Rinascimento

The expression "a feast for the eyes" comes to mind when I first saw the old part of Florence from a distance. And as I walked closer, the feast is for all the senses, not just the eyes. This is "Il luogo di nascita del Rinascimento" - the birthplace of the Renaissance, and everywhere one turns, one sees art celebrated as an integral part of everyday life.

To their lasting credit, the enormously wealthy Florentine families of the fourteen, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries developed a patronage system of the arts to a level of creativity and productivity seldom seen elsewhere. It was under this system that Filippo Brunelleshi (1377-1466) left a legacy of architectural marvels, Michelangelo Buanarotti (1475-1564) worked as sculptor and painter and even as a design architect, Leornardo da Vinci (1452-1519) lived a life that exemplifies the term "Renaissance man," and Dante Alighieri (1265-1371) wrote "The Divine Comedy" in the Tuscan dialect.

And even though some of the great Florentine artists, poets, writers, and composers did not stay in the city during their most productive years, there was never any doubt where their artistic roots came from.

Today the old city is primarily a huge tourist attraction, and its business and economic life is based on the spending power of people from all over the world. My guidebook says that on a weekly average, 20,000 tourists arrive too see the sights. Based on what I saw today, that number may be quite conservative.

In many pictures that I took, I aimed the camera high or waited until huge crowds go by, many led by tour guides holding national flags or umbrellas up high to be easily spotted by the tour group members. Had I lowered my camera by 15 degrees, you would see big crowds the likes of which Disneyland on it's busiest days seldom experiences.

But it's all good and fine. Now over half a century old, Florence "belongs" to the world, and thus to me, a very appreciative and grateful spectator who just came upon this magnificent, spectacular, and stunning scene so embarrassingly late in life.

In case you wonder, the bottom picture shows a vegetable salad in olive oil with pasta. I was walking around old Florence when I saw it. Like everything else in the city, it makes a bold and self-confident artistic statement.

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Photo location: Florence, Italy