GO CITYBREAK: It may not be the most beautiful of cities, nor has it the most artists, but Florence is the place where lovers of art come to worship, writes
ARTHUR DEENY
WHEN IN Florence, live like a Florentine and take an apartment, for a weekend or a week. But beware. Others have come for a visit, and found themselves quite unable to leave. It might be the countless works of undying beauty on display, or maybe it’s the free food with cocktails, but there’s something irresistible about the old town that winds around Brunelleschi’s dome.
Florence is not the most beautiful of cities. Paris and Sydney are far more breathtaking. It does not contain the most artists. That dubious honour goes to Da Fen in Shenzhen, where beehives of Chinese artists squander their talents in copying the clichés of Western art. London is art’s marketplace and Rome its museum, but Florence can honestly claim to be its holy of holies, the sacred place where generations of tourists, both grand and common, have come to worship and pray for guidance.
For some people art is all that matters in life, and the details of ordinary existence, such as money, love and football, are peripheral distractions. For patrons such as Lorenzo de Medici, and indeed his successors in the banking establishment, the purpose of art is to show how much money you have. For the most of us, art is something we feel we should study, such as Irish or the stock exchange, to discover why it inspires such devotion in the few and such profligacy in the rich. The most obvious place to begin our studies is in the most artistic city in the world.
You can hire a car to get there, if you’re touring Tuscany for cuisine and culture, but you should know that they’ve installed speed cameras. You wouldn’t believe the km/h that the Carabinieri claim I was doing on the deceptively straight Via Senese into town. We also had to battle through miles of roadworks to reach the charming lanes of the old city and if we hadn’t had the satnav we’d be there still. Avoid all that and take a fast coach from Pisa airport.
When you arrive, you’ll find a jolly little trattoria across the piazza from the bus station, where little birds flit through the foliage above the outdoor tables and the old waiter will do his best to convince you he’s hilarious, while you smile tolerantly over a cool prosecco.
We stayed in an apartment on Via della Rosa. It was a room without a view of anything but the narrow street. But it was delightfully convenient, half way between Brunelleschi's Dome and the church where Michelangelo and Machiavelli are buried. You'll know the Dome. It stands, pert and pink above the skyline in every establishing shot of Florence you've ever seen in the movies, from Room with a Viewto Hannibal.
You can climb it if you're feeling fit. The queues aren't too bad, and the view is definitely worth it. Not so much the view across the Arno to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens, as the view inside. The interior of the vast dome is covered in a lurid vision of the Last Judgment, painted in fresco by Giorgio Vasari, with help from Zucari. It was Vasari's Lives of the Artiststhat gave birth to the whole cult of the artist as solitary creative genius, which underpins the entire modern art market.
So you cling to the railing of a narrow balcony, thronged by chattering students of all nationalities, between Vasari’s hell above and the heavenly vision of the cathedral altar far below. The effect is delightfully disconcerting.
Don’t hang about on the Piazza del Duomo afterwards, unless your wallet has a death wish. I paid €8 for a beer at an outdoor table. It was una birra grande, I must admit, and it gleamed like a tankard of liquid gold in the afternoon sun. I couldn’t recommend the purchase but it went down cool and smooth, just the same.
MILAN MAY BE the official fashion capital of Italy, but Florence is the headquarters of many of the most celebrated brands. Ferragamo and Gucci call it home. Prada, Cavalli and Chanel maintain large establishments there. If you do hire a car, use it to avoid the scary boutiques on Via de’ Tornabuoni and drive 30km south to The Mall. There’s a coach service as well, if you haven’t got a car. It’s seriously worth the trip. I bought a lot of shoes in Italy. The best were from The Mall. They look amazing and none of them cost more than €30.
The one thing you must not miss is a visit to the Uffizi. You’ll see dire warnings on its website, against the folly of not booking in advance. Don’t mind them. In the Palazzo Vecchio, across the street from the sweating queues outside the Uffizi Gallery, is the office where you can buy tickets for tomorrow. No queues. No worries. Turn up the next day and breeze in. Okay, breeze is an exaggeration. The climb up the broad stone stairs, under the grumpy sneers of Lorenzo de Medici’s very ugly relations, is a bit draining but, by the time you’ve seen Botticelli’s Venus and da Vinci’s Angel of the Annunciation, your spirits will be totally restored.
The punchline is the head of Medusa, painted on the shield of Athena by Caravaggio. It will knock your socks off.
ART IS STILL very much alive in Florence where students come from all over the world to study in places such as the Florence Academy of Art. Turn right at a cafe, where the cops at the counter are drinking espresso with their pinkies out, then left in the lane where a guy is pretending to fix a bicycle and you come upon the studio of Paddy Campbell.
After a career in business, Paddy came to Florence to paint, stayed to sculpt and now lives the life of a true Renaissance man. In Dublin, Paddy is still involved in keeping Bewleys alive, while in Florence he creates eerily life-like, voyeuristic scenarios of dames déshabilléesin wax, and bold, striking sculptures in bronze. You don't meet a lot of people like Paddy, but you'll meet more of them in Florence than anywhere else.
When it's time for dinner you don't have to settle for pizza. Winter by the Arno can be cool and damp, and the Florentines have been prosperous for centuries. They know a good piece of beef when they get one and they get it, more than you'd think. Bistecca alla Fiorentinais a rare treat, though never a bargain. Fill up on the carafes of house wine to help balance your budget.
Best value of all is to be found, bizarrely, in smart cocktail bars such as the Negroni. The bar was named after the cocktail, which is a major hit of vermouth, Campari and gin, with lots of ice. Max the barman makes a demon Negroni, which costs less than it would in Dublin, and also entitles you to graze for free on the tasty titbits set out on the counter opposite the bar. You can have a perfectly good meal for nothing while discovering the full range of Max’s skills.
They’ve had centuries to perfect the art of living in Florence, and they’ve seen it all. An authoritarian Church, fabulously wealthy bankers who cost them their sovereignty, the original Bonfire of the Vanities, war and pestilence. Through it all the art has survived. Florence has been occupied by the Austrians, the French and the Nazis, yet now it’s so Italian that no one dares sit on a scooter unless they’re impeccably dressed.
There’s more to Florence than meets the eye, but everything that does meet your eye will meet your approval. Go now, for art’s sake.
Florence where to...
3 places to stay
Value: Academy Hostel, 9 Via Ricasoli, 00-39-055-239-8665, academyhostel.eu. Because of all the visiting students, there are plenty of cheap hostels in Florence. This one is clean, safe and great value, especially if
you share a dorm, and it has some private double rooms for €42pps, with breakfast. Dead central. Michelangelo’s David is in the Galleria dell’ Accademia, literally just down the street.
Mid-market: Rosa Apartment, Via della Rosa, 00-39-333-850-6991, rosaflorenceflat@gmail.com. A charming flat with a fancy double bedroom, pull-out sofabed, spotless kitchen and loose covers on the dining chairs, like you’re at a wedding! There’s a crazy bar round the corner where the music is loud but the cocktails are cheap, and the Duomo is just two streets away. From €440 per week.
Upmarket: Hotel Helvetia Bristol, 2 Via de’ Pescioni, 00-39-055-26651. This has been an elegant retreat within sight of the Duomo since the 19th century for the Danish
royal family, writers and thinkers, from D’Annunzio to Bertrand Russell. Serious old world charm comes with serious bills. Double rooms from €540 per night.
3 places to eat
Value: Note di Vino, 4/6r Borgo dei Greci, 00-39-055-218-750. Cute little bar in a hole in the wall, just round the corner from Piazza Santa Croce, where they let the convicts out once a year to play a furious form of football call Calcio Storico.Have a little antipasto with a lot of Chianti on tiny tables for a suitably tiny bill.
Mid-market: Negroni Cocktail Bar, 17r Via de’ Renai, 00-39-055-243-647. Set back from the river on the far side of the Arno, over the Ponte Vecchio. Buy cocktails for less than a tenner and eat for free in the early evening. Stick around till late to see the beautiful people at play, if you’re feeling particularly well dressed.
Upmarket: La Giostra, 12 Borgo Pinti, 00-39-055-241341. A classic, friendly, family-run Italian restaurant in a basement with oak barrels and good times. The gimmick is that the family are the princes of Hapsburg Lorena, but you wouldn't know it. Relax, but remember it takes two to consume its fabulous Bistecca alla Fiorentina. Have an unforgettable night for under €50 a head.
Shop spot
You can have a lot of fun in the old shops on the Ponte Vecchio and at the stalls along the river, picking up knicknacks and whatnots. But for serious shopping it has to be The Mall,
8 Via Europa, 00-39-055-8657-775. You simply ring them up and they will send their bus to your hotel. Half an hour later you’re in half-price heaven. Seriously cool brands, with real bargains to be had. Be sure to check in a bag when you’re flying out. You’ll want to fill it.
Night spot
The Italians don’t drink as much as we do, but they love to dance and you can have a lot of fun at the multi-level Space Electronic Disco, 37 Via Palazzuolo, 00-39-055-293082. It even has a karaoke bar, if you get yourself into the kind of state where you’re convinced you’re Liam Gallagher. Wear your best jeans.
Get there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com)flies to Rome and Milan.
Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies to Rome and Pisa.