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Florence Tour Stops:
- Baptistery
- Duomo
- Campanile
- Piazza della Repubblica
- Palazzo dell’Arte della Lana
- Loggia del Porcellino
- Palazzo Vecchio
- Ponte Vecchio
- Palazzo Pitti
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Music . . . which fades into background as The Cicerone speaks . . .
Buongiorno! I’m your Cicerone, Shelton Bellew. Welcome to Florence, the cradle of the
Renaissance! The Italians call it Firenze, the flowering city. Come with me for a
leisurely walk to some of Florence’s principle sites. I am an American traveler who
loves Europe and I have lived here for several years.
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I have fallen in love with the people, the art, the history. It is a joy for me to share the
things I have learned with other people. This is just one tour of many, where I will point out
famous sites that you may have already seen or read about in books, as well those
off-the-beaten-path treasures that might normally escape your eye. But before we can
begin, you need to put on your good walking shoes and grab a bottle of water.
Let’s begin by starting at the Piazza di San Giovanni as indicated on your walking tour map.
Our starting point will by indicated with the bold print words “BEGIN” on the map which came
with this tape. When you hear this sound, ---tone---, stop the cassette and move to the next
stop on our tour.
We’ll be starting at the huge building that you can see from almost anywhere in town.
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It’s the city’s cathedral, called the Duomo. Remember the cathedral is enormous, so try to be in
the Piazza di San Giovanni before you press play again. The piazza is at the west entrance of the
Duomo, which faces the baptistery. The Baptistery is the smaller octagon shaped building faced in
the same green and white marble. (Tone sound]
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You should now be in the area between the cathedral and the Baptistery called the Piazza di
San Giovanni or St. John’s Square. This is Florence’s geographic town center. Piazza in
Italian means town square and St. John is the patron saint of Florence.
City squares were a hallmark of Roman street planning. The Romans were excellent engineers
who constructed the squares for vital watering points or for commercial use.
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Eventually, these squares became good locations to build temples and other places of worship because
of the masses passing through. Almost all of the Roman towns that still exist today have town
squares that have been used over the centuries and up to the present.
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This excellent city planning was even copied by the founding fathers in the United States, as well
as by other New World cities through out the Americas. But this particular piazza is dominated by
the enormous Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral or Duomo. The entire Duomo is shaped like a cross. .
If you could look at the Duomo from an aerial view, you would see that where we are standing now
is the bottom part of the cross-shaped building.
Let’s look now at the Baptistery, as this is the heart of Florence both geographically and historically.
End Excerpt |
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