Free Walking Tour of Florence

One thing I really enjoy doing when I travel to a city new to me is a Free Walking Tour. By now, everyone should know that a "free" walking tour just means pay what you want at the end. I've always had great tour guides who are certified to tell you about their town. Most are native to the city and well versed in everything from what is on the tour to the best place to get gelato and which restaurant will let you stop in for a free visit to the toilette before we start. 

We signed up for Guru Walk's Renaissance and Medici Tales tour.

When we arrived at Piazza San Lorenzo (the dome we can see blocking the Duomo from our apartment), it was apparent there were A LOT of people signed up for our tour -- so many they split us into three different groups. The 19 of us assigned to Mr. Andrea moved to a patch of sunlight so we could hear him over our chattering teeth. He told us all about the history of Florence, dating back to the fourth century AD, with a special focus on the Medici family. I dutifully took notes while taking pictures. It is the only way I can retain any information.

Gathered on the steps of San Lorenzo, we learned the first church was consecrated on this site in 393 AD. It was located just outside the walls of the Roman town. Julius Caesar founded Florence in 54 AD. As an American, I can't fully fathom those dates. Florence was founded to celebrate the goddess Flora (spring), hence the name. In Roman times it was a small town. For the first ten centuries (again, cannot fathom that length of time), not much happened.  

Then the Middle Ages started. Florence became a successful textile business (they are still still known for their leather). During the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries the city grew and the city became as big as Paris, and very wealthy. Everything grew -- from houses to convents to churches.

In the 13th century, the Florentines invented the banking industry. Then the Medici family rose to power a couple of hundred years later. We heard a lot about the Medici's over our time in Florence. To the extent that if a tour guide asked who did XYZ, the safe answer is a Medici.

The Medici's became the only banker of the Catholic Church, and the wealthiest family in Europe. They bought elections both for political and religious reasons. The other wealthy families were not that happy with him, and he was barred from power. Being so wealthy that didn't last long. I'm going to guess it was Cosimos I who was banned, but I defer to people with a greater knowledge of Florentine history, or at least the interest in googling the story.

Church San Lorenzo was built in the 1420s. It was paid for by the Medici family (no surprise there) and the head architect was Filippo Brunelleschi. It is the final resting place for most of the Medici family. At some point, I should have paid the nine euros and gone inside, but I didn't.

It was designed to feel like a Roman temple with its classical elements. The Medici family had their first relative become a pope (overall, three popes came from this family), Pope Leo X.  Michelangelo was put in charge of designing the outside in white Carrera marble in the early 16th century. Michelangelo visited quarries to find just the right marble. Well, Pope Leo said it was too expensive, work on the sacristy instead and keep thinking about the façade. As our guide said, he is still thinking about the façade. 

Andrea pointed us to the booths leading to the Central Market where we ate lunch the day before. He pointed to a small street by the pharmacy and said in the early 1500s a famous woman lived there ... but he'll tell us more about her later.

Finally, we started walking.

Cosimo Medici wanted a new palace. His enemies thought he was a menace. They wanted him to spend ten years outside of Florence to atone for (what they felt was) the evil he had done. He came back a year later by stopping the cash flow into Florence. He built his new palace around the corner from San Lorenzo (convenient location for future tour groups). It was in the Renaissance style. As the walls go up, they appear to be smoother. It was a way of showing off his wealth. Surrounding his palace are courtesans' benches built into the walls so people are comfortable while waiting around to see him. He built his home on one of the widest streets in Florence as a show of wealth.

On this street is where Leonardo da Vinci also lived. Remember that famous woman? It was the Mona Lisa. da Vinci painted her in this location, as well as three other paintings currently in the Uffizi.

We walked over to St. John's Baptistry, which is a round building in front of the cathedral. It was built 900-1000 years ago because it was necessary to baptize people before they would be allowed to enter a church. By the end of the 13th century the big cathedral was deemed too small for the town (remember they were going through a massive growth spurt at that time). The leaders wanted the biggest church in all of Tuscany (bigger is better, right?). Their main competitors were Pisa and Siena. In 1296 they started to build the cathedral to be even larger than the old Roman church (which was about twice the size of the baptistry).

Note the tower outside the cathedral is not attached to the church. It has flower stripes. They wanted the BIGGEST dome ever--problem was, no one knew how to seal the opening created. The church was finished in 1378, well, all but the dome. Within two centuries, both Rome and London had bigger cathedrals. For 40 years the church had a huge gaping hole instead of a dome.

Remember Filippo Brunelleschi? He was really a goldsmith by trade. But in 1418, he figured out how to create a dome that would be big enough, and sturdy enough, to seal the opening. Two years later he would be the head architect on San Lorenzo and seen as an expert in building churches. The dome was finished in 1436. Technically, it is a dome within a dome, with the smaller (inner dome) supporting the bigger dome. Inside is the largest fresco painted inside a dome.

When you are inside the cathedral, you can see people walking around it. These are people who did not wait until a week before their trip to buy a timed ticket to climb up to the Duomo. This is something Don and I did 23 years earlier and Ashley was not as interested in doing, so instead we climbed the bell tower on a different day. The bell tower does not require a timed ticket, only a ticket.

David, the famous Michelangelo statue, was built to be placed on the stage on the upper level of the Duomo. When built, he was deemed too amazing to be that far away from others and placed in Piazza della Signoria in front of the old palace (Palazzo Vecchio). More about David on later tours.

For a few centuries, the façade remained as boring as the one on San Lorenzo. Then in 1865 Florence was unexpectedly named the capital of Italy. (Italy became a country in 1861.) 

I wish I went on a tour of just the cathedral so this part of the history would make more sense to me. In the center of the front is Mary and Jesus surrounded by the apostles. There is a row of statues by da Vinci, Botticelli, and other famous Florentine artists of the era. 

In 1966 there was a big flood with water reaching 6 feet inside. In parts of Florence, the water rose five meters (16 feet). I'm actually surprised we did not hear more about this while we were in Florence.

Back to the walking part of the tour.

We were led to a tower built in the 1200s, as a place to hide during the turbulent times of the day.

Next to it, in the sixth century a round shaped tower was built to house female prisoners. It was renovated 30 years ago and is now a fancy restaurant.

I am still in awe of passing something that has been around for nearly a 1000 years and is still in use. 

We passed this same place on a ghost tour. The guide quipped "if this was the day tour, we would learn about XYZ..." instead we learned a ghost story. I'll share that in a future blog post. 

We walked some more. Learned about local food and wine. Learned about ho the Medici's expanded their home in a way that did not involve paying extra taxes (no one likes to pay taxes) -- they built an addition that did not touch the ground. Also heard about the textile industry and that Florence is the leading place in Tuscany to buy leather (later I bought a purse for 25 euros and a matching wallet for five euros).

We ended up tine Republic Square, or as we like to call it "Ashley's Square" as it is her favorite place to sit on a bench and do homework while listening to street musicians and people watching.

Our walk took us to Signori Palace, or the "Old Palace." It was built as a safe place for those in power in the early 14th century to live and work without fear of being attacked. They were not allowed to leave as long as they were in power. They could not see their family or friends, only their colleagues. Fortunately for them, they only lasted in power for two months. This came to the end in 1530 with the help of Julian de Medici -- the second pope in the Medici family.

This is a pretty cool square. It was also super crowded any time we went there during the day. There is the copy of David, next to original works of art including the Rape of Sabine Women and Perseus with the Head of Medusa, and the fountain of Neptune featuring Cosimos's face. I would have assumed they were all copies, but no, they are mostly original works of art (dating from the second through 19th centuries) hanging out where anyone can see them, and where some have been known to climb on them after the day trippers go home.

The original David stood here for nearly four centuries before being moved to the Accademia.

In 1540 they moved the palace. Cosimo married a Spanish women to build a stronger empire. She was not a fan of the old fashioned, Medieval style palace. To keep her happy, he built the Pitti Palace (which we toured later in the trip). He married both for power and wealth, and since money was not an issue, he bought her a new home, one that had been owned by the Pitti family.

Inside the Palazzo Signora is an apartment the Medici family owned which can still be visited today.

We continued our walk to Uffizi Square. In the 1560s construction was started to be built as a larger space for the Republic state. Now it is an art museum. 

The Uffizi, Old Palace, and Pitti Palace were connected by overhead arches so everyone could move safely between them. The connection from the Uffizi is undergoing renovations. They hope to reopen them to the public within a couple of years. The passageway continues over the shops on the Ponte Vecchio to the other side of the Arno River.

In 1769 Peter Leopold of Lorraine opened the museum to the public. It is the most important museum in all of Italy.

We were encouraged to cross the river and look for lunch -- a hunt that took much longer than we would have expected. Finally we found pesto pasta and vegetarian lasagna in a bar that was delicious. We wanted soup, but at least lunch was warm. Sat next to a couple from Holland, well he is Dutch and she is from Serbia. The type of travelers you meet outside of the United States. After their meal, they asked the owners to make something else and out came a meat and cheese platter that was not on the menu. We just left. Still a little hungry, but restless.

We wandered through Florence looking for our AirBnB, and getting lost along the way. We stopped in the Lego store. After a 30 minute nap, we met up with Ashley at the Duomo to go inside the cathedral, the crypt, and climb the tower. 

I'll pause here. That will be our next post.