Page 301 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

FL ORENCE  299

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST of six Medici Grand Dukes.
A corridor leads to Michel-
Practical Information angelo’s New Sacristy,
Piazza San Lorenzo 9. Map 1 C5 designed as a counterpoint
(6 D1). Basilica: Tel 055 21 40 42. to Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy
Open 10am–5pm Mon–Sat in San Lorenzo. Three groups
(Mar–Oct: also Sun 1:30–5pm). of statues, all carved by
& 5 Biblioteca: Michelangelo between 1520
Tel 055 21 07 60. and 1534, stand around the
Open only to scholars.
walls: that on the near left-hand
Transport wall is The Tomb of the Duke of
@ C1, C2. Urbino (grandson of Lorenzo the
Magnificent). Opposite is The
Tomb of the Duke of Nemours
(Lorenzo’s third son). Close to
the unfinished Madonna and
The Tomb of the Duke of Nemours (1520–34) Child (1521) is the simple tomb
by Michelangelo in the Cappelle Medicee’s containing Lorenzo the
New Sacristy Magnificent and his murdered
brother, Giuliano (died 1478).
o Cappelle Medicee
Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini. p Mercato Centrale
Map 1 C5 (6 D1). Tel 055 238 86 02
(reservations). @ many routes. Piazza del Mercato Centrale. Map 1 C4
Open 8:15am–5pm daily (Nov & Dec: (5 C1). Open 7am–2pm Mon–Sat.
8:15am–1:50pm daily). Last adm:
30 mins before closing. Closed 1st, At the heart of the San Lorenzo
3rd & 5th Mon of each month, 2nd & street market is the bustling
4th Sun, 1 Jan, 1 May, 25 Dec. & 7 Mercato Centrale, Florence’s
busiest food market. It is housed
The Medici Chapels divide into in a vast two-storey building of
three distinct areas. Beyond the cast-iron and glass, built in 1874
Pulpits by Donatello entrance hall lies a low-vaulted by Giuseppe Mengoni.
The bronze pulpits in the crypt, a suitably subdued space The ground-floor stalls sell
nave were Donatello’s last for the brass-railed tombs of meat, poultry, fish, hams, oils
works. Completed by his many lesser members of the and cheeses. There are also
pupils in 1460, the reliefs Medici family. From here steps Tuscan takeaway foods such as
capture the flinching pain of lead to the octagonal Cappella porchetta (roast suckling pig),
Christ’s Passion and the glory dei Principi (Chapel of Princes), lampredotto (pig’s intestines)
of the Resurrection. a vast family mausoleum begun and trippa (tripe). The first
by Cosimo I in 1604. The ceiling floor functions as a large bar/
is garishly frescoed and the restaurant, with seating. There
walls are smothered in huge are food stalls, a bank, a book-
swathes of semi-precious pietre shop and a cooking school.
dure (inlaid stone). Spaced There is also a pizzeria and a
around the walls are the tombs restaurant on the mezzanine.

The Martyrdom of
St Lawrence
Bronzino’s vast Mannerist
fresco of 1569 is a
bravura, choreographed
study of the human
form, rather than a
reverential response to
the agony of the saint. Yellow courgette flowers and other vegetables in the Mercato Centrale

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