March 14 2011 (Monday)

The next day after a good breakfast, the crew headed to walk around the city to get familiar with Florence.

We then meet our history tour guide Elizabetha. She is a very prepared, curious and knowledge woman. I have to admit, that our guide was the best at explaining and pointing the most relevant parts of Florence. 

Our First stop was “Ponte Vecchio” (Vecchio Bridge). This place is known for its stores. Here we saw amazing designs of jewelry in gold. This bridge was the corridor to get to Uffizi gallery and was kept ever since.

  

As we kept walking the narrow streets of Florence on Lungarno street, we were able to see how the businesses flourished on the bridge. One thing that caught my attention was the walk handles. These were not your regular handles. These handles were full of hundreds of locks!

 Any type of lock you can imagine was on these handles. I will tell you the reason why these handles are here.
According to our tour guide, when a couple is in love and the guy wants to promise her love forever, the guy will find a lock and lock it on the bar handles representing his affection. This is not to be confused with a wedding ring. This does not have the same meaning. We later pass onto the “piazza de la signoria”. This was built in the thirteenth century. We went inside the “Mvseo di Plazzo Vecchio” this monument was built to represent the civic monument in Florence. In this place we saw amazing paintings and sculptures such as the copy of the David, and Perseus (the slayer of Medusa).

 

It was amazing to see all these statues.  It was interesting to see that a few of these statues are very white and clear. While other statues look old, green, dark and rusty. The reason is due because of the weather changes that have this effect on these statues. The crew asked questions on why the other statues aren’t white.

 The answer is because these statues are cleaned with some chemicals that help preserve the marble properties.  

We found particular old paintings still preserved. These angel paintings  looked a  little dull and almost faded into the yellow wall of the building. Walking inside of this building the crew and I could see old statues that resemble the lion.

The lion represented the strength that the city of Florence would demonstrate at that time.

 Leaving this building we found ourselves walking a few blocks on to the street called “Via Santa Margherita”. On this famous street was the home of the one and only Dante the famous poet. According to our guide, this man gave a lot to the Italian literacy, and is considered a master piece of world literature. Seeing this street is clear example of the Italian streets in medieval times. This street gives the spectator a feeling of going onto a small town where neither electric system nor plumbing existed.

 This Street had a small old church and small alley. Walking away from this street, we had the opportunity to go inside the house of Medici or the “Casa di Medeci”. Lacking information about the Medeci, our guide explained that this family was wealthy merchants that had big influence over the politicians in Florence. This family had a lot business and hired the best workers of that time to construct buildings, paintings, sculpture etc... Their ideas were that if the hired the smartest people of that time to create these things, then the people in Florence would believe and trust the Medici’s to govern the city.                    

 Going inside this building we saw very elegant chandeliers and elaborated caverned brown doors. On almost every ceiling you would see paintings, carved columns, statues that would represent mostly angels, the people of Florence, and different forms and shapes. Currently there are politicians that still live in the building having conferences.

 After all this time walking and learning, it was time to enjoy one of Italy’s famous gelato. This treat made all day’s walking worth it. This is creamiest ice cream in the world. Their amazing flavors vary all from banana and strawberry to “Cioccolata Fondente” and “Mousse alla Frabola”.