Florence, Italy Has Great Summer Deals »
By Buff on Jun 14, 2010 | In Travel | No Comments »
There’s no better way to spend your vacation time other than in Florence, Italy. There are currently some great deals being offered at any hotel Florence has, which will entice you even more to make reservations today. When you do get to Florence, there are some ‘must-see’ sights that will absolutly take your breath away. The majesty of the Romanesque Baptistery, the Renaissance basilicas and the Gothic Duomo is what brings the majority of tourist to see this beautiful city, but there are a few other sights you might not know about.
The Galleria degli Uffizi, this gallery was once the place where the Medici family reserved rooms for their exquisite collection during the 1700s. Currently, the gallery is home to works by Caravaggio, Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Botticelli’s - ‘Birth of Venus’ and ‘Primavera’. Plus, a great collection of French, German, Flemish and Dutch masters. The corridors of this gallery are lined with Roman and 16th century sculptures and the ceiling are full of splendid frescoes.
The ‘Ponte Vecchio’ is Florence’s treasured bridge, it was the only one of the six spared when the Germans retreated in World War II. After the Germans though, centuries of flooding took its toll on the Ponte Vecchio, leaving only traces of this 10-century bridge. The bridge used to house butcher shops that would regularly discard their carcasses into the Arno river creating quite a stench, so Grand Duke Fernandion issued an edict that replaced all the butcher with goldsmiths, which eradicated the smell and gentrified the royalty’s route to Palazzo Pitti, reached only by the Vasari Corridor that passed over the bridge.
You might recongize the Palazzo Pitti if you’ve watched an Italian films or movies filmed in Italy. This Palazzo was half way finished in the 15th century by Luca Pitti, work began in 1457 and it was a huge building project in the Boboli hills, but Pitti went bankrupt in the middle of the 16th century and the Medici family bought it. The Medici’s enlarged it, decorated the interior with the most luxurious items available and landscaped the Boboli hills into a beautiful garden area. In the 18th century, the Lorena family became the owners and added two lateral wings with porticoes that came around either side of the central piazza. In 1919, the Palazzo Pitti became the property of the state, which allowed tourist and locals entry into the Royal Apartments.
Giardion di Boboli, is a garden not to miss. Inside the garden is the Buontalenti grotto, decorated with Mannerist-style scenes from Greek and Roman mythologies, including copies of Michelangelo’s famous Slave series. In the early 1800s, the garden was extended as far as the Porta Romana, which added the Vasca d’Isola at the center with a fountain and a wonderful statue of Neptune. In the late 1800’s, Zanobi del Rosso built the Kaffehous pavillion, which includes the Museo delle Porcellane, the Galleria del Costume, the Museo degli Argenti and the Museo e Galleria Mozzi Bardini. You’ll need an entire day to explore the Giardion di Boboli.
