Museums in Florence Accademia Gallery of Modern Art

Florence has over forty museums and art galleries. The two giants are, of course, the Uffizi Galleries and the Pitti Place. They contain priceless collections of the world's greatest art, and they require slow, unhurried, reflective visits for maximum enjoyment.

One other Florentine museum-the Accademia at the Piazza San Marco (from the Duono, walk down the Via Ricasoli to reach it)-may alone be worth your entire trip to Europe. For here, in a magnificent setting, stands the riginal of Michelango's David; and when you've seen it, you'll realize how inadequate are the weatherworn copies of it that are scattered elsewhere in Florence. Here, too, are several unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo, all the more fascinating because they give you a glimpse into the method of their creation.

The Gallery of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace contains a superb collection of all-Italian artists representing at least the first 30 years of the century; it may one day be the outstanding Italian collection representtative of our times.

Casa Buonarroti, 70 Via Ghibellina, should be on the list of Michelangelo lovers. This house, once occupied by a nephew of the sculptor, is now a museum. In addition to three original figures by Michelangelo, there is a large collection of his anatomical and architectural sketches. For those who have already admired his Pietas in the Duomo and the Accademia, the museums has reproductions of the other two which are in Milan and Rome.




Holy Family, Palatine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence Print
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
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European Pick-up Changes

PICK-UP CHARGES: Remember, in considering the above rental costs, that they apply only if you yourself return the car to the city in which you've rented it. If you do not make such a round-trip, you may have to pay an extra charge for the pick-up of the car. One summer, for example, Hope and I rented a car in Barcelona, and drove it-over the course of two weeks-to Milan. Upon arriving in Milan, we had to wire the name of our hotel to the Barcelona agency, which immediately put a man on the train to Milan, where the next day he met us at the hotel, picked up the car keys, and drove the car back to Barcelona.

Are there any methods of avoiding this incredibly wasteful procedure? You will find, when you arrive in Europe, that most of the rental agencies have now progressed to the point where they waive the pick-up charge if you drop off the ear in any of several major cities in the same country where you picked it up. Thus, virtually any French-based agency will waive that charge if you drop off the car in Paris or Nice (the theory being that there are always plenty of people to whom they can rent the car in those cities). Rent the car in any city in Italy and you can drop it off, without further charge, in Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples. . . . But cross a border, and you're sunk. You'll then have to pay the charges caused by the refusal of European agencies to work out an auto exchange system similar to those maintained by the major auto rental companies in the United States. A highly-publicized "Rent it Here-Leave It There" plan, which most of the European companies now offer, actually involves a hidden charge for pick up-and therefore you're again paying for return of the car.

Florence - A city for reflection

After the frenzy of Venice, this is a city for reflection. The museums of Florence have a near monopoly on the artistic masterpieces of the Renaissance. The treasures here are so thick that Raphael's priceless Madonna of the Chair is casually stuck away in a little nook of the Uffizi Galleries. This is also a city for buying gifts. You'd do well to hold off on your European shopping until you've seen the leather goods stalls in the Florence straw market or the jewelry shops on the Ponte Vecchio. Items which sell for $10 on New York's Fifth Avenue are priced here at a couple of bucks.

HOTELS: For, Florence has some of the least costly hotel "finds" in Europe-so many of them, in fact, that it really isn't necessary to move as high as the Second Class category-although there are some pretty superb choices in that classification, too. You ought to know, preliminarily, that some of our selections are pensions-the tiny European hotels that offer meals along with their rooms (some, however, do not require that you take the meals). In Italy, the normal pension ("pensione") consists of a single floor of an apartment house or office building, almost always upstairs; and you must reserve judgment until you've actually ascended in the elevator and inspected the accommodations. Particularly in Florence-which is an ancient city, historic, and with virtually no modern buildings-the inside appearance of most pensions is far better than their shabby 18th-century exteriors would indicate. Some of them offer amazingly large rooms, with balconies, parlors, all sorts of added features.