Cathedrals, churches, monuments
Once again Ursa Major is lying low on the horizon; Once again in the motionless air the dark green foliage, sad and melancholy, stands out clearly against the deep blue sky. Once again the landscape is composed of olives, vines, pines and cypresses, in the midst of which innumerable villas almost seem to be swimming; and once again I find myself in this city where even the paving stones seem like a mosaic. In the main piazza three jewels are laid out: multi-coloured, marbled and polished, shining in the sun, newly washed by the rain - the Duomo, the Bell Tower and the Baptistry; and once again every day I will cross that bizarre square populated by statues, of which you possess a rather fine etching. One lives with Italy as with a lover; today in irritable disagreement, tomorrow in adoration. One lives with Germany, by contrast, as with a housewife, with no great rows and without any grand passion.Arthur Schopenhauer
All of Tuscany, and Florence in particular, is the part of Italy where the stone is most outstanding. Florence is a city of stone (... ). When I want to have an ideal impression of Florence I always follow the same itinerary, beginning with the sublime churches of Brunelleschi - Santo Spirito and San Lorenzo - whose beauty is due to the narcotic rigour of the bare line; and finishing in the baroque of the Medici chapels where we find the golden, crowned statues of the Medicis.
Guido Piovene
Taken from "From Florence with love" Casa Editrice FMG
