Take an art appreciation class before "The Birth of Venus" and meet the 600-year-old town

Florence, once translated as "Emerald" because of its Italian pronunciation, is a Western historical city with a particularly strong literary atmosphere. In the city of Florence today, the historic center area, one of the five districts, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Florence was founded in 59 BC as a military fortress for Rome at the time. To this day, the core of the historic center area still retains the original urban layout. By the Renaissance, centered on the Piazza della Signoria, which had been built in the 14th century, the Uffizi Gallery, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, the Bargello Gallery and the Pitti Palace were surrounded by the banks of the Arno River, and the urban area was basically fixed.

One autumn morning, a group of five of us who were studying in Germany at the same time went to the historic center to visit this place known as the "cradle of the Renaissance".

The temple of art gleefully crammed into everyday life

In Florence, ochre roofs are the most dominant color of architecture, and the sunlight penetrates the city through the mist, which makes people slow down everything. Since the square in front of the Florence train station is directly embedded in the northwest of the old town, as soon as we leave the station, we are already in the historic center of Florence, caught off guard, and have a face with this almost well-preserved 600-year-old town.

Walk east along Via Serretani for about 10 minutes, and the first "punch point", the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, is right in front of you. Using three Italian flag colors, granite veneers and hooks in red, white and green, as the façade decoration, the dome and the bell tower are separated from the east and west sides, high above the skyline of the entire historic district, suddenly giving the building the "privilege" of overlooking the whole of Florence.

In 1296, the Medici family funded the construction of this church, which took about 175 years to finally be completed, and the architect Bruneneski at that time designed the architectural dome in imitation of the Roman Pantheon. In the process of completing this aerial giant structure, he did not use arches, but used a novel connected fishbone structure and rafters to build it from bottom to top.

This group of buildings is not deliberately isolated from the city, on the contrary, its surroundings are strange, crowded, and shops, happily squeezed into the daily life of Florentine citizens.

Encounter children's live art teaching

Three or four blocks south from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, is Piazza della Signoria, the origin of Florence's historic centre. As the founder of modern Italian and a memorial to Dante, a pioneer of the European Renaissance era, the Dante House Museum is located deep in this alley. The city of Florence is so closely associated with the Renaissance that there are countless places worth visiting. Unfortunately, we had limited time to visit the old alley where Dante was born more than 700 years ago, and the group was amazed by the number of outstanding sculptures in the Ranch Promenade on the Piazza della Signoria, while diving into the Uffizi Gallery on the south side of the square. You know, one of the treasures of the town hall here is the "Birth of Venus"! However, what makes us feel even more is that the local children's art appreciation class is also "teaching on the spot" here, and the little ones whisper "Si" (Italian "yes") to interact with the teacher, and the scene feels warm and interesting.

In fact, the more legendary story related to these collections is the relationship between the Uffizi Gallery and the Medici family itself. Built in 1560 with a large cloister, this building began as the municipal judicial office of Giorgio Vasari, commissioned by the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de' Medici. Cosimo I's successor, Francesco I de' Medici, began to store the family collection on the top floor of this large building, which gradually became one of the oldest museums in all of Europe. Later, successive family heirs further expanded the collection until the last descendant of the last descendant in 1743 stipulated that "all the collections of the Medici family shall be kept in Florence, not to be taken out, and open to the public for public service." On behalf of her family, she donated the Uffizi Gallery itself and its collections to Florence. In this way, they become a real public wealth.

Step out of the Uffizi Gallery and head west along the banks of the Arno River, and immediately see the "Ponte Vecchio", one of Florence's famous landmarks, a stone arch bridge built in the Middle Ages, spanning the north and south of the Arno River, which has a very heavy feeling. Interestingly, the old bridge has always had a commercial function, except for the road in the middle, the two sides of the bridge are full of shops, and even the businesses that opened on the bridge in the 17th century still exist today. It was sunset and the lights of the Old Town were on, and we decided not to go to the Pitti Palace on the south bank of the Arno River. At the moment, finding a restaurant is the most urgent option.

(The author is Deputy Director and Associate Professor of library, Shanghai University of Chinese)