Other sights in Tuscany
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Galleria degli Uffizi
Reason enough to come to Florence, this fabled museum contains quite simply the world’s finest collection of Renaissance art, including both 12th- to 14th-century forebears and 16th- and 17th-century inheritors. Its 50-plus rooms are crammed with more than 1500 works, nearly all of them masterpieces. Part of the museum’s mystique is the difficulties it presents: long lines, crowded galleries, a daunting combination of quantity and quality. There are two tricks to enjoying your experience: pre-book tickets and concentrate on select artists or periods. While signage is less than satisfying, the museum is laid out chronologically, and largely over a single floor. For a…
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Fattoria di Celle
A tea house, aviary and other romantic 19th-century follies mingle with cutting-edge art installations created in situ by the world’s top contemporary artists at the Fattoria di Celle, 5km from Pistoia. The extraordinary private collection and passion of local businessman Giuliano Gori, this unique sculpture park showcases 70 site-specific installations sprinkled around his vast family estate. Visits – reserved for serious art lovers – require forward planning (apply in writing at least five weeks in advance) and entail a three- to four-hour hike around the art-rich estate, led by the collection’s curator, Miranda McPhail.
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Chiesa di Orsanmichele
This oddly jewel-like building started out as a grain market that was walled in during the 14th century to create a church, though the upper floors remained a working granary. With its lace-like stone window frames and gold and lapis lazuli tabernacle, it’s a masterpiece of Italian Gothic. Outdoor niches are populated with masterworks of early Renaissance sculpture by Donatello, Ghiberti and company. Most are copies, but you can see the originals – plus stunning city views – by visiting the upper floors, which are now open to the public for the first time in decades (10am-5pm Mon only, admission free).
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Museum of the Cathedral
Housed in the Cathedral’s former chapter house, the Museum of the Cathedral is a repository for works of art once displayed in the Cathedral and Baptistry. Highlights include Giovanni Pisano’s ivory carving of the Madonna and Child (1299), made for the Cathedral’s high altar, and his mid-13th-century Madonna del Colloquio (Madonna of the Colloquy), from a gate of the Duomo. Legendary booty includes various pieces of Islamic art, including the griffin that once topped the Cathedral and a 10th-century Moorish hippogriff.
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Chiesa di Santa Felicità
Possibly founded by Syrian merchants as early as the 2nd century, the current church is largely a Renaissance construction. Its most extraordinary feature is Brunelleschi’s small Cappella Barbadori, which is adorned by frescoes by Jacopo Pontormo (1494–1557) of the Annunciation and a Deposition from the Cross, in garish reds, pinks and oranges. Note also that the Corridoio Vasariano passes right across the facade so the Medici could hear Mass like any good Christians, but without having to mix with the common folk.
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Giardino Torrigiani
Passers-by have no idea, but behind the unassuming facades of Via Serragli lies a vast, secret garden – Europe’s largest privately owned green space within an historic centre. The Torrigiani family has restored the leafy retreat, and Vanni, son of the current marquis, conducts tours of the grounds personally. Designed at the height of the Romantic movement in the early 19th century, the sprawling complex includes rare tree species, Medici battlements, wide English-style lawns and complex Masonic symbology.
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Galleria del Costume
Few visitors make the effort to visit the Pitti’s Galleria del Costume, thus missing its absolutely fascinating, if somewhat macabre, display of the semi-decomposed burial clothes of Cosimo I, his wife Eleonora di Toledo and their son Don Garzia. Considering their age and the fact that they were buried for centuries, Eleonora’s gown and silk stockings are remarkably preserved, as are Cosimo’s satin doublet and wool breeches and Garzia’s doublet, beret and short cape.
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Area Archeologica
Make the Area Archeologica your first stop. A pretty spot to stroll, the archaeological area ensnares an Etruscan temple (Fiesole was founded in the 7th century BC by the Etruscans), Roman baths, an archaeological museum with exhibits from the Bronze Age to the Roman period, and a 1st-century-BC Roman theatre where live music and theatre is performed during the Estate Fiesolana (held June to August) and Vivere Jazz Festival.
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Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia
Sheltered incongruously beneath an early Renaissance loggia (covered area on the side of a building), this compact, modern museum is the best and brightest addition to the city’s art scene in years. It mounts excellent temporary exhibitions, while permanent displays tell the story of Italian and world photography from its invention. The bookshop offers on-demand printing of photos, including many historical photos of Florence, from the renowned Alinari archives.
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Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi
North of Arezzo is the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, a wooded national park that takes in some of the Apennines’ most spectacular scenery. One of the highest peaks, Monte Falterona (1654m), marks the source of the Arno. In addition to two monasteries, the park is home to a rich assortment of wildlife and nearly 100 bird species. The dense forests are a cool summer refuge, ideal for both walking and escaping the maddening crowds.
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Galleria Palatina
Raphaels and Rubens vie for centre stage in the enviable collection of 16th- to 18th-century art amassed by the Medici and Lorraine dukes in the 1st-floor Galleria Palatina, reached via staircase from Palazzo Pitti’s central courtyard. This gallery has retained the original display arrangement of paintings (squeezed in, often on top of each other) so can be visually overwhelming – go slow and focus on the works one by one.
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Roman Amphitheatre
Adjoining the Museo Archeologico, this once seated up to 10,000 spectators. Inside, there's a sizable collection of Etruscan and Roman artefacts, including locally produced ceramics and bronzes. Among the highlights is the Cratere di Euphronios, a large 6th-century-BC Etruscan vase, decorated with vivid scenes showing Hercules in battle, and, upstairs, an exquisite tiny portrait of a bearded man executed on glass in the 3rd century AD.
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Villa dei Mulini
The Villa dei Mulini, Napoleon’s home while he was emperor of this small isle, has a splendid terraced garden and library. During his Elban exile, he certainly didn’t want for creature comforts – contrast his Elba lifestyle with the simplicity of his camp bed and travelling trunk when he was on the campaign trail. While the history lesson is nice, the dearth of actual Napoleonic artefacts is a tad disappointing.
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Artistic Treasures
The rich portico of the nearby Ospedale del Ceppo (Piazza Giovanni XXIII), with its detailed 16th-century polychrome terracotta frieze by Giovanni della Robbia, will stop even the most monument-weary in their tracks. It depicts the Sette Opere di Misericordia (Seven Works of Mercy), while the fi ve medallions represent the Virtù Teologali (Theological Virtues), including a beautiful Annunciation.
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Galleria Continua
Housed in the city's old theatre, Galleria Continua shows its collection of contemporary art by famous artists at virtually every major international art fair. It rarely represents Italian artists, so why they've kept this peculiar location in San Gimignano is something of a mystery. Or maybe it's a trend. The new gallery is in Beijing. Exhibitions change approximately every two months.
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Museo Ferragamo
Located in the basement of Palazzo Spini Feroni - a fine medieval palace that also houses Ferragamo’s flagship store, this quirky museum is mandatory for shoe fetishists – others may find the admission price exorbitant for what you get. Besides some of the Florentine designer’s most lavish creations, you can see pumps made to order for the likes of Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.
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Ospedale del Ceppo
The Ospedale del Ceppo, with its detailed 16th-century polychrome terracotta frieze by Giovanni della Robbia, will stop even the most monument-weary in their tracks. It depicts the Sette Opere di Misericordia (Seven Works of Mercy), while the five medallions represent the Virtù Teologali (Theological Virtues), including a beautiful Annunciation.
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Cathedral
Arezzo’s cathedral was started in the 13th century yet was not completed until well into the 15th century. In the northeast corner, left of the main altar, an exquisite fresco of Mary Magdalene by Piero della Francesca is dwarfed in size, but not beauty, by the rich marble reliefs of the tomb of Bishop Guido Tarlati.
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Great Synagogue of Florence
Built in the 1870s just after the Jewish community in Italy had gained full emancipation after centuries of persecution, this vast synagogue is a beautiful, polychrome hodgepodge of Islamic, Jewish and Christian religious architecture that recalls the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. A small museum documents the history of Jewish Florence.
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Appartamenti Reali
Past the Sala di Venere is the Appartamenti Reali, a series of rooms presented as they were c 1880–91, when they were occupied by members of the House of Savoy. The style and division of tasks assigned to each room is reminiscent of Spanish royal palaces, all heavily bedecked with drapes, silk and chandeliers.
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Cantina del Redi
In the Renaissance Palazzo Ricci is Cantina del Redi, a cavernous warren of ancient wine cellars that you can wander through, ending up at the wine-tasting room and shop. To get there ascend the hill at Piazza Michelozzo and turn right at the Loggia di Mercato, first left into Via del Poggiolo, then left again into Via Ricci.
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Villa Napoleonica di San Martino
The Villa Napoleonica di San Martino, where Napoleon occasionally dropped in, is set in hills about 5km southwest of Portoferraio. Modest by Napoleonic standards, it is dominated by the overbearing mid-19th-century gallery at its base, built to house his memorabilia. A combined ticket for both villas is €5.
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Galleria d'Arte Moderna
Forget about Marini, Mertz or Clemente – the collection of the 2nd-floor Galleria d’Arte Moderna is dominated by late-19th-century works by artists of the Florentine Macchiaioli school (the local equivalent of Impressionism), including Telemaco Signorini (1835–1901) and Giovanni Fattori (1825–1908).
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Chiesa di San Francesco
Gracing the apse of this 14th-century church is one of the greatest works of Italian art, Piero della Francesca’s fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross (1452–66). This masterpiece relates in 10 episodes a highly coloured subsequent history of the cross on which Christ was crucified.
You can get some sense of the frescoes from beyond the cordon in front of the altar, but to really appreciate them up close, plan ahead for a visit with audioguide. As only 25 people are allowed in every half-hour, it’s essential to prebook by phone or at any of the sites that participate in the combined ticket scheme. The ticket office is at Piazza San Francesco 4, to the right of…
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Palazzo Ricci
Ascend the hill at Piazza Michelozzo and turn right at the Loggia di Mercato, first left into Via del Poggiolo, then left again into Via Ricci. In the Renaissance Palazzo Ricci is Cantina del Redi, a cavernous warren of ancient wine cellars that you can wander through, ending up at the wine-tasting room and shop.
reviewed