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The Piazzas of Florence: Mapping a Renaissance Spirit

Author: Lisa Mcgarry
Publisher: Pier 9, Murdoch Books
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 47595

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.9 x 1.3

ISBN: 1741960894
EAN: 9781741960891
ASIN: 1741960894

Publication Date: May 19, 2008
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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Understanding & appreciating a city through a book.... July 25, 2008
I read about this book in a blog I follow, written by a woman who actually lives in Florence herself, loves her adopted city, and recommended it. It's a beautiful book on several levels. First as a physical object. It's beautifully made. You just want to hold it in your hands and enjoy doing so. Second, it's beautifully written--subjectivity with knowledge and thought. And then there's Florence. If you've read some history of Florence before, this will supply what history can't, or if you haven't, after this, you will want to. In either case, this will be a book to come back to. Because, after all the history, you just really want to understand what it's like.

5 out of 5 stars

Florence, here we come! June 15, 2008
If this book doesn't inspire you to hop on the next flight to the Renaissance city of Florence, nothing will. Lisa McGarry is an American who has spent a good deal of her life living in faraway places - as a child in Brazil, as a student in Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong. But she has found her true home in Florence where she lives with her daughter in the very center of this beautiful city. Her understanding and her love for this city are apparent in each chapter as she takes us around the city, from piazza to piazza offering her own insight into the aged paving stones and moss covered buildings that surround each special place.

Florence has literally dozens of piazzas, some monumental, some intimate, some exhibiting treasures of medieval and renaissance architecture, some a bit shabby. McGarry has given us a baker's dozen of her favourites and it is hard to argue with her selections. Of course she includes the standard stops on a tourist itinerary - Piazza del Duomo, Piazza della Republica, Piazza della Signoria. But she treats us to a couple of out-of-the way places, too. It seems that the piazza and church of Santo Spirito is one of her favourites, as is a wide spot in a nearby side street, the Piazza della Passera.

Of course, McGarry's insight and verbal vignettes are an integral part of this book, but possibly the most useful aspect are the beautiful hand-drawn plans of each piazza. It is here that her training as an architect is most apparent. Drawn in the rich terra cotta tones reminiscent of the roofs of the buildings surround each piazza, she points out the many attractions offered by each piazza, from the monumental buildings to the quiet cafes to the best place for an ice cold gelato.

If there are a couple of suggestions for an eventual future edition, I would have liked the maps to be a bit larger in format, and possibly a few more of the author's photos. The larger format book might not have fit so conveniently into the tourist's backpack, but this book is not a travel guide per se; it is really the author's personal story of her discovery and love affair with this most charming of Italian cities. It is not aimed at the "36 hour, two nights and three days" tourist; rather a traveler, armchair or otherwise, who truly searches for an insider's insight will find this charming little book a source to be treasured over the years.

If this indeed was the target, McGarry seems to have hit it right on the head.

5 out of 5 stars

A lovely book May 31, 2008
This is undoubtedly a more-than-usually gorgeous book. The cover is a lovely textured terracotta-coloured thing and the printing is high quality with some very tasteful maroon detailing. Add to this a foldout watercolour map for each piazza, and a ribbon bookmark in another fine rich terracotta shade, and you have more than enough visual appeal to make you pick the book up. Thankfully there's also more than enough substance in the text too to stop you putting it down. Taking each of Florence's piazzas in turn the author then gets to hang stories, observations and history around each one. So the Piazza de' Pitti features plenty of details about Ms McGarry's life, this being where she lives, as well as plenty about the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, and the area's famous residents. Similarly the Arno gets dealt with when she writes about the piazzetta in the middle of the Ponte Vecchio and the Medici when she writes about Piazza San Lorenzo. The mix of history, local knowledge, architectural notes and personal-life details make for a winning mixture and an easy read. And she knows her gelato too. All in all an attractive, characterful and thoughtful introduction (or refresher) for Florence fans of all levels.