"Sites in Florence?" Topic

I'm heading to Florence and Tuscany for 10 days in the Spring. Any military sites / battle fields worth a visit while I'm there? Wife and daughter will be in tow, so sites that have more than purely military interest get double points.

Go the the Uffizi Gallery and try and get a young art student as your guide. They have a wonder Greek & Roman Gallery and the Paintings are some of the most sees of western art.

My daughter studied in Florence a couple years ago so I looked up some things to visit in case we visited her. There are many museums and churches and so on and the scenery is really beautiful. Some places that I had hoped to visit include the following:

The Florence American Cemetery: link

to the south is the Battlefield at Lake Trasimeno:
link

and to the North, the last elements of the Gothic Line:
link

Recommendations depend upon your area(s) of interest. For medieval arms and armor, one of the best collections is housed at the Stibbert Museum. Included is a fantastic collection of Japanese armor.

For battlefields, Florence and Siena fought each other for more than two centuries in the region. A trip to Siena ought to be considered in your itinerary.

For ancient Etruscan and Roman artifacts, a side trip up the mountain to Fiesole is worth a few hours.

Of course, Florence, itself, is loaded with fabulous museums.

The military Gem in Florence is the Stibbart Museum:
link

Quite a few years since I have been but most of the exhibits are not even in cases!

So many things to see.

John Hawkood''s "portrait" at the Florence cathedral – Uccello's "Battle of San Romano" (Uffici) you can point out the early use of linear perspective with the discarded weapons on the ground (art value) whilst looking at a battle scene…😜

Cross the Ponte Vechio, and hike up to Forte di Belvedere, a star-shaped fort built in 1590. It will give you a great view of the city, and will also give you an appreciation of how completely artillery placed there, could dominate the central city.

It is a steep climb, but not a long one – maybe 20 minutes on foot from the Ponte Vechio. You'll also get away from the crowds. THey usually have sculpture displayed in the park there, as well.

Last relatives I had there were shooting Germans across the Arno.

I went through the major galleries there myself in '84.
All the pictures were back up and there wasn't any trace of the sandbags. Only reminders were the smell of the unwashed masses trying to avoid conscription by backpacking around Europe.

Nice pictures and statues, but they never picked up the art of road building and traffic management.

I wonder if you need to brush up on your arabic in order to haggle with the locals?

I hope you go as early as possible.So many tourists around Easter and afterwards.

Plenty of battles in Tuscany during medieval and renaissance times: every city was its own state, and your neighbour was your worst enemy. There's still a saying in Florence and Lucca: "better someone dead at home than a Pisan at your doorstep". Luckily nowadays this rivalry is mostly seen at football (soccer) matches only.

If you have a car check out Poppi in the Casentino region. There is a castle there with a plastic of the nearby 1289 battle of Campaldino, in which young Dante took part. link Plenty of medieval castles there.

Mirliton the producer of miniatures is in Tavarnuzze, a couple of kilometers South of Florence. mirliton.it

In Calenzano, to the Northwest, there's a Historical Miniature Museum link

Hopefully there will be an event during your stay that will let you see the Florentine historical procession, which gives you an idea of how the city prepared to war in renaissance times. In that case check the flag throwers too.

As mentioned, check out Museo Stibbert (which I never visited, despite being Florentinian).

Check out Siena too. Siena won against Florence in the 1261 battle of Montaperti, no idea if the battlefield is worth a visit. Nearby Monteriggioni shows how small medieval cities were fortified fortified.

In addition to the US war cemetery, there's also a Commonwealth one in the South and a German one on the mountains to the North (more or less along the Gothic line mentioned above).

Italy's oldest, I think, wargame club is the one in Florence, AFBIS. It is quite small though. You can find them on Facebook: link . There's some very knowledgeable and friendly guys there who speak English. They also have quite an impressive military, history and wargame related library, though most titles are in Italian.

This of course in addition to all general tourist places (that is, less militarily interesting), which you can find plenty of info on everywhere.

I'll be there in a couple of weeks and again in May, if you happen to be there then. For any question, drop me an e-mail at leopejo on hot mail.

This question has been asked other times too in the Wargaming in Italy section of TMP, you might find other useful answers there.

P.S. I don't get troopwo's last line.

Agree with all of the above. Also go to the Galileo Science Museum (on the Arno) for a nice history of technology overview including his first telescopes. Climb the hill to San Miniato for an amazing overview of the city at night and a beautiful romanesque church. Adjacent to it is a tower that was used for observation when Michealangelo was in charge of city defenses during a siege. He had the tower wrapped in mattresses to protect it from cannonballs. (supposedly)

Thanks everybody.