Florence On Line

Up until 1750 Florence began the civic year not in accordance with the modern solar calendar on January 1st, but on March 25th, marking the start of the year from the religious feast of the Incarnation (which also - surely not by coincidence - is near the first day of spring).

In Florence and in the surrounding lands belonging to Florence the New Year was celebrated with a difference in reckoning of two months and twenty-five days, even when in numerous Italian and foreign states the modern calendar had been operating since 1582! The Florentines did not change the calendar until 1749, when respect of the new temporal calculations was imposed by a decree of the Grand Duke Francesco II of Lorraine dated November 20 of the same year.

There is a plaque in the Loggia dei Lanzi commemorating the event:

Historically on this day in Florence - the "Spring New Year" - a great crowd would set off in pilgrimage to the basilica of Santissima Annunziata, founded by the Servites, to venerate the miraculous fresco of the Annunciation (below) in which the face of the Virgin (according to an ancient legend) was said to have been executed by the hand of angels when the artist fell asleep in front of it. This flocking of the people to the basilica gave rise to the "Fair" which is still set up in the piazza in front
of the church on March 25th every year.

GUYA is actually two separate shops - one on via Por Santa Maria, and another on via Calimala, closer to Piazza della Repubblica (these are actually the same street physically but just have different names - very common in Florence). They feature unique designers from Italy and around the world, and carry both men's and women's fashion.

Besides their two unique boutiques (which are a must visit when you are in Florence), they just "opened" their brand new website where you can shop for all the latest fashion trends from wherever you are in the world:

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Here is one of the better images I have come across for seeing the cloud situation in Europe and Italy (click the image for a slightly larger view):

The Notte Bianca or "White Night" in Florence takes place on the evening of April 30th every year. The streets flow with people making rounds between food stalls, exhibitions, art installations, museums, dj sets, and live music and dance performances scattered throughout the center of Florence.

Events for kids start as early as 14.00 and street events commence towards 19.00, but the energy of the city escalates after midnight and continues into the early morning. A selection of museums and palazzi have extended hours, and many shops and restaurants stay open until nearly dawn. Basically it is a giant street party, with a relaxed, care free vibe.

Here are some images from the last couple of years:

The Ponte (bridge) Amerigo Vespucci is a contemporary bridge over the Arno River named after the famous Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The Vespucci family was active in this area of Florence, and Vespucci is buried in the nearby church of Ognissanti (All Saints).

The Medici ruled Florence and most of the surrounding territory almost continuously from the early 15th century to the early 18th century. A large part of their legacy is the constellation of villas they left: a network of rural buildings, farms, hunting lodges, and villas used as country palaces by the Medici for vacations, hunts, parties, and family celebrations.

Click on the pins in the map for more information about the many villas of the Medici that surround Florence:

Updated on September 12, 2012: The Department of Tourism in Florence has a new bus and road map out to help people get in and out of Florence and the surrounding areas. Of course you have to get one at the tourist office, which sort of makes it a Catch-22 situation. Anyway - it has a ton of good info on it, like this little map below showing the locations of the bus stations near the train station:

The map below is now out of date (corrections are in RED) - the Lazzi station is gone (it is now a Burger King), and is combined with the CAP depot. The ATAF Info both is also gone, and is now located at the southwest corner of the the train station. See the Google map below this one for more details.

And here are some important links for rail and bus transportation into and out of Florence and the surrounding area:

Trenitalia: http://www.trenitalia.com

ATAF: http://www.ataf.net

SITA: http://www.fsbusitalia.it (Arezzo, San Gimignano, Siena, Volterra, The Mall)

CAP: http://www.capautolinee.it (Prato, I Gigli)

Lazzi: http://www.lazzi.it (Arezzo, Lucca, Montecatini Terme, Prato, Viareggio)

Piubus: http://www.piubus.it

Autolinee Toscane: http://www.autolineetoscane.it

Here is a map from Google showing roughly the same area:

Perhaps the best gelato in Florence is right on our street (we have sinced moved!) - Gelateria dei Neri. They have some amazing flavors, and in the cold months the most beautiful semi-freddo. This place is on everyone's list as the place Florentines go for gelato - it may not have the name and the tour book recommendations of Vivoli, but the gelato is better and the staff is always friendly. For the winter months they have a half price special on gelato to go - it is almost too good to be true! On via dei Neri - near the Via de Benci end of the street.

Florence's "second" market (after the famous Mercato Centrale), the Mercato Alimentare Sant'Ambrogio offers fresh food and other goods, from around 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM every day except Sunday. Saturday mornings especially are very busy - and some vendors only come on Fridays and Saturdays. In recent years there was some experimentation of longer afternoon hours (to give people who work a chance to make it to the market) one or two days a week but I am not sure if that is still the case.

Outside on the long west side of the market you will find mostly fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as some cheeses and cold cuts, olives, bread, eggs, soaps, honey and more. On the smaller north and south ends there are clothes, shoes, and various household items (the east side is a small parking area and is used for deliveries and trash removal). Inside are meat, cheese and fish vendors, along with some general grocery, a bar and a trattotria, "De Rocco", which is a great place for an inexpensive lunch. The Macellerie (butchers) here are usually of very good quality, among them you can find specialties like horse steaks and small birds that you may not find in other spots in Florence. The lone fish vendor has a lot of frozen products - if fish is very important on your shopping list you will find more selection at the Mercato Centrale.

Overall this is our favorite food market - the experience is authentic (as it can be in a tourist town like Florence), the service is friendly, and there are (usually) more Florentines than tourists - not to mention all the great food, and some really good prices, especially on produce.

Piazza Ghiberti, near Piazza/Chiesa Sant'Ambrogio

Piazza della Repubblica is one of the largest and most famous city squares in Florence. It is the original site of the Roman Forum (from which columns are believed to be used in the interior of San Miniato). The remains of the ancient Campidoglio are buried beneath what once was the Teatro Gamberinus (now the location of the Hard Rock Café!), just off the northwest corner of the piazza on Via Dè Brunelleschi.

Centuries later the piazza served as the Mercato Vecchio, or "Old Market", until around 1888 when most of the existing buildings were demolished: the Jewish ghetto was razed, market booths were demolished, and the Loggia del Pesce that stood there was taken apart and reassembled in Piazza Ciompi. This was all during this period of the city's "improvements" - public works that were initiated while Florence served (before Rome) as the first capital of a reunited Italy.

One relatively ancient touch left is the column in the east center of the piazza (the column is ancient and thought to be Roman in origin, the statue is not). Known as the "Colonna della Dovizia", it is topped by a sculpture known as "a colossal personification of Abundance"¹, "its imagery depended on the symbol for the Roman state charity, the "Alimenta"². This is believed to be a copy (of a copy) by Giovan Battista Foggini of Donatello's version of "Dovizia" - "Abbondanza" or "Abundance" - (the original now lost and/or ruined by exposure). Considered to be the centre of the city, this column was erected at the crossing of the cardo and decumanus of the ancient Roman city at the time called Florentia.

Other than the column, however, almost no trace of Roman Florence, the Jewish Ghetto, or even medieval or Renaissance Florence remain in this location. The "new" piazza is controversial to many historians and scholars to this day, and some see it as the low point of Florence's architectural history. One often heard complaint is of the inscription above the arch known as the "Arcone". It reads:

Or roughly: "The ancient center of the city, from age-old squalor, restored to new life".

Unfortunately this gratuitous and pompous display is probably one of the most notorious spots for tourists to pose in front of for photos - even though it is perhaps the least historically significant piece of architecture in all of Florence.