Food
9 Best Restaurants near the Uffizi
I Due Fratellini. Via dei Cimatori, 38/r. Open Monday – Sunday from 9 AM until 8 PM. Hole-in-the wall sandwich shop.
Antica Porchetteria Granieri 1916. Porta Rossa, 27. Hole-in-the wall sandwich shop.
Sketching and Watercolor
Instruction in plein air perspective sketching
Instruction in plein air watercolor.
Between Florence and Rome
Chartered bus from Rome to Florence could stop at some or several of the following: Assisi, Perugia, Orvieto*, Viterbo, Montepulciano, Pienza*, Siena*, Lucca*, San Gemignano, Arezzo, and Cortona.
Day 1
PM: Introduction to Florence
Ancient Roman castrum with walls and gates, cardo and decumanus principal crossing streets, forum, and amphitheater.
Decumanus, east: fish market
crossing (gnomon and common) and ancient forum
Cardo north: Baptistery (ancient mausoleum and wall) and Cathedral and campanile. San Lorenzo beyond.
Decumanus west: gate and landsurvey geometry for inheritances
Cardo south:
Day 2
AM
New Sacristry, San Lorenzo. Michelangelo figural art and architecture. Medici as the cultural elite and style for the cognoscenti.
Alternate/Addition: Old Sacristy (Brunelleschi) and Laurentian Library (stair Michelangelo), San Lorenzo (Masaccio, Holy Trinity). San Lorenzo market. Nearby city market.
Alternate:
Accademia.
PM
Alternate/Addition: Giotto.
San Miniato al Monte and Vespers
Day 3
Alternate: Lucca*. Bikes can be rented for riding top of city wall. May be my favorite city in Italy.
Day 4
Alternate: Siena*. Lorenzetti murals in Palazzo Pubblico. Wednesday is market day.
Day 5
AM
Mendicant Order Churches: Sto Spirito, Santa Croce, etc. Brancacci Chapel (Masaccio), St Maria della Carmine.
Alternate/Addition: Alberti and Giovanni Rucellai at S.Maria Novella, parish church and Shrine of Holy Sepucher, Palazzo and Loggia Rucellai. The virtue of prudential judgement in the ornament and beauty of architecture.
Civic art: Orsanmichele (Donatello). Davids. Baptistry and Brunelleschi’s Invention of Perspectival Modeling. Guilds at the Civic Decoration of the Duomo, the Baptistery Doors (competition), and the Orsanmichele. Michelangelo’s David in this context.
Civic Architecture: Palazzo Vecchio (Michelangelo and Leonardo with Raphael watching) and Loggia. Uffizi. Uffizi elevated passage to villa over Ponte Vecchio.
PM
Uffizi
San Miniato al Monte and Vespers
Day 6 Sunday
St Mark’s English Church
PM
LUCCA
Trattoria da “Leo” Via Tegrimi 1.
Il Seminario B&B
VILLAS
FLORENCE
San Miniato al Monte vespers [very highly recommended]
museums
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Figure, Memorie, Spazio at the Uffizi
transport
SITA bus from Florence to Siena
lodging
Casa Santo Nome di Gèsu, Florence. [recommended]
The Apartments at St. Mark’s English Church
Hotel Santa Maria. Oltrarno.
Italyguide – Ostello 7 Santi – Firenze
Villa Rucellai di Canneto – a Prato, Italy Hotel – Karen Brown Travel
food
I Due Fratellini. Via dei Cimatori, 38/r. Open Monday – Sunday from 9 AM until 8 PM.
“Cheap and Traditional” The Florentine.
Osteria Santo Spirito. Piazza Santo Spirito 16r.
Trattoria Cibreo (tripadvisor). Via de’ Macci 122r, Florence. [Rodrigo Bollat]
Il Pizzauolo (tripadvisor). Via de’ Macci 113/r, Florence. [Rodrigo Bollat]
The Oil Shoppe. via S.Egidio 22/R, 50123 Florence. Sandwiches to order. M-F 10-6.
Vestri Cioccolateria. Borgo degli Albizi 11/R, Florence. Gelato.
Gelateria dei Neri. Via dei Neri 26, Florence. Gelato.
churches
Saint Mark’s English Church. Via Maggio, 16 (Oltrarno)
art studios
Charles H. Cecil Studios. Borgo San Frediano, 68.
Jason Arkles, Sculptor of Monuments in Marble and Bronze.
music