My most indelible memory of Florence isn’t a visual image of a particular piazza or building or statue, nor the fabled Uffizi Galleries, Arno River, Ponte Vecchio. Instead, I remember Florence as I looked down on it from the hill town of Fiesole, about five kilometers northeast (and 250 meters above) the center of town. My then-boyfriend (later to become my husband) had brought me there for a romantic dinner; from the terrace of the restaurant, we looked down on the softly flickering lights of Florence and — inescapably — the dome of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. That dome, 80 meters high, dominates the landscape even at night, and remains the largest brick dome ever constructed, composed of four million bricks.
From above, we couldn’t see the people, neither the elegant locals going about their business nor the hordes of tourists (notably less elegant) engorging the city’s major arteries. The latter already posed a problem the first time I visited Florence, and the situation has worsened over the years to the point where you have to time your visit carefully to navigate the major attractions of the city.
For example, Piazza della Signoria is the historical crossroads of Florence. It flanks Palazzo Vecchio, a magnificent building dating back to the 13th century. It became City Hall under the leadership of the de Medici two centuries later…
