To tell you the truth about our recent trip to Tuscany: Florence and the Easy Hikers did not quite hit it off this time. Florence, of course, will survive this, but so shall we.
We had visited Florence before, many years ago, and still have pleasant memories from this trip. What has changed in the intervening years, what has changed more: was it Florence – or was it us?
Florence is undoubtedly as beautiful as ever (I wish I could say the same thing about us), and I still understand why so many people admire her. For my personal taste, however, the city in its current state looks over-engineered. Beauty surgeons and make-up artists have been there and have done a splendid job, but the result is a beauty for which I find it difficult to care.
Read also: Florence and the Arno – Far from the Glitz and the Tourist Crowd
They clearly knew what they wanted, which was something not altogether different from an amusement park (albeit one with a degree in the Fine Arts), and simply removed everything that stood in the way of their ambition. In the process, they took away everything that made the city interesting.
Thank God then that Florence has a more broad-minded sister across the river: a little frumpier, perhaps, but with more character …
… and who is more fun, too.
Many cities that are today divided by a large river in fact developed for centuries on one bank only while the other side of the river was considered uninhabitable, due to frequent floods for example – as is the case with London and Vienna.
Not in Florence, however, where the district of Oltrarno is as old as the town centre and not at all short of historical buildings.
Oltrarno – Frumpier Sister of Florence but More Fun
From the 14th century onwards, it was part of the inner town that was surrounded by city walls. Later, the Medici moved here, and so did the Italian Royal family in the 19th century when Florence became – briefly – the capital of the newly united country.
In contrast to Florence’s north side, however, Oltrarno – literally the town “on the other side of the Arno” – has managed to preserve its character.
It still exists primarily for the benefit of its residents – a rather motley crew, judging from appearances, of tradesmen, professionals, academics and “bohemians” – rather than for the entertainment of international visitors.
Granted: there are some businesses that speak of a certain level of “gentrification” such as chic restaurants, fashion boutiques and art galleries …
… but there are still many shops of the type that, sadly, you will only find in Italian cities these days: highly specialized outlets that sell, often from premises that are as generously spacious as an airplane loo, tablecloths, pots and pans, fishing gear – as well as businesses whose nature is far from clear.
What is all that stuff for that is piled up to the ceiling here: is it waiting to be sold or to be repaired?
There is only one thing that all these shops have in common: they could never earn the rent which is charged on the other side of the Arno, where vendors of high-end fashion and fancy leather goods generate more profit from the sale of a single item than the shops here make in a week.
Florence is one of Europe’s capitals of the visual arts, of course, and you can find a lot of that on the city’s south bank, too: paintings, mainly, but over here, they are not hidden away inside museums.
This public art of Oltrarno is dominated by two “masters”: there are the works of Blub whose L’Arte Sa Nuotare (Art Which Knows How To Swim) provides “underwater versions” of famous paintings …
… and there is Clet who produces ironic takes on street signs – although there are apparently many imitators these days and you can rarely make a confident attribution: Clet, School of Clet, Circle of Clet? (Some problems in the Fine Arts just never go away: they only come back in a new guise.)
Besides: does it matter? There are, at any rate, enough paintings around for every taste, some by well-known street artists, some by artists who will be famous one day and others by artists who will not.
These images, as numerous as they are, never overwhelm their urban environment: enriching rather than dominating the scenery, making the place look pretty but not gritty.
The highest concentration of Urban Art can be found in the San Niccolò quarter towards the east of the town. We recommend, however, to start the walk further west – at the Oltrarno end of the Americo Vespucci Bridge or the Ponte Alla Carraia – and to continue in an easterly direction, staying one block or two blocks away from the river.
On reaching the Piazza de Pitti or the Via de Guiccardini, turn left and right – close to the Arno – into the Via de Bardi.
Continue down this street all the way (it changes its name into Via San Niccolò on entering the eponymous quarter) to find – on the corner of Via dell’Olmo – the workshop-cum-gallery of Clet where you can buy reproductions of his works.
Have a good look around the area before continuing to the Piazzale Michelangelo (where you will find a bus stop for your return to town), preferably passing through the Giardino delle Rose which offers you splendid views of both town …
… and country.
Another attraction of the Rose Garden is the collection of works by the Belgian sculptor Jean-Michel Folon, which have been lovingly embedded into the landscaped scenery.
Florence, after all, is the ultimate City of Art. This is no less true south of the river, where the art may be of a different type than half a mile further north, although it is no less ubiquitous.
And who knows: 500 years from now people from all over the world may flock here to see what 21st century artists have done to their urban environment – and to Michelangelo.
