Things I Didn’t Know About Florence

Yesterday we made the trip from Rome to Florence and I discovered the first thing I didn’t know about Florence, that Italians call it “Firenze” - thus on our train trip to Milan and back we were briefly in Florence twice (and I didn’t even know it!) On our bus trip our guide pointed out that all the ancient towns and cities of Italy were built on hill tops - this for reasons of defence. I just thought they looked cool - we drove by many of such villages and towns on this leg of the journey.

Florence, however, is not built on a hill, but primarily in a valley, but as this city has been the centre of banking, commerce and trades for many centuries the city bought its safety over the years by paying invading armies to leave them alone. An interesting form of defense.

I didn’t know that Florence was the beginning point of the Renaissance, nor that it was the home of Galileo, Michelangelo and even for a while Leonardo da Vinci. It is here that we saw Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of David. Our local guide was a very passionate and knowledgeable person who never stopped talking the whole time he was with us - a fount of information (and humour simply because of his mannerisms... "Please, just one more statue then we go...")

After seeing the David up close, and hearing the explanation by the guide I have a whole new appreciation for that sculpture and for Michelangelo. I didn’t know that the sculpture depicts David just before he slays Goliath (whereas up to that time all depictions of David and Goliath depicted the aftermath, with Goliath dead on the ground and David standing triumphant over him.) If you look at the face of David it is clam, determined and calculating, figuring out how best to attack the giant. The guide said Michelangelo’s intent is to say that through intelligence and confidence we can slay the giants, the difficulties, in our lives. David is also left handed in this sculpture, holding the end of the sling (with the stone) in his right hand, and holding the other end of the sling over his left shoulder with his left hand. The sculpture was originally intended to be up on the cathedral, thus the hands are disproportionate to the body in order to look good from a distance, but when the people of Florence saw the completed sculpture they wanted it closer to them, thus it was placed on the ground near the cathedral. The original now currently resides in the museum of the Academy of the Arts.

One other thing I didn’t know about Florence is that it has the 4th largest cathedral in the world. So by the end of our time in Europe Beth and I will have seen the four largest church buildings in the world - in order of size: Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, The Duomo in Milan, and the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. The fresco created inside the cupola of this church in Florence is the largest in the world - suitable for a city renowned for its development of the arts. On the outside this Florence cathedral was completely faced with different coloured marble (white, red and green). I can’t believe how much marble is used over here, it seems like every hotel we’ve been in has marble throughout, especially in the bathrooms. Right now as I look outside the bus window is a building completely faced with marble. I guess it makes it more possible when the marble is quarried in the same region.

Did you know that the story of Pinocchio is from Florence? There were many shops selling puppets, and they all featured that most famous of wooden stringed characters (whose nose grew long when he lied). My nose is still the same length so you should know that all this information is reliable.

The last thing I didn’t know about Florence is that it is known for its merchants. Well I can say from experience that they certainly know how to sell there wares, as Beth and I came away from Florence with some merchandise, but you have already read about that in Beth’s post. So I learned many things about Florence in the last 24 hours, and now you have too!