorial.  They collected names and photos and converted them to permanent glass images.  Over 1,000 men and women were executed.  This was a very moving memorial.

The Basilica of San Petronius is unfinished.  Construction began in the late 1300s, but progress was very slow.  The front was only partially covered with marble.  They built only part of it and ran out of money (one of cardinal’s sold the material and kept the money.) Over one hundred years later, the work for the dome started, but it was halted because it was deemed too complicated.  Besides that, the Pope at the time did not like the idea of such a large church (too much competition with Rome.)  As you walk around the church, you can see where the construction was just halted in midstream.

That hole in the ceiling is deliberate.  The light shining through onto the floor follows a meridian line which allowed scientists, at the time, to mark the changing of the seasons.

The floor has the meridian line marked and indicators are placed to show the season or time of the year.  I was struck with the thought that a Catholic Church of the time would allow anything smelling like science to have a presence in one of its holy places.

Paintings were done in churches to tell stories and give lessons because most people could not read.  This is a particularly gruesome depiction of what hell looks like (ala Dante’s writings), including a human-eating demon. So this is what you get to ponder while the priest is giving his sermon. Terrorists tried to blow up the church a couple of times because Muhammad is depicted in one of the circles of Hell, being tortured.

The ceiling had beautiful frescoes and was quite pleasant, compared to many of the other paintings in the church.

You can clearly see where the church side naves were to be built, but instead, the openings got closed up.

The side of the church showing unfinished areas.

Not nearly as busy as Florence (I think school had just ended).  It was pleasant, though quite warm, to walk the streets.

Our guide took us to a market where the locals shop for produce, meat and fish.

The fruit and vegetables are beautiful.  We were told it is custom to not touch the produce but to point to what you want and the seller will bag it for you.

Heaven if you are a carnivore.

The seafood section used to be the biggest part of the market, but I think overfishing has cut it way down.

The Basilica of San Croce was a challenging walk for us, with disappearing sidewalks and rough roads. But it was worth it.  It is a kind of Pantheon for Florence, since it houses the tombs of several famous Italians.

A statue of Dante, who wrote Divine Comedy was a native son of Florence.

The chapels were owned by rich families who could choose to decorate them as they wished.

Several members of the Bonaparte family are buried in the church.

Relic of St. Francis of Assisi robe.

Donatello did this bas relief in the 1400s

The apse with beautiful frescoes.

Michelangelo’s tomb.

Galileo’s tomb.

Machiavelli’s tomb.  The church was a veritable Who’s Who of Renaissance Italy.

Dante isn’t buried here but they put a monument in the church to honor him.

The Basilica San Lorenzo was the family church for the Medicis.  It is a beautiful Brunelleschi design with some interesting side chapels. They had two chapels built for their tombs.  Nowadays, those chapels are blocked off from the church and are a museum with a separate entrance. For 300 years, it was the official cathedral for Florence before the Duomo.

Many famous Italian artists contributed to the church.  Donatello, Michaelangelo, and others created paintings, sculptures and even bronze doors.

Tomb of Giulian de Medici.  This tomb and the companion tomb (Lorenzo) on the opposite wall were designed and mostly constructed by Michaelangelo to depict Day, Night, Dawn and Dusk.  The images are not portraits but personifications of the characteristics of the two men.

The stone covering the walls is stunning.

We stayed in a lovely small hotel situated next door to the Uffizi Gallery and fronting on the Arno River.  The public rooms were beautifully decorated with Tuscan features.

On our last night in Florence, we dodged the rain clouds and had dinner at our favorite restaurant, just under the Palazzo Vecchio.  We had Florentine steak.

The steak was perfectly done and the side salad and roasted potatoes made it all delicious.