We had a fun "Top 10" for Venice, let's start one for Florence. Dean, Judy, Maureen, Colleen, all you other Firenze fans-- get to work!

Amy in MA
"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Here are mine, in no particular order and biased towards Firenze's artistic presence:

San Miniato, from without and within.
Fra Angelico's "Deposition" at San Marco.
Andrea del Castagno's "Last Supper".
Brancacci Chapel.
Michelangelo's personification of Time at San Lorenzo.
Bargello.
Many masterpieces at Uffizi prior to 1500.
Vision of David through phalanx of Slaves.
Climb to the top of the Duomo.
Gozzoli's "Procession of the Magi'.

We lived there once, for two weeks. (Excuse my spelling -- I'm not looking anythig up.)
1. The David. It's prosaic to love it, and I am not an art-freak, but it will drop your jaw.
2. The Santa Croce church. It's got a great vibe, and you can commune with the spirits of the most illustrious dead people ever assembled under one roof.
3. The food -- if you know where to eat.
4. Yeah, yeah, people say some places are better, but Vivoli deserves its reputation for premier gelato. I still think about it.
5. The Botticellis at the Uffizi. There is a mind-numbing amount of medieval paintings downstairs that we heathens kind of breeze through, but once you get upstairs to that room...!
6. The Della Robia porcelain figures scattered all over town. There is such a charm to them, and they're so unique.
7. The Medici chapel. Worth the small admission. The line goes fast.
8. The shopping, off season. Wander the back alleys. The fabrics make me crazy.
9. Sitting in the Piazza Signorina (oh, why not, at Rivoire), having a dessert and coffee, and watching the world go by.
10. Staying in an apartment with a view of the Piazza Santa Croce, sitting in an armchair overlooking the square, and marveling at your good fortune.

Being a contrarian, I thought I'd do a top five that you SHOULDN'T do:

1. Go to Florence at all during the summer. The heat and crowds could spoil the experience. Try Christmas, or Spring Break, or late fall. I mean, MUSEUM RESERVATIONS?! What has the world come to?

2. Drive into Florence. Renting a car and driving outof Florence is not so bad.

3. Wander in anywhere to eat. Do research. It's a tourist city. You can get bad food.

4. Overpay for a bad hotel. Search these threads. There are good values, if you don't go to the usual suspects.

5. Not use the Florence airport. It's great!

R.G.

Ah..Firenze!
Florence is my favorite "big" city of Italy. So here is my list. It is not in priority order because that would be impossible for me.

1- The Iris Competition at Piazzale Michelangelo in May.
2- That tomato aspic type dish at Cibreo (the trattoria, not the ristorante) [Which reminds me, Nancy, what ever happened to you bringing that recipe home with you?]
3- Ducking into Trattoria Marione on a cold winter day for house rosso and ribollita. (the best in Florence)
4- The tombs in Santa Croce
5- And speak of Galileo - The Museo di Storia della Scienza
6- The Galleria del Costume in the Palazzo Pitti
7- The Bargello
8- San Lorenzo (brown paper wrapping outside, breath-taking inside)
9- Mercato Centrale (early in the morning)
10- And, to agree with R.G., the Botticelli room at the Uffizi.

MUST I stop? This doesn't even scratch the surface!

Deborah Horn

In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I'd like to do a past life regression and stay there.
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Marketing Solutions for Health Care

Ok, let's try this. I'm sure my list will be different after a few visits, but here's what it looks like after my first stay:

10-The Accademia. For David, of course, but also to see people's reactions when they first see him!
9-Gelato and/or cappuccino. Anywhere!
8-The Uffizi. At least once.
7-The Bargello.
6-Dinner at Alfredo's, gelato at Vivoli's.
5-People watching at the Duomo in the afternoon.
4-Mercatto Centrale, in the morning.
3-People watching at Ponte Vecchio.
2-Coconut or amaretto gelato from Perseo's.
1-People watching, sitting on the steps at the Loggia (Piazza della Signoria), with gelato, of course!

Yes, gelato is an important part of every day for me, in Italy!

Christian

Hmmm... I'm working on my list, but having a difficult time limiting myself to only 10! (But I know "the view from Piazzale Michelangelo" will be in there somewhere! )

I'll post whatever I come up with next week - this morning I'm off to L.A. to see the Sargent and Italy exhibit!
Cheers - Colleen

I am going to cheat. I am going to do a top 10 sights and a top 10 shopping eating list....

Sights:

1. View from the top of the Duomo and the ability to see in the structure as you climb.

2. Brancacci Chapel and the Masasccio, Masolino and Lippi freschi

3. Gallileo's tomb at Santa Croce as well as all the other tombs. There is one in a side chapel off the left transipt that is an old woman under a coverlet that looks so real you just want to straighten it out and touch it.

4. The Perugino fresco at Santa Maria Maddalena degli Pazzi.

5. The New Sacristy at San Lorenzo.

6. The mosaic dome at the Baptistery.

7. The Galleria Palantina at the Pitti Palace.

8. Walking the city late at night (after midnight) with a tripod and camera and being able to take wonderful pictures of all the buildings lit up and free from the tourist throngs.

9. The view from Piazzalle Michaelangelo

10. The Ufizzi and the Accademia (for the prigioni as much as for the david) WITH reservations.

Places to shop and eat:

1. Mercado Centrale- I grew up going to the old Farmer's Market in LA and walking thru the Mercato Centrale made me feel like that little kid amazed at all the food around him.

2. Tripe from one of the tripe carts. I have mine ripieno (take out the crumb of the bread so you get more tripe), con salsa verde and sensa sale (with green sauce and without salt).

3. Trattoria Cibreo around back. Same food, a fraction of the price, sit at communal tables. No reservations so you wait in line.

4. Hot tea at Caffe Cibreo across the street from the Ristorante, served in antique asian cast iron pots.

5. Shopping for men't clothes at Zegna on strada dei Vigne Nuove. Incredible clothes, service and prices.

6. SHopping for clothes for Kay at Max Mara. Sure the same stuff is available in NYC but here its at a fraction of the price.

7. Wandering the little shops across from the Pitti. Scagliola, Pietre Dure and great linnens are all to be found.

8. Ristorante Ricchi for seafood dinner. WOnderful food, incredible pricing. One of the best seafood dinners I have ever had for anly about 120 euro with great wine. Located in Piazza Santo Spirito.

9. Cavalo Nero also in the Oltr'Arno. Via Ardiglione. Superb seafood and meats that are true to Tuscan roots but done with a modern touch. Incredibel baked whole fish with potatoes (Branzino I think). Nice wines, great service.

10. Hot chocolate at Rivoire (or cappucino there as well). They ahve a way with anything with steamed milk.

Meet my lawyer-- Gianni Schicchi!

thank you thank you thank you

I have only two days (and nights) in Florence, and I need all the help I can get

A good question Amy!

Here are some of my favorite things, in no particular order:

Christmas- panettone, pandoro, shopping, music recitals, visiting and being visited.

The onion soup at Il Cinghiale Bianco on a cold day.

The outdoor markets- the Cascine on Tuesdays, S. Lorenzo any day, Fierucola at P.zza S. Spirito.

S. Miniato and it's adjacent cemetery. The church is lovely, the views of Florence breathtaking, and the cemetery is full of interesting people.

Bar Francesconi, on the corner of via Pisana and via del Ponte Sospeso, and the 3 Francesconi brothers: Aldo, Antonio and Francesco.

My nieces Beatrice and Eugenia. Anything I do is more fun with them- rollerbalding along the Arno, climbing to the top of the Duomo, visiting the Uffizi, etc.

Watching movies outdoors in the summer.

Outdoor concerts in the summer.

Driving up to Fiesole on a hot summer night; ecscaping the heat of the city and having a cold drink while sitting outside and watching the lights of Florence below.

Balconies with flower boxes, even in December.

Maureen

I first went to Florence as a college student at age 20 and have never lost my love for the city. It is hard to limit myself to my 10 favorites but...
I'll give it a try.

1) Santa Croce and the Pazzi chapel

2) Brancacci Chapel

3) Bargello

4) Masaccio's Holy Trinity in Santa Maria Novella (It is a shame that the Piazza around the church is so shabby today)

5) Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors--the Porta del Paradiso
)If only we could find a way to get rid of the throngs of ever-present tourists that block the view of the lower panels!)

6) Mercato Centrale

7) Climbing to the top of the Duomo and looking out around Florence; and seeing the extra tiles left to fade in the sun so that they match the tiles on the Duomo when replaced. The Duomo and its construction are amazing!

8) Donatello's hauntingly beautiful and grostesque sculpture of Mary Magdalene in the Museo dell'Opera dell Duomo

9) Michelangelo's work in San Lorenzo--both the new sacristy and the Biblioteca Laurenziana

10) Wandering the Boboli Gardens on a beautiful fall day, looking down onto the Pitti Palace, finding all the baroque grottos and fountains.

I think eveyone's top ten are great... it is hard to decide. but one of my favorite things in any of my favorite cities... is walking around at night.
No crowds, the buildings lit up, really show themselves off at their best. Even shabby piazza's look better.

For me it is a great way to get orientated, especially in a great walking town like Florence.

Window shopping is also better as the stores glisten.
I still often get overwhelmed with the crowds.

Cooking in Florence
www.divinacucina.com

Being a fool for art, history, and architecture, ditto most of the above. Here's my very personal Top 10:

1. Buying a whole roasted chicken, eating it out of a paper sack in the Santo Spirito Piazza, and sharing it with the local canines and felines. Best lunch ever.
2. Wandering late at night and hearing a few members of a choral group break into song on the Ponte Vecchio - amazing acoustics.
3. Happening onto a monthly flea market and having to buy a new suitcase to transport the treasures home.
4. The tombs of Santa Croce - so many great minds in one magnificent place.
5. Watching the Spring sun set over Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo and hearing my husband say, "Let's come back in the Fall."
6. Being pulled into the middle of a street performer's show and not really minding....well, maybe a little when he put that hat on my head.
7. Realizing for the first time how picturesque hanging laundry could be.
8. The view from the terrace of the room where "Room With a View" was filmed, and 2 days later in Sorrento reading in the paper that the hotel was destroyed along with part of the Uffizi from a bombing.
9. Seeing David for the umpteenth time and fighting back the tears - as I'm doing now just thinking about it.
10. The towering domes, the tolling bells, the swooping swallows - knowing it's been the same sounds, the same views, for centuries.
11. Sitting in the sun in a tiny cafe on the Arno and seeing my husband of 36 years walking towards me in the crowd....

That's my Florence.

I know this isn't exactly a "Florence Top Ten" because it's about life just over the tracks and a smidge away from centro, and has nothing really to do with seeing the sights, but...

1. The view from my apartment of the little Arno tributary with a grand waterfall that I can walk to, sit and feel the spray.
2. Walking out my door and knowing that Boccaccio lived and wrote just a couple doors down from me.
3. The cacophony and "trafficated" scene in my piazza every morning, where stand after stand of beautiful vegetables, fruits, meats and fish await me -- I like this market better than the Mercato Centrale and the quality is just as good.
4. My meat store guy who asks me "ho fatto bravo?" every time he slices the perfect-sized piece of meat. His intensely amazing good looks, quintissentially stereotypically Italian male, don't hurt either.
5. My fresh pasta shop guys whose aromas set me to salivating every time I walk by, which is every day since it's a couple doors down.
6. My wine store old man who every time brings down from the shelves at least 10 bottles and lines them up when I say I'm looking to buy one. (it kinda looks like a wine glass!)
7. The quiet and calming scene every night in my neighborhood with the lights of Fiesole's hill in the distance, the sound of the river tributary, lovers quietly walking along the river in front of old people doing the same -- except when Viola plays and I hear the cheers being carried on the wind.
8. Knowing that when my housemate calls me when one of us is out and says "want to meet me for a gelato?" that in five minutes we'll be eating the best gelato in all of Florence from a shop that's been there for 70-odd years, and we'll look at each other and say "we live in Florence".
9. Stopping in to my favorite neighborhood bar and not having to tell them what I want.
10. Looking in the door of my neighborhood phone shop and receiving a few winks from the owner as we pass by.
11. The view of Fiesole from my front window.
12. The sadness in my heart knowing I will be seeing Florence for the last time in a long time, from the window of an airplane tomorrow evening.
13. Knowing I'll be back.....

Oops -- that wasn't 10.....

Maria (who, being a dog person, is quite happy to see at least one or two dog graemlins!)
When you know even for a moment that it's your time, then you can walk with the power of a thousand generations

Where is the market, meat shop and fresh pasta shop?

Meet my lawyer-- Gianni Schicchi!

That was beautiful Maria. Wish you good luck in your new endeavor. Yes, you will be back to your dearest Florence. I know that!

"Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza..."

"I sing to life, to its beauty, to each of its wounds and each of its caresses..."

quote:

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Originally posted by dean:
Where is the market, meat shop and fresh pasta shop?

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Pza della Cure -- 10 minute walk (depending on how much espresso you've drunk!) from San Marco, another 10 minute walk from pza Liberta down via Minzoni, then cross the tracks. Or you can take the number 1 bus. Also Alfio's is here as well, a Florence "staple" known (to the Florentines) as being pretty much the best roasted chicken in town. Oh, and some of the scrumptious sciacciata made in-house by a young couple that owns their store.

One of the coolest things, that I was going to add to my number 13, was that when I do come back, I know that nothing will have changed...how amazing is that!

Maria
When you know even for a moment that it's your time, then you can walk with the power of a thousand generations

So I'm a little late - here's my Top 10!
It's probably time to get some of the new posters' perspectives, anyway...
In no particular order:

• The Uffizi - everything in it! (Don't miss the recently restored Caravaggio Medusa - scary!)
  
• The Church of Santa Croce - where the geniuses Michelangelo and Galileo are entombed
• Climbing to the top of the Duomo - more meaningful if you've read Ross King's "Brunelleschi's Dome" first
• The walk from Oltrarno to the charming San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo - through one of the remaining city gates
• The Museo dell' Opera del Duomo - masterpieces galore; displayed beautifully
• The view of the Ponte Vecchio from Piazzale Uffizi
• Perusing the watercolor paintings of the street artists - they make wonderful souvenirs!
• Florence at night - for all the reason's Diva noted
• The Masaccio frescoes at Brancacci Chapel - Sublime
• Trattoria Cibreo!

One more? Caffe con panna and people watching at Rivoire!

-Read Galileo's Daughter, then walk up the hill to his house and the little church he attended,(preferably after lunch at Volpi e l’Uva (Piazza dei Rossi at the foot of the hill) then to to the Museo di Storia della Scienza
-Our favorite market is the smaller San Ambrogio. Besides having great food stalls, it has a nice restaurant for lunch with communal tables so you can get lucky and strike up a conversation.
-Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors. Get up really early one morning and go there. Watch the city come alive and the colors of the Duomo change as the sun grows higher in the sky.
Brancacci Chapel
-Santa Croce for the tombs, sitting on the steps and watching the world go by, the leather shops
-Ristorante Ricchi for seafood dinner
-Staying and walking in the Oltrarno
-Gelato anywhere

And I forgot one thing:
-The Synagogue. It is a beautiful building and they give tours on Sunday unless it is a Jewish holidy.

Here are a couple of things that would be in my top ten, which I havn't seen in any of the others.

1. Fratello Angelico's staggeringly beautiful fresco of the Annunciation at the San Marco museum. Gazing on this masterpiece is a truly spiritual experience.

2. Cioccolata (hot chocolate) at Gilli's in Piazza della Repubblica. You're bound to visit this Piazza, so don't miss the best drinking chocolate on the planet.

Ciao!

Ricardo

quote:

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1. Fratello Angelico's staggeringly beautiful fresco of the Annunciation at the San Marco museum. Gazing on this masterpiece is a truly spiritual experience.

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Ricardo, You're absolutely right! Seeing this piece definitely evokes a moment of peace and grace.

At the other end of the spectrum (and not a top 10, but neverless ...) seeing the small painting of Savonarola and his cell in San Marco gave me the shivers!

Am I odd? I love Florence in the heat.
I think the view down from Fiesole is even more sublime when it's seen through the heat haze and the Duomo shimmers.
Then I love going to Settignano to the gardens of Villa Gamberaia-Zalum, to the church for the Della Robbias and to get the best ice cream from the shop next door to the Ambulance Station.
Please tell me more about the Irisies in the Piazzale Michelangelo in May.
Wendy

I think Settignano is the town that Nancy really likes. I was thinking there was a Pontormo painting in the local church, but it must be something else that she loves .... Settignano website HERE