On the spur of the moment we headed out one strangely cool August day to take in some of what Mugello has to offer. I think this will be the first of many such trips as there is a lot to see. The following is an itinerary with an excellent local lunch spot, an outlet mall, a convent, and the Medici villa of Cafaggiolo.

Two old roads lead into this area and are fun to drive, with great scenery. We took the Faentina on the way out – you guessed it, this road goes all the way to Faenza via the mountain pass at Marradi. There is some good landscape to be photographed off to the side of the road.

The first goal of this trip, since we started out late, was to get to Trattoria da Giorgione for lunch, in Localita’ Sagginale, not far from Vicchio (sorry, hunger made me forget to photograph this event). This casual and inexpensive trattoria with outdoor seating is renowned for its Tortelli Muggellani – potato filled ravioli served with your choice of sauces, including duck which is apparently delicious. I had ravioli with ricotta and spinach. The service isn’t great, the clientele can be rowdy, but you can’t beat the down-home local cooking. Giorgione himself calculates your bill in lira – the prices haven’t changed – and converts it to euros. A hearty lunch for two cost 22 euros. He told us that he hated to see us spend so much, and said that he just opened a bar a few steps away where they serve primi with no cover charge. Good to know if the restaurant is ever full.

About 2-3 km before reaching Sagginale we followed a brown sign for a Pieve off the main road, called San Cresci in Valcava (?). This took us onto a very narrow, curvy and at times precipitous road (with some very pretty cows at the side). We followed this road blindly until we saw this nice Romanesque pieve looming above us. There was nobody around and there was a most absolute silence, broken only by the sound of a rooster (see video here of pieve). The door was slightly open so we wandered in. The building was almost destoyed by an earthquake in the 19-teens so is highly restored, and the inside contains no frescoes or old art. The belltower, however, remained standing.

From Sagginale take the road back towards Borgo san Lorenzo (a town with a not very exciting historical centre). Just after the town, we took the road to San Piero a Sieve in search of the Convent of Bosco ai Frati. At the first intersection take a right, and there is a small rusty sign pointing left that says “Bosco ai Frati”. This took us down a small residential street which ended at a larger highway at which point there was no indication. We discovered by trial and error that at this point we should have turned LEFT, then right at the first intersection off this larger road. I believe there was a brown sign there. If you get lost, ask the locals. At the corner I photographed the field of grain and the sunflowers with purple wildflowers; further up I got the shot of the sunflowers against the rapidly clouding over sky. The road to this convent is well paved though wide enough only for one car – despite being actually two-way. After a few km’s it’s on the left.

This convent was founded by the Ubaldini family – rulers of Tuscany – some time before the year 1000. In the 15th century both church and convent were restored with funding from Cosimo de’ Medici, whose villa at Cafaggiolo is not too far away from here by modern roads. The convent belongs to the Observant Franciscans and is greatly valued by the citizens of the Mugello, but is otherwise isolated and unknown to most. In part this lack of tourism is because the convent does not have traditional opening hours. If you knock and the friar has time, he might be able to take you around. You can call to make an appointment in advance. We were lucky that the friar was willing to take time out from his work to show us the convent’s treasures and tell us stories. Notice that i refer to the friar in the singular – he presently makes up the entire community, though there may be plans to lend out the space to another group in the future. To have this friar show us his home was a marvellous treat, not only because we had no idea what great things this place had to offer.

The Convent has a rich artistic and architectural history, in great part due to the Medici patronage of the mid-15th century. The rennovation was carried out by their architect, Michelozzo. You might notice the not coincidental patronage of observant communities by Cosimo (this and San Marco) and the use of Michelozzo for their rennovations. The single-naved church has a circular choir, and houses a few quattrocento altarpieces. On the high altar there used to be a painting by Fra Angelico now in the Museum at San Marco. Above the choir was a wooden crucifix by Donatello, which was removed at some point, and rediscovered in storage. Now a wooden architectural element from the 18th century divides the nave from the choir; the latter is accessed through doors on either side. To one side is the sacristy with 15th and 17th century woodwork. A small museum with a good security system houses the crucifix which was found in storage, restored and attributed to Donatello. The wood carving is of the highest quality. Christ is depicted dying on the cross – not yet dead – and his head tilts down with a caring, almost paternal expression to the viewer below.

After this wonderful historical/spiritual experience, we felt it too crass to head straight for the outlet mall, so we stopped at the Medici Villa of Cafaggiolo on the way. This Medici villa, particularly favoured by Cosimo’s son Francesco, is on the road towards Barberino in Mugello, at a large curve. It is open to the public at a cost of 5 euros per ticket and is frankly not worth it. Now used mostly for wedding receptions, the spaces retain little of their original character. The building is best viewed from the outside; the inside might be of interest mainly to Medici family buffs. Interestingly, recent archaeologica research has pinpointed the exact location of the Cafaggiolo ceramics kiln in operation through part of the 16th century, but there is nothing left of it to visit today. Medici maiolica produced at Cafaggiolo is on display in some of the leading museums of the world, including the V+A in London.

Finally we finished our day at the Barberino outlet mall (august sales). The McArthur Glenn mall is set up like a renaissance town, with a mix of fake medieval and Renaissance type homes, set in the valley against the rolling hills of the area. It’s well arranged, with huge parking. Weekends here tend to get very full. This mall offers a mix of unattainably expensive brands like Gucci and lower end things like Benetton, Guess… as well as sports wear like Puma. There are also housewares stores including Frette and Lagostina. There is a pleasant bar at which to sit outside and have a snack or capuccino.

The return trip can be either by Autostrada or via the Bolognese. The highway often gets backed up between this exit and florence, and on weekends traffic from the outlet mall aggravates the situation. To return to florence via the smaller roads, follow the blue signs rather than the green autostrada signs. The only complext bit is leaving the mall. You are forced in one direction, and come to a large roundabout. Here it is NOT obvious how to get to florence. Take the roundabout almost the whole way around and you’ll find signs indicating “Passo della Futa” and Vaglia, which is the road you want. From here signs are to Vaglia and then to Florence. You will pass by the Medici villa Demidoff and park at Pratolino on the way home, which, if you’ve followed this whole itinerary, you’ll want to save for another moment.

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

(the Media player’s not working right now so here is the mp3 file to download piazza duomo podcast)

Piazza Duomo in Florence

Here is the text of the podcast or you can Download the pdf text here.

This podcast takes place in Piazza del Duomo in Florence. You’ll learn things I bet you didn’t know about this piazza, as we take a look at it from a contemporary viewpoint and add a civic twist to what is an essential religious space.

Florence of the late middle ages and the Renaissance was a profoundly religious city. It was also in an economic boom – especially in the late 13th century when most of these buildings were begun. Religion and business are BOTH what made this city move, and they are not at all mutually exclusive.

This aspect of the city is visible in piazza del Duomo – more rightly called piazza di santa maria del fiore – the city’s religious heart. Besides the main religious structures of the cathedral and baptistry, as well as the belltower that helps complete this “cathedral complex”, are the bigallo and the misericordia, buildings with a civic context, as well as rather more lay imagery and participation than the modern viewer normally expects in a space like this. We’ll work through this space together in order to point out the civic aspects in this religious space. This means we won’t have time to discuss the decoration of the duomo and baptistry in detail.

This podcast can be listened to from any point in piazza duomo, though you may want to wander closer to each space as I discuss it, and stop the file if you want to look at something more closely. Use the diagram of the piazza above to orient yourself.

First off we need to remember that although Florence is famed for its Renaissance art, most of the important buildings went up starting in the 1290’s, a time still considered the Middle Ages. The predominant style at that time was Gothic. Italian Gothic architecture, of which the cathedral is in some ways an example, tends to have pointed arches, multi coloured marble (often white, pink and green) and rather fussy detail. Renaissance architecture on the other hand is known for its roundedarches and seemingly simple arrangement of forms, which (and this is essential) derive from Antique Roman examples.

Florence Baptistery

The oldest building in this piazza is the Baptistery. Its function is to baptize Christians, which is something that could just as well be done in a baptismal font inside the main church. Here it has been separated out from the cathedral to emphasize its importance. One reason for this is because Saint John the Baptist, whose church this is, is also the city’s patron saint. Baptism indicated acceptance into Christian society, but also into Florentine society – through this ritual, the Florentines kept track of the city’s birth rate. Already you’re starting to see how the civic and the religious get mixed together in this space. To add to this, I want to note that the Church did not pay for the building and decoration of the baptistry, but rather it was funded by the silk guild, or association of silk workers.

As for the building itself, Legend has it that it was an ancient temple dedicated to Mars. While this is not true, in the Renaissance they believed it to be so. Why is this important? Because the baptistry was actually built in the 11th century, in a style that recalls some Roman buildings. This style, called Romanesque, is not real Roman. Renaissance artists like Brunelleschi, famous for the cathedral’s dome amongst other things, were profoundly influenced by the architectural style of this baptistry. Brunelleschi was consciously imitating Roman art, and since he thought the Baptistry was Roman, he copied parts of it too.

The Duomo (Cathedral)

The next big thing they built here was the Cathedral itself. In Italian cathedral is “Duomo”, and this means Domus Dei, or seat of God. This is where the Bishop presides, and there can only be ONE cathedral or Duomo in any given city. It is the most important church in the city; the Bishop also lived nearby, in the bishop’s palace, which is on the other side of the piazza, behind the Baptistry.

The Duomo was begun in the 1290’s. It is so huge – almost as wide as an American football field – that nobody really expected to see it finished in his or her lifetime. It took about 150 years to build from the first stone to the top of the dome. And the façade remained unfinished for centuries! Although it may look gothic, it is actually NEOgothic, and it was done in 1887. To start a project like this shows tremendous faith both in the city and in God. Although it is clearly a religious space, the cathedral also becomes the symbol of the city.

Giotto’s bell-tower

The belltower, called campanile in Italian, was designed by the artist Giotto, better known for his paintings, in 1334. Its bell calls people to prayer. The sculptural decoration on the sides of this structure had two parts: one of standing prophets, and then a series of relief sculptures in hexagons. Most of what you see outside now is copies, the originals are in the Museum of the Duomo works which is behind the cathedral. The hexagons are what interest us right now, because aside from a few genesis scenes, these show various crafts or disciplines represented by someone doing a task. These include the architecte and the builder, for example. The hexagons demonstrate how important crafts were to the city’s economy. The Florentines saw nothing odd about putting this imagery on a building in the religious center of the city.

Bigallo and Misericordia

Now on to a few buildings you may not have noticed, since we’re often distracted by the big, flashy ones. I want to note two confraternity structures in this piazza. Confraternities are voluntary associations of lay – that’s non-religious – men, whoget together to do good works. You’ll want to go to the corner across from the belltower. The loggia of the Bigallo is an open space with two bays attached to a building from the 1350’s. The Bigallo was a confraternity who administered a hospital outside of town. One of their roles was to take in orphans. The open space (or “loggia”) of this building was used to display the orphans in the hopes that they would be recognized and taken in by family members.

Just across the way, you probably see a number of ambulances parked there. No, they are not there to rescue you as you die from exposure listening to a podcast about piazza duomo. That’s the home of the Misericordia, the city’s ambulance company. The Misericordia is one of the oldest confraternities of the city, started in 1244. Members are the ambulance drivers, staff and doctors who volunteer their time in this act of charity. Sometimes they can be seen wearing a white robe with a hood. Usually they keep the hood hanging down their backs, but when up, they look a lot like KKK members, with pointed tops and cut out eyes. The purpose of these outfits, worn not only by the Misericordia but also by other confraternities, was to anonymize the members, whose good deeds, it was believed, should be known only to God.

As such, we have seen that this piazza is the religious heart of the city of Florence – where people come to pray and to be baptized. But we also have seen that within this area there are non-religious structures, like these confraternities, and that non-religious entities are represented both financially and through imagery. Hence the piazza becomes not only a religious symbol, but representative of the entire city.

This series of free podcasts about the UFFIZI gallery in Florence was designed with young viewers in mind, but should be handy for adults too

You can read the text of this podcast by downloading the pdf file.

If you’re at home and want some visual aids while you listen, you can watch the powerpoint presentation video by clicking here.

If you didn’t already hear it, the second part of this podcast series is about the Giotto painting in room #2: click here

This series of free podcasts about the UFFIZI gallery in Florence was designed with young viewers in mind, but should be handy for adults too. This is the Second Part with a discussion of the first room you enter off the hallway. This room features a large enthroned Madonna by Giotto in the center, and similar shaped works by Duccio and Cimabue. The podcasts compares these works.

The second part is about the Giotto painting in room #2: click here

The third part is about the International Gothic room right next door: click here

This piazza is the political heart of Florence, and also an important location for public sculpture. With this podcast you’ll learn what the piazza looked like around 1290 and how it evolved right through the sixteenth century and beyond.