Florence-the flower of the Renaissance

Any traveler with an ounce of sensitivity in him will surely be familiar with the subtle twinge of sadness felt when leaving a place he has particularly enjoyed. There is never enough time to see and experience everything that a traveler would want to. He would need several lifetimes to do so, and all of us unfortunately have only one. The sense of loss is deepened by the realization that one may not be able to see it again, hobbled as we all are by the strictures of daily life. Obligations to family and work have a way of chaining us to a place while memories of past adventures and sensations once keenly felt inevitably fade. This is what we all felt when the time came to quit the bucolic pleasures of San Gemignano.

But any traveler will also be familiar with the sense of anticipation that creeps up on him when approaching his next destination. On this blazing day in June of 2001, we were setting out for Florence and anyone with any appreciation of Florence’s position in European history and civilization will feel his pulse quicken at the thought.

Florence lies at the geographical center of Italy and, for several centuries, was its banking and artistic center as well. It is really quite astonishing that a city of moneylenders and cloth-makers with not much political and military power was able to transform itself into what Bernard Berenson called "a diluvial influence upon the white man’s world and beyond it." For that, the city owes its towering personalities and artistic geniuses – people like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Galileo, Cimabue, Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Amerigo Vespucci (who gave his name to two continents), and of course the Medicis. They all shared a passion – a passion either for art, religion, power and, above all, the money that fueled them. It was after all in the pursuit of the latter that the Florentines invented double-entry bookkeeping, an invention that our modern, capitalistic world cannot do without.

Under the astute leadership of the Medicis, Florence enjoyed peace and prosperity, which served as the foundation for the artistic flowering of the Renaissance. As wealth and power accumulated, bankers and merchants discarded their cramped tower houses and invested in fine palaces, built numerous churches and adorned them with art. The result was a proliferation of art and architecture remarkable for its break from the Gothic past and the rediscovery of Greek and Roman classical values.

Speaking of values, value was what we were looking for in deciding on a place to stay in Florence. We found it at the Residenza Johanna Due.

In the heart of Florence, two young women had the unusual idea to transform a residence into a residential hotel. Finding such comfortable, well-kept and well-decorated rooms (most of them were quite spacious as well) with flowered fabrics of different colors and Italian prints on the walls – and at such prices – is something of a feat in Italy. Perhaps the trick is that the service is left up to the clients: for example, you prepare your own breakfast in your room (each room has a kettle with tea, coffee, chocolate and biscuits) and you have your own key so you are free to come and go at any hour. The nicest rooms are those on the second story, overlooking the garden (which is also used for parking but in Florence who can complain?

All of us had the best bedrooms on the second floor – my sister and niece and our two boys had rooms overlooking the garden while my wife and I had a room overlooking the street. Our room’s lack of a garden view was compensated by the generous size of the room and bathroom. But the best thing about the Residenza was the price – $88 per night, breakfast and parking included. Indeed, the parking was a godsend since the Residenza was only a 10-minute walk from the city center. The day we arrived in Florence, we just left our van at the Residenza and didn’t bother with it for the duration of our stay.

Florence is a small town but it has so many attractions that one would need at least a month to see all of them. Mercifully, they are all concentrated in a very small area. All of the adults in our troupe had been to Florence before, whereas this was the first time for our teenagers. So it was decided to leave them to their own devices while the adults would indulge in their own pursuits. We would regroup only for lunch and dinner.

On my own, I decided to do something totally different – I would concentrate on the works of Brunelleschi.

Brunelleschi is best known for the design and construction of the dome of Florence’s cathedral, the Duomo. He was not only a goldsmith and sculptor but also an inventor of machines and mechanical devices that he needed to solve the practical problems confronting him in fulfilling his architectural commissions. He also founded the systematic application of the rules of scientific perspective, which enabled artists to produce works of previously unattainable realism.

As a sculptor, he joined the competition to make the bronze reliefs for the door of the Baptistery of Florence but lost out to Ghiberti. It is said that he was so disappointed by this loss that he decided to concentrate on architecture – to the benefit of future generations. His many works, aside from the dome and lantern of the Duomo, include the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital) which features glazed terracotta roundels by Andrea della Robbia and is still in use as a hospital today; the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo which also contains works by Michelangelo and Donatello; the Pazzi chapel of Santa Croce with frescoes by Giotto and the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo among others; Santa Maria degli Angeli; and the Church of Santo Spirito. His designs were the prelude to Renaissance architecture in Italy and are characterized by symmetry, grace and elegance.

I also had a chance to see the Palazzo Vecchio once more. Upon entering the Palazzo, I was struck by how misleading its façade was. Its interior spaces are enormous but the palace’s exterior gives no hint of this at all. Interestingly enough, in the Salone dei Cinquecento with its frescoed walls and marble statues, I discovered something I had never noticed before. Statues depicting the labors of Hercules surround the Salone. One of them shows the battle between Hercules and Antaeus. Hercules has Antaeus hanging upside down while Antaeus, furiously attempting to escape his predicament, clutches on to Hercules’ penis and tries to pull it off!

There were many other sites we could have seen in Florence but the summer crowds prevented us from doing so. However, one night we all were treated to a particularly Italian pastime: the passegiata or traditional evening stroll. Like a lot of things they do, the Italians have elevated this tradition into a fine art. There they were: men, women, teens, even children wearing what their fashion gurus had decreed to be the style, color, cut and look of the season – all of it worn with a panache that only Italians can muster. The streets were overflowing with jugglers, performers, musicians and acrobats while trattorias, cafes and smart restaurants were all invitingly lit and spread out over the narrow streets and capacious piazzas of Florence’s city center.

As we joined this blissful, and ultimately sexual, parade, we all agreed that there is nothing quite like the Italian male on the prowl, all decked out in his finery. He does not walk; he struts. Every inch of his being has been preened to proudly proclaim "I WILL HAVE SEX TONIGHT. I WILL BESTOW PLEASURE TONIGHT." Meanwhile the women sashay and cross paths with these strutting peacocks and, oozing sophistication from every pore, radiate their message: Maaaybeee.

Once upon a time, it is said that Filipinos engaged in their own version of the passegiata in a long forgotten Escolta and in a more pristine Luneta. If Filipinos were to do this regularly in this day and age, they would inevitably succumb to the noxious pollution, which blankets our cities. And so the tradition of the passegiata has degenerated into its modern-day equivalent, malling – a pastime which cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called a stroll. Running the gauntlet would be more like it.

And therein lies the most telling statement about the quality of our lives in the Philippines today and why so many of us feel the urge to travel: We have to escape from a hell of our own making, if only for a few precious weeks.

Residenza Johanna II. Rooms: 6 with telephone (upon request), bath, WC, satellite TV –price US$88. Meals, breakfast included. Credit cards not accepted. Cash-only facilities. Parking open All year.