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The following is a list of outlet stores in or around Florence. As shopping in the city has gotten more and more expensive, and always less exciting, I’ve taken to frequenting these places for wardrobe updates. Addresses, reviews, and directions are provided below. Read more…
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There are two excellent English bookstores in Florence. Both are set up in pleasant spaces downtown, and offer seating and special events. They have english-speaking staff. These are:
The Paperback Exchange
www.papex.it
Via delle Oche 4R, right behind the duomo.
- just like the title says, you can sell your paperbacks to them for credit towards more books!
McRae Books
www.mcraebooks.com
Via dei Neri 32R, not far from the back of the Uffizi.
Italian stores carrying english books:
Feltrinelli International, a large Italian bookstore chain, has a pretty good selection of recent English paperbacks at their via Cavour location, right by the major bus stop near the Duomo.
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Suggested location for this reading: Piazza Signoria, in front of the building that is called both Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo della Signoria. Sections of this building are presently used for government, which was its original purpose as well. You can visit the more “historical” parts though.
This essay examines how monuments can reflect ideas and also a political situation.
Hear related podcast here.
Summary Timeline of dates and events
This timeline shows the struggle between REPUBLIC (the people) and ABSOLUTE RULE by the Medici family. Eventually, of course, the people lost.
Read more…
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Ospedale degli Innocenti
Brunelleschi’s building in Piazza S.S. Annunziata is easily recognized by its majestic portico, a series of round arches punctuated by roundels of swaddled babes by the Della Robbia family. Many visitors to and even residents of the city do not know much about its function, however. The building opened its doors as a foundling hospital, the ancestor of the modern day orphanage, in 1445. This was in response to the city’s problem of infant abandonment, which had recently come more to the patricians’ attention, not in the least because often, abandoned babies were products of the servant-master relations of these same patricians. Unwanted babies were often exposed to the elements or drowned. The city responded to this terrible fact mainly because of the concern for the unbaptised souls of the children. The Institution of the Innocenti sought mainly to remedy this problem. Read more…
