Florence is a city in central Italy, the capital of Tuscany, with a population of about 400,000 people. The city has an excellent geographical location, and is built near the Arno River, with convenient land and water transportation. 43 degrees 46 minutes north latitude 11 degrees 15 minutes east longitude is located in the northern Apennines.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the dawn of the Renaissance first appeared here. From Giotto, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and so on; in 300 years, countless literary and artistic giants were born here. It was here that the buds of capitalism first shone. The city is still ancient, the whole city is filled with the flavor of the Renaissance, and has the reputation of "the new Athens in Europe".
I am afraid that the earliest people in China knew about this art capital was because of Xu Zhimo, who called it Fei Leng Cui, which is a bit feminine.
Xu Zhimo's "A Night in Fei Leng Cui" is chilling, as if with a burst of coolness, gently read out, like a piece of ice in the mouth. In fact, this old city of alleys and lanes is shrouded in the warm colors of a floating, red roofs, old and yellow walls, Dante, Raphael, Galileo, dragging long and thin shadows walking in the alleys of time.
The Uffizi Museum of Fine Arts is always lined up in front of a long line, in which they were electrified by the works of Botticelli, Raphael, Titian and others, and then hastily gathered their thoughts and turned the corner to go to the Academy Museum of Fine Arts to visit
Michelangelo's David. Along the way, vendors spread copies of masterpieces on the ground, and street performers dressed as sleeping angels waited for tourists' coins to wake them up. Every weekend night, there are open-air concerts in front of the Town Hall Square, where the clanging of classical guitars and flamenco-style exuberant dance moves stir up the night, and old ladies and young girls dance to the music. Not far away, *** and the square carousel neon flashes, young couples and children together here to fulfill a fairy tale dream.
Florence is in fact very small, to the Church of Our Lady of the White Flower as the center, a few alleys scattered to go, casually walking east and west, will be in a bridge and separated from the corner of the street and met again friends. Just like Dante, he met his dream girl Beatrice at the old bridge. That day was the most beautiful evening in Florence, and Beatrice, as immaculate as a saint, stood at the end of the Old Bridge, which became the most beautiful love memory of Dante's life.
Thousands of years later, at dusk, I came out of Dante's house and walked towards the Old Bridge. The evening sunlight through the clouds, a few strands of gold sprinkled on the Arno River, the old bridge deck is overflowing, the whole of Florence immersed in a painting-like background.
Main buildings and attractions:
1 Florence Cathedral (Duomo)
Also known as the "Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers", the world's fourth largest cathedral. Built in 1296-1436. The entire church is magnificently decorated. On the right side of the church, there is an 85-meter-high bell tower with Tuscan white, green and pink granite veneer. It belongs to the Florentine Gothic architectural style. Inside the building there are 370 steps, you can climb high overlooking the city. There is also an octagonal baptistery on the side of the church, with the famous "Gate of Heaven" carved on the bronze door. It is a 21-year masterpiece by Ghiberti, which divides the storyline of the Old Testament into ten images, from left to right, from top to bottom: Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden; Cain kills his brother Abel; Noah gets drunk and offers sacrifices; Abraham and Isaac offer sacrifices; Esau and Jacob are sold into slavery; Moses receives the Ten Commandments; and Moses receives the Ten Commandments. slavery; Moses receiving the Ten Commandments; the defeat of Jericho; the war of the Philistines; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the bas-reliefs are set in the frames of the bronze doors, and the present work on the doors is a reproduction of the originals, which are on display in the museum of the cathedral.
2 Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio)
This bridge is the oldest of the seven that cross the Arno. First built in the 10th century, it was rebuilt in the 14th century. The bridge is lined with stores, the most famous being the gold and jewelry stores. It is said that Dante met his lover Beatriz on this bridge. In the center of the bridge is a statue of Benuveto Cellini (1500-1571), a famous Florentine-born sculptor. He made a large number of gold and silver works for the French royal family and Italian nobility, and his sculptures are widely collected by museums all over the world.
3 Baptistery
Baptistery is a religious building built in the 4th-5th century in the north gate of Florence in ancient Rome. The building is octagonal, with a spaced annex, and is situated on a low pedestal. The present fa?ade dates from the 11th-13th centuries; the polished conical roof was built in 1128. Its exterior is decorated with green and white marble. Each side of the building has a three-three-three structure in the longitudinal and transversal directions, decorated with pilasters, architraves, and stone strips in intervals. A circle of windows was opened on the middle floor. The most striking features of this building are the three bronze doors and the mosaics on the inner dome.
The south door of St. John the Baptist is decorated with the Life of St. John the Baptist and Virtue on Earth by Ondrej Pisano; the north door is decorated with the Story of the New Testament, Evangelist, and Sacred Teachers of the Church by Kilberti; and the east door, known as the "Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven", is the most famous of the three bronze doors, and it is the most famous of all. The East Gate, known as the "Gate of Heaven", is the most famous of the three bronze gates, and is one of the most famous works of Berti. The work, which depicts the story of the Old Testament divided into ten scenes according to the plot and set in ten frames, was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and Art in 1425. It was called the "Gate of Heaven" by Michelangelo. The bronze door is surrounded by engravings of Biblical figures and artists of the time.
4 Piazza della Sera
The Piazza della Sera in Florence is considered one of the most beautiful squares in Italy because of the beautiful architecture that surrounds it. It was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was originally built on the foundations of the demolished houses of Uberti Flaberski and other imperialist families. It was later expanded to its present size. In the southeast corner of the square, the Old Palace, the traditional administrative center of the city, overlooks the square. On the left side of the Old Palace is the beautiful Luangchi Gallery in the late Gothic style. The Loggia was built in 1376-1382 by Benzi Giorgione and Simone Tolenti. An important group of sculptures is displayed inside. Among the more famous ones are the Parthius (1554) and the chapter Pollonia "Hercules and the Guan Centaur". On the right side of the building is Bartolomeo Bartolomeo. Bartolomeo Amanati and his assistants made the "Neptune Fountain" (1563-1575) pool in the center of the seahorse pulling the two-wheeled chariot stood on the huge white Neptune elephant, the Florentines called it "big white eagle" (a kind of bird of prey). Pool around the edge of the colorful bronze statues. On the north side of the fountain stands the statue of Cosimo I (1594), which was used in Bologna. The square is surrounded by simple historical buildings.
5 Palazzo Bartero (Old Palace)
Palazzo Bartero is a castle building. It has a dignified and austere appearance, with imposing towers with battlements. It was built in 1255 and was originally the residence of the leaders of the people. It was later occupied by the city administrator and the law council, and in 1574, Baltiello, the police chief, was in residence. The building's fa?ade is decorated with simple stone ribs, the windows and doors of the lower floor have a lintel, and the upper windows have single or double arched windows. The battlements protruding outwards are supported by neatly arranged brackets and arches at the base of the walls. The inner courtyard is surrounded on three sides by colonnades, architraves and pilasters. It follows a 14th-century building made by Neri D. Dinizi, who was the founder of the city. The courtyard of the inner courtyard is surrounded on three sides by colonnades and pilasters. The upper arcade can be reached by an open-air staircase built in the 14th century by Neri di Fioravante (Tonetti Giovanni 1319). The walls of the courtyard are decorated with dozens of coats of arms of successive magistrates and judges of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Court, and in 1859 it was transformed into the National Museum, one of the most important Botanical Museums in the world. The main collection of Renaissance sculpture and small works of art through the ages.
6 Giotto Clock Tower
Giotto Clock Tower is a masterpiece of Italian genius artist Giotto, the father of European painting. The bell tower is 84.7 meters high, also made of red, white and green marble, there are many exquisite and breathtaking sculptures, the whole shape of the slender and elegant, his tone and the opposite baptistery complement each other, is a harmonious and perfect unity.