Florence: Italy’s Renaissance City

Almost no city on earth packs so much priceless art and architecture into such a small space as Florence, Italy. This compactness is convenient—nearly every major tourist sight is within an area of only a few hundred square yards. But it’s a double-edged sword, for the art that attracts tourists brings them in droves that fill the central streets almost to the breaking point. The sheer crush of people, the interminable waiting lines and jostling for a good position to see the great works of art sometimes make the tourist wonder if the trip is worth it.

The answer is to avoid the summer, when crowds are heaviest, and school spring breaks, when Florence is the target of what seems like every traveling high school and college student on the continent. Try fall, when summer’s heat and crowds have abated and Florentines can enjoy their city themselves and take time to welcome you properly.

Avoid waiting lines at the most popular places by arriving early in the morning, just before the doors open, when you’re likely to walk right in. This is especially true at the Galleria dell’Accademia, home of the famous Michelangelo statue of David, which opens while most tourists are still eating breakfast. Another slow time is at noon, when the tour groups have lunch. If you plan to tour the Uffizi, book your time before you leave home.

Florence for Families

Churches and museums filled with Renaissance art—what Florence has in spades—don’t excite most kids, and the city is a difficult one to make appealing, especially when seeing major attractions involves waiting in line. But it’s possible to bring the city to life for kids and see some of its great sights at the same time.

 

• A sculpture by Ghiberti, an early Renaissance artist from Florence.

Calista Chandler

Mix the art museums and churches with other experiences kids can relate to more readily—visiting craftsmen in their shops, poking about in markets, looking for some of the city’s oddities [read our Florence article, Secrets of the City] and exploring its parks [read our Explore Florence's Parks and Gardens article].

The San Spirito neighborhood is filled with artisan shops where children are welcome to watch leather workers tooling intricate designs and learn how gold leaf is applied in whisper-thin layers to woodcarvings. Another good area is across the Arno, but our children found several shops in other neighborhoods simply by keeping a sharp lookout as we walked.

Shops around Piazza Santa Croce are good places to look for moderately priced leather goods, especially at the Scuola del Cuoio (tel. +39-055-244-533), where they have wallets, handbags and backpacks at good prices. San Lorenzo Market is filled with stalls selling everything from crafts to silk scarves and cheap clothing. It’s also a good place to look for picnic foods, in order to avoid jam-packed restaurants and cafés near the tourist sights.

Although it has little to do with Florence and purists might dismiss it as out-of-sync with one’s sense of place, there’s no disputing the child-appeal of the Museo Archaeologico, with its Egyptian mummies and their tombs.

 

• This bronze boar sits calmly in Florence's Mercato Centrale, ensuring a return visit to the city to anyone who pets his snout.

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More pertinent to the locale is the Museo della Storia dalla Scienza, or the Museum of the History of Science. Currently under renovation, the museum remains partially open with its highlights displayed in temporary galleries. When the museum fully reopens (scheduled for fall 2009), so too will its excellent program of themed tours in English.

Piazza Dei Giudici 1, tel. +39 055 293 493, www.imss.firenze.it. Until Sept. 30, open Mon., Wed.-Fri. 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tues. and Sat. 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 1-May 31, open Mon. and Wed.-Sat. 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tues. 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Brunelleschi’s Dome

You’ll see the Duomo from almost anywhere in Florence, even as you approach the city by train or car. It towers above the Centro Storico, the historic center of the city. But the importance of this masterpiece of Renaissance architecture is even greater than its size.

For the best picture of Florence during the quarter century that the dome rose to its commanding height, take along Ross King’s Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture  (Walker Publishing, 2003) as airplane reading. Interestingly, Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose panels on the Baptistery doors are also considered the epitome of their art from the Renaissance period, were bitter rivals.