The perfect old city, Florence.......

To many, Italy is the perfect location for a European holiday, fabulous weather, great food and incredibly hospitable people, the only question where in Italy;- the hustle and bustle of Rome, the shopping paradise of Milan, the unique Venice, or maybe exploring Sicily. All wonderful, but for me Tuscany tops them all. The rich and vibrant colours of the countryside, green, red, yellow, set against the endless blue summer sky, and the cities towns and villages that are home to some of the greatest art in the world. 

Tuscany is the essence of Italy, the home of the Renaissance, to visit is adventure into a world that has inspired some of the greatest thinker’s, artists and writers and also to visit one rediscovers one’s own inner peace, it maybe my imagination, but Tuscany has a the power to enter into the soul. It is intoxicating.

First a little geography, Tuscany is a region in Central Italy, with a long coast line on the Mediterranean and extending inland to form a ‘triangle shape’, the region is surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and the countryside is dominated by hills. Critical in understand the region is to visit the Tuscan capital,- Florence. The importance of Florence in the history of Europe and development of trade and art is hard to overstate. Florence was the birthplace of the Medici family and the Italian Renaissance, and is still one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The art galleries and collections rival any, and if one wanted, it would be easy to spend days just visiting and admiring some of the finniest precious and valuable works of art works of art ever created. Send time visiting the Uffizi and ensure you see Botticelli's Birth of Venus, the Pitti Palace, and the Bargello.

Much of the art works; in particular the frescos and sculptures are not housed in museums but in the Tuscan churches and cathedrals. The most famous of which are probably, the Florence Cathedral, Siena Cathedral, Pisa Cathedral and the Collegiata di San Gimignano, however, if you see a church, it is always worth a visit, but remember you are visiting a place of worship not a tourist attraction. It is easy to get a little blasé when in Tuscany, works of great importance that elsewhere would be the focus of attention are often overlooked because in the next room or church is a work by Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo.

When I think of Italy, I think of fashion, it is easy to forget that Italy is still the third largest supplier of clothes in the world, (after China and Japan). The textiles and fashion industry are central to the economy of Florence, and on its most famous shopping street, the Via de' Tornabuoni are some very luxurious stores including Cartier, Ferragamo, Gucci, Versace and Bulgari. An Italian suit or dress, made with Italian cloth and purchased in Italy just exudes a quality that is so special. My first lightweight Italian suit was so prized to me that when hung in the wardrobe I ensured my other suits were not touching. The fabric so fine and the cut so skilled the suit remained a favorite for years.

The hordes of tourists visiting Florence can be a little irksome, I have never understood why when visiting one of the architectural and cultural pinnacles of the Western world more visitors don’t just slow the schedule down, surly it should be about quality not quantity, why ‘pass though’ twenty places rather than properly visiting and absorbing just a few….. Memories are made by lingering, not by rushing; I remember well sitting in the ‘Caffe Giubbe Rosse’ in the Piazza della Repubblica. The café, in its name, is paying tribute to the “Red Shirts” of Garibaldi’s forces during the ‘Risorgimento’, (unification of Italy). Garibaldi is a great Italian hero. The Café was a place were in the past intellectuals would met and discuss how to change the world, it is described beautifully  by Alberto Viviani as, “a forge of dreams and passions”. My memories are of sitting while waiting for my wife, watching people and pondering life, and discovering a little more of what made this small café important in Italian life, drinking coffee and eating a little freshly baked Italian bread. I am not much interested when people say, “I visited ‘such and such’”, but when they say, ‘I experienced Florence’, that the mark of a fellow traveler.

November 22, 2010  |  Article Posted By: Administrator 1 , London
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