Wear your most comfortable shoes in Florence, Italy, and walk anywhere. (Ferragamos preferably when you stroll by the elegant store's home base and museum.) Florence is a small city and you can be anywhere in 30 minutes, yet it's so full of beauty and history that you can't do it all in one visit -- you must keep going back.
We found the Palazzo Magnani Feroni an exquisite hotel just south of the Arno River -- a renovated "palace" (large mansion) that has been in the Giannotti family for more than 250 years. The 12-suite hotel preserves in suites and public areas many antique objects, paintings and tapestries from the early 19th century family patriarch who was one of the most important antique dealers in Europe.
At the top of the hotel is a roof terrace that provides a 360-degree panorma of the city and nearby Tuscan hills. It's a perfect place to hear the bells that ring on the hour and view the church domes and bell and clock towers that form Firenze's distinctive architectural landscape.
Our concierge arranged for our first dinner down the street at Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (wild boar), a casual eatery known for its Tuscan game (I indulged in a wild boar and pasta dish, having had boar before). She also arranged for early morning tickets the next day to the Uffizi Gallery, which was wise given the late-summer throngs that over-crowd the plazas, cafes and sidewalks around town. Loaded with paintings across the span of Italian history, and known as the "Italian National Gallery," the museum orginally was made up of the Medici collections of the 15th-16th centuries. We spent an easy two hours rambling through the galleries and viewing Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Titian, Botticelli, Caravaggio and many many more, as well as classical sculpture dating back to the Roman period. Outside in the Piazza della Signoria, we viewed the "fake David," the full replica that has replaced the original "David" statue by Michaelangelo (the real David is now available for viewing in the Galleria dell'Accademia), and the statues in the 14th century Loggia dei Lanzi (including Cellini's bronze, Perseus holding the head of Medusa).
Powerful stuff!
I'm an architecture lover so the exteriors of Santa Croce, the octagonal Baptistery with its famous gilded sculpture doors and the overpowering Duomo cathedral suited me just fine over standing
in line for the famous interiors (that will be a plan for the next visit). We had a
charming dinner at the Golden View Open Bar with more Tuscan specalities (such as robust red Chiantis) and overlooking the Ponte Vecchio bridge, with its still-bustling shops lit up after dark.
As for Florentine leather, there are great deals everywhere, but beware of the knock-off imports posturing as Florentine products. I walked away from Nannini (several locations in town) with a half-price oversize rectangular pocket book in bright summer red and a fall preview satchel in the hot new ruby-rich deep burgundy for the 2009-2010 season.
