Florence – Od Piazza della Signoria do Ognissanti
Despite the urban planning of the last century and the bombing of the last war, many streets in Florence have retained their medieval character., especially in the district west of Piazza della Signoria. Mercato Nuovo is a kind of vestibule to this part of the city (in summer daily. 9.00-19.00; in winter, Tue-Sat. 9.00-17.00), whose souvenir stalls are among the most crowded in the city; the market has existed here since the 11th century., although the current loggia dates from the sixteenth century. A small group of people usually gather around a boar called II Porcellino and try to drop a coin for good luck from the beast's mouth into the grate below its head. A stroll through the streets behind the 13th-century Palazzo di Parte Guelfa - streets such as via delle Terme and Borgo Santi Apostoli - gives some idea of the atmosphere of medieval Florence, when every major home was a city fortress.
Palazzo Davanzati
The 14th-century Palazzo Davanzati is the most authentic example of a house from this period in the city, though it has been largely restored. W XVI w. The battlements on the roof were replaced by a loggia, and on the Davanzati front they placed their coat of arms; otherwise the building looks more or less like it did at the beginning of its Skill. Today, the palace houses the Museo della Casa Fiorentina Antica (wt.-sb. 9.00-14.00, nd. 9.00-13.00; 2000 L), and almost every room of the reconstructed interior is decorated and decorated in a medieval style, using authentic relics from various sources.
In 14th-century merchant houses, the main rooms usually had artfully painted walls, thus Palazzo Davanzati also has beautiful examples of such decorations — especially in the dining room, where the lower part of the walls is decorated with a parrot motif, and the upper one shows a row of trees. According to modern criteria, the equipment is modest, but the indicator of abundance was not quantity, and the quality: tapestry, ceramics and lace are beautiful examples of handicrafts, especially the Sicilian bedspread in the bedroom on the first floor with scenes from the history of Tristan. Perhaps the most eloquent sign of the wealth of the first tenants of the palace was a private well, from which the water was taken through a shaft extending through all five floors.
Holy Trinity
Further, west behind Palazzo Davanzati, via Porta Rossa connects to Piazza Santa Trinita; it is not actually a square, only extended via Tomabupni, the most expensive street in the city. It crosses the Arno on the most stylish bridge in Florence, Santa Trinita bridge; the designer was allegedly Ammannati, but the deflection of the bays so closely resembles the arch of the Medici tombs made by Michelangelo, that perhaps he deserves praise.
Antiquity of the Church of Santa Trinita (codz. 8.00-12.00 i 16.00-19.00) it is visible in the Latinized pronunciation of its name - in contemporary Italian the emphasis is on the last one, not the first syllable. Founded in the 11th century. the church was rebuilt in the period from 1250 r. by the end of the next century, but the inner side of the front wall survived from the Romanesque building.
The austerity of architecture is softened by a number of works of art, the best of which come from the 15th century. Lorenzo Monaco painted the fourth chapel on the right with frescoes and made the altar painting Annunciation, while the decoration of Cappella Sassetti (the second one to the right of the altar) Ghirlandaio undertook, who created the altar painting Adoration of the Shepherds and a series of frescoes depicting Scenes from the life of St.. Francis. The scene of St.. Francis supporting the rule of the order contains the portraits of Lawrence the Magnificent and Francesco Sassetti, the patron saint of the chapel - they stand in the foreground on the right, receiving a tribute from the sons of Lawrence and his protégé, philosopher Poliziano. Moving work by Lucia della Robbia — the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, Bishop Fiesole - it occupies the wall of the second chapel to the left of the altar and is framed by a ceramic border of flowers and greenery.
Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Rucellai
Shops on via Tomabuoni are magical places for those, who are not traveling first class. Yersace has a branch here, Armani and other fashionable companies, sharing the area with Gucci's jewelry and leather goods stores, the most famous local company.
Ostentatious wealth is nothing new on via Tomabuoni, because the enormous Palazzo Strozzi dominates the whole building, the last largest and least subtle of the Florentine Renaissance palaces. Filippo Strozzi bought and demolished a dozen houses for a stone stronghold designed by Giuliana da Sangallo, the construction of which lasted from 1489 do 1536 r. and came under the supervision of Cronacy. Permanent exhibition at the Museo di Palazzo Strozzi (pn., Wed. i pt. 16.00-19.00; Free entrance) explains the history of the palace.
Some Florentine plutocrats managed to impress with a little more taste. When Giovanni Rucellai — one of the richest merchants in the city, and a respected scholar - decided in the 50s of the 15th century. commission the construction of a new home, turned to the architect Leon Battista Alberti, the universal genius of the Renaissance. Palazzo Rucellai, located near the Strozzi house, przy via della Vigna Nuova, was the first Florentine palace built according to the rules of classical architecture - rows of pilasters, incised in smooth stone blocks, clearly refer to the outer wall of the Colosseum. Even more refined work by Alberti, Chapel of San Sepolcro (sb. 17.30 X-VI), can be admired in the neighboring Cappella Rucellai; was designed as a tombstone monument ; Giovanni Rucellai in the form of a miniaturized reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Church of San Pancrozio, which was once part of the Alberti Chapel, has been transformed into the chic Museo Mario Marini (VI-VIII Wed.-Mon. 10.00-13.00 i 16.00-19.00; IX-V Wed.-Mon. 10.00-18.00; 4000 L), where works several years ago and bequeathed to the city by this sculptor are exhibited. Variations on his favorite theme "horse and rider" dominate.
All Saints
In medieval times, the main area of textile production - Florence's base and economy - lay to the west of the city. All Saints, the main church in this quarters, was founded in the 13th century. by the Benedictine Order, which was involved in spinning woolen fabrics. Three hundred years later, the church was taken over by the Franciscans, who rebuilt it in the baroque style, saving only the campanile.
The façade of the church is of interest to historians as one of the first blooms of the baroque style in Florence, but Ognissanti owes its attractiveness to earlier elements - frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli. Young face, squeezed between the Madonna and the man in a black cloak in the painting Madonna delta Misericordia Domenica Ghirlandaio, j above the second altar on the right, it belongs to Amerigo Vespucci, to which America owes its name. A little further, on both sides of the nave, portraits of St.. Augustine and the more down-to-earth St.. Jerome, both painted in 1480 r. - the first by Botticelli, the second by Ghirlandaia. That same year, Ghirlandaio performed the bucolic Last First Supper, covering one wall of the refectory (pn.-sb. 9.00-12.00 i 14.00-16.00), to which you go through the cloisters.