Road Trip – A month in Europe Part 2 Florence, Salzburg, and Prague

Day 1 in Florence started with a walk to the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. The Cathedral is beautiful inside but what I really loved about it was the Cloisters and the Spanish Chapel. Right next to the train station with thousands of people milling around outside, it was totally silent in the Cloisters.

This church was called S. Maria Novella (“New”) because it was built on the site of the 9th-century oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne. When the site was assigned to the Dominicans  in 1221, they decided to build a new church and adjoining cloister. The church was designed by two Dominican friars and building began about 1276 and lasted 80 years.

In the same block is Officina Profumo-Faraceutica di Santa Maria Novella. It’s not a pharmacy, but more of a perfumery, although its called the Oldest Pharmacy in the World. It started with the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria Novella. The monks began experimenting with herbs and flowers grown in the monastic garden, creating balms, elixirs, and other medications. By 1381 a hospital was in operation, where the monks’ products were used for treating themselves and other patients.  

The perfumery is linked with Catherine de’ Medici, who, aged just 14, commissioned the Officina to create a scent for her. Known as “Acqua della Regina ” or “Water of the Queen,” the citrus-based cologne water is probably the world’s first celebrity fragrance.

The enterprise remained in the ownership of the Church of Santa Maria Novella until 1866, when the property was confiscated by the Kingdom of Italy and  sold to a private owner. Since the 1990s Santa Maria Novella’s retail operations have expanded to include locations in every major Italian city, and 75 shops throughout the world.

I doubt the other shops look anything like this one with their vaulted ceilings and frescoes painted by Mariotto di Nardo in 1380.

Around town:

We thought it was interesting in both Florence and Prague to see young people lined up to have their photos taken in a photo booth on the street!

Across the Arno I stopped to admire the facade of the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, the oldest building on the street, and now a luxury hotel.

It has one of the best examples scraffito in the city, which is produced by scratching the surface of a plastered facade to reveal the colored plaster beneath. Similar to scratchboard, where you put black ink over white, when you scratch the black it shows the white underneath.

The Palazzo was built at the request of Francesco I de’ Medici for his mistress Bianca Cappello, on an old fifteenth century building in the 1570s. After Bianca died, the building was given to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and then the scraffito drawings were done on the front by Bernardino Poccetti in 1579. I would see more buildings decorated in this manner later in the trip.

Santo Spirito Basicila, just a block away, was started in 1267, as a church and convent. The exterior is not ornate at all but the interior is beautiful. It seems there are churches all over Italy that had plans for their facade but the decoration was never completed.

Pont Vechio, as everyone knows, is full of jewelry shops.  It is the only bridge in Florence that survived World War II and it was built during Roman times and completed in 1345.

We’ve all heard about the major tourist crowds, Pont Vechio and the Duomo were the only places in the city that were really crowded.

We toured The Opera del Duomo, also known as the “OPA.” It is the the Cathedral Workshop and was founded by the Republic of Florence in 1296 to oversee the construction of the Cathedral and its bell tower.

In 1891, the Museum was founded to house the works of art which had been removed from the Duomo and the Baptistery to preserve them. In one room is Michelangelo’s Pieta, which was once in the Duomo. It’s believed that he sculpted it for his own tomb.

The original Gates of Paradise, the pair of bronze doors  that were created between 1425 and 1452 by Lorenzo Ghiberti for the Baptistery, are there as well. The current doors on the Baptistery are copies. Somewhere I saw a statue with the facial features worn away with a sign saying this is what a statue looks like after being in the weather for 600 years.

One very interesting thing was seeing the block and tackle that was used to hoist the materials to build these buildings. At one museum, I can’t remember where, the workers would descend from the dome they were working on for lunch and it would be hours before they returned. To solve the problem, the builder installed a kitchen on the platform they were working from, way up in the dome.

More scenes around Florence…

And more…..

Giardino di Palazzo Medici Ricardi

Giardino di Palazzo Medici Ricardi was built between 1444 and 1484 by Cosimo de Medici. The palace remained the principal residence of the Medici family until 1494 then was sold to the Riccardi family in 1659. In 1874 the building became the seat of the provincial government of Florence.

My favorite part of the palace was the Magi Chapel with the frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli which were completed around 1459.

Later we had a lovely dinner at Meze, not far from our hotel. When I asked the lady in the apron to tell my waitress I wanted something to drink she complied, then told us she was the chef! Her suggestion of Pizza non pizza 16, which was a piece of beer-marinated pork, thinly sliced and grilled with onions, served on pita bread, spiced yogurt, and green herbs was amazing.

She is from Israel and has been in Florence a few years. She said she misses her country but is very comfortable in Florence and feels at home. She was thrilled to speak Hebrew with my traveling partner who just happens to speak the language.

DaVinci Museum

I visited the DaVinci Museum and it was astounding to see models of his inventions all in one place.

Museum of Galileo

Equally astounding was the Museum of Galileo. Most of what is in the museum belonged to the collection of the Medici family and was originally part of the Uffizi. The instrument collections are among the most important in the world.

These collections preserve a testimony to the promotion of scientific research carried out, first, by the members of the Medici dynasty, then by the Grand Dukes of Lorraine.

The collection contains over 1,000 scientific instruments. There are also many ceramic sculptures showing babies in the womb with various issues, which were used as teaching tools.

It was amazing to see how accurate globes and maps were centuries ago.

Church of San Miniato al Monte

I wanted to go to see the Church of San Miniato al Monte, aka St. Minias on the Mountain, high up on the hill across the river. I ended up being there for part of the mass and I was pleased to hear the Monks chanting. Before we met, my husband Michael was in the Seminary and I used to listen to him chant occasionally.

The Basilica is at one of the highest points in the city and has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany, and one of the most scenic churches in Italy. There is also an adjoining monastery.

Inside the vaulted ceiling dates from 1297 and the facade was begun about 1090. The aspe is dominated by a mosaic of Christ between the Virgin and St Minias from 1297, and it just glows. The cemetery came later, about 1840.

Fort Belevedere

Forte Belvedere, built between 1590 and 1595, is the second and largest fortress built in Florence. It’s located on the highest hill of the Boboli Gardens.

I didn’t get any photos of the fort itself, but the view from there was wonderful. From the fort I walked down through the Garden to the Pitti Palace.

I had no intention of going to the Palace but it was free that day and I happened to be walking by.

Piti Palace

The Palace is a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio. The main part of the Palace dates from 1458 and was the residence of Luca Pitti, a Florentine banker. It was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Napoleon used it as a power base in the late 18th century. It was donated to the Italian people in 1919 and is now the largest museum complex in Florence.

What impressed me the most in the museum were the frescoes and ceilings, of course the paintings, and they even have a collection of gowns.

Salzburg

We flew from Florence to Salzburg. The Florence airport is a mess, and I would not advise flying through there.

Our flight was delayed so when we landed in Frankfort for a connecting flight we had to run 47 gates to catch our next flight. My travel companion is a runner so she went ahead and they held the plane for us!

Unfortunately our luggage did not make it, so the next afternoon we had to go retreive it from the Salzburg airport, they were supposed to deliver it to our hotel but that would not have happened for yet another day.

This is the first time I have had an apple tracker in my luggage so we could see where it was sitting. I’ll never travel without those again.

Salzburg is on the site of the Roman settlement of Iuvavum and was founded as an Episcopal diocese In 696 and became a seat of the archbishop in 798. Its main sources of income were salt, trade, and gold mining. The Hohensalzburg fortress that towers above the city is one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe and dates from the 11th century.

Its historic center is famous for its Baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps.

We stayed at the Hotel Bristol. It is a beautiful hotel and I highly recommend it. It is across the river from the Old town but a short walk and the Mirabell Garden is right behind it.

There aren’t many other places where the Emperor Franz Josef, Sigmund Freud, and Ricardo Muti have all been guests. The entire cast of the Sound of Music even stayed at the Hotel. We loved the fact that all through the halls are photos and write-ups of things that happened at the Hotel and people who stayed there.

The foundation stone of today’s Hôtel Bristol was laid by Archbishop Paris Lodron around 1619, and in the following centuries the building served as the seat of various noble families. It was expanded and redesigned several times before it was given its present form towards the end of the 19th century. It was the first hotel in Salzburg to have electricity.

Around 75 years ago, the hotel came into the possession of the Hübner family, who still personally manage it today, now in the fourth generation, as one of the few private hotels in Salzburg.

Hellbrunn Palace

Hellbrunn Palace was built between 1613 and 1619 by Markus Sittkus von Hohenems, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. It was meant as a day residence to escape from the city so he returned every evening to Salzburg. The main reason I wanted to visit was to see the trick fountains.

Markus had a sense of humor and liked practical jokes. He created a water garden with trick fountains that would spray the guest when they least expected it. At all the trick fountains there is one spot that never gets wet and that is where Markus stood and where the tour guide stands today. There are also water operated theatres built in 1750 along with automata showing various professions at work

Mirabell Garden and Palace

Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau had the Mirabell Palace (originally called Schloss Altenau) built in 1606 for his mistress Salome Alt and their 15 children! His successor, Marcus Sittikus, banished mother and children from the palace, which he re-named “Schloss Mirabell.” Today, the Mirabell Palace houses the offices of the Salzburg mayor and the municipal administration.

The Mirabell Garden is a baroque garden right behind our hotel. It was laid out around 1690 and the basic geometrical form he designed is still recognizable. There are all kinds of sculptures, heroes, gods, and warriors.

There is even a dwarf garden. The story behind that is kind of creepy so I won’t go into it! At any rate, the reason to have the dwarfs fell out of favor, and in 1919 the dwarf statues were auctioned off. Originally the garden had 28 dwarfs, eventually 17 were recovered.

Of course, much of The Sound of Music was shot in Salzburg, at Leopoldskron Palace, Mirabell Palace and Gardens, Hellbrunn Palace, St. Peter’s Cemetery, and other spots.

Fortress Hohensalzburg

Fortress Hohensalzburg sits on a high hill above the city. To get to it we took the funuclur. I read some reviews that were not complimentary about the museum but I thought it was great and very informative. Plus the views are fabulous.

Archaeological excavations revealed that a Roman fort existed at the highest point of the site.

Construction of the current fortress began in 1077 and the ring walls and towers were built in 1462. A document from 1515 describes a primitive funicular railway. The line still exists, in an updated form of course but is probably the oldest operational railway in the world.

We didn’t tour the entire Fortress but did go through the museum which has exhibits about the function of the fortress, art and culture of Salzburg. Part of it is also Puppet Museum with exhibits from the world-famous Salzburg puppet theater in Schwarzstraße.

Both here and Hellbrunn Palace had displays with wonderful, whimsical, graphics.

The Getreidegasse is the heart of Salzburg’s Old Town, it’s beautiful and I particularly loved the metal signs.

Miscellaneous shots around the city:

We saw far too many of these stepping stones, Rome, Florence, several of the hill towns of Tuscany, here in Salzburg, later in Prague, Amsterdam and so, so much about the Holocaust once we arrived in Berlin.

Mozart

Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s father, was a minor composer and experienced teacher. There is some debate about whether Mozart was four or five years old when he created his first musical compositions. I toured his home and it was amazing to see a piano he composed on.

As you can imagine, you can hear classical music performances in the city every day of the week and year.

And just for fun Mozart helps sell chocolates all over town.

St. Peter Abbey and Cemetery

In addition to my obsession with the metal signs of Salzburg, I was equally obsessed with St. Peter and its cemetery.

I grew up visiting cemeteries with my geneologist mom. They hold valuable information for a geneologist’s research.

I loved the metal grave markers, but I was just as much in love with the way a little flower garden is planted on each plot.

St. Peter’s Abbey was founded in the 7th century and is considered the oldest monastery still in existence in the German-speaking world. The first Abbey Church of St. Peter was built in 696 and today’s Abbey was built in the 12th century and remodeled several times over the centuries. The cemetery is older than the Abbey and holds the remains of artists, famous personalities, scholars, and merchants.

In 1769, thirteen-year-old Mozart composed the Dominicus mass for the abbot and a few years later Michael Haydn wrote the Rupertus mass commissioned by the abbey.

We even ate at St. Peter, in the St Peter Stiftskulinarium. It is a restaurant within the walls of the Abbey. It is speculated to have been operating since before AD 803, which would make it the oldest Inn in Central Europe, and the oldest restaurant in the world.

We didn’t have enough time in Salzburg and when I get a chance I will go back.

Prague

Our train trip from Salzburg to Prague was uneventful. The first train was very nice, the second, not as nice but it got us there. We were glad we had a driver pick us up in Prague because the train station is huge.

Getting to our hotel near the Charles Bridge, The Mozart, on small streets, was a little intimidating. But the hotel was beautiful! It is just a block or so from the Charles Bridge. Once acclimated, I loved the city and none of my photos do it justice.

If we walked across the street from our hotel this is the view.

We had a private tour with Pavel Cernosek who showed us how to ride the tram to the Prague Castle. If we would have known him before, we would have booked him for other tours, even outside the city.

We highly recommend him! If you go, Pavel Cernosek, mobile number 00420 602 280 204, email pavel.cernosek@seznam.cz.

Prague Castle sits on the hill high above the city. The Castle was built in the 9th century. According to the Guinness Book of Records it is the largest ancient castle in the world, occupying almost 750,000 square feet.

A fire in 1541 destroyed large parts of the castle. And then from wars that followed, the castle was damaged and became dilapidated. The castle went through a major rebuilding in the second half of the 18th century.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II, Prague Castle became the headquarters of Reinhard Heydrich. After Czechoslovakia split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the castle became the seat of the Head of State of the new Czech Republic.

One of the major buildings of the castle is the St Vitus Cathedral built in 1344.

And there is a street called the Golden Lane with a collection of tiny houses built in the 16th century. There are 24 houses where soldiers lived with their families. These are TINY houses, can’t imagine more than one person living in one. I love the fold-down staircase!

The Golden Lane was inhabited until the 1950s and was known as one of the poorest areas of Prague to live in. The tiny houses currently house small museums.

There are several gardens on the grounds but were closed for a special event when we were there.

Josefov

The Jewish settlements in Prague, known as Josefov, date back to the 10th century and have been marked by sad episodes of persecution. These days there are about 2,000 Jews in Prague.

By the mid-12th century, Prague’s Jews were confined to the ghetto. At Easter in 1389 they were accused of “vandalizing the eucharistic wafer,” and as a result, 3,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered. After this many Prague Jews fled to Poland and Hungary.

There were more ups and downs for the population, but by 1700s the Jews accounted for about 1/4 of the population of Prague, with more Jews living in Prague than anywhere in the world. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, over 92,000 Jews lived in Prague, representing almost 20% of the city’s population.

At least two-thirds of the city’s Jewish population perished in the Holocaust. Except for the synagogues and a few other buildings, the Jewish Quarter was totally demolished in the early 1900s and rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style. It’s now the 19th most expensive real estate in the world.

The Jewish Cemetery is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, and was in operation from at least 1439 and was closed in 1787. About 200,000 Jewish people from the ghetto were buried there. Because the Cemetery was only capable of holding around 10% of the number of Jews buried there, the graves span about twelve tombs deep.

There are several Synagogues in the Ghetto. They are the New Old Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, the High Synagogue, the Pinkas, the Maisel, and the Klausen.

The Pinkas synagogue, dating from 1535, was made into a Holocaust memorial in the 1950s. The Soviet invasion in 1968 closed it down, but with the fall of the Soviet Union, and after a renovation, it was reopened in 1995.

Not much is left of the original synagogue besides the building, the bimo, and the Torah ark. The walls are covered with 80,000 names of the Bohemian and Moravian Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Maybe even more moving are the hundreds of drawings by school children who lived at Terezin. It was a concentration camp 30 miles north of Prague during WWII.

It was originally a holiday resort for Czech nobility. Terezín is contained within the walls of the fortress Theresienstadt, which was created by Emperor Joseph II of Austria in the late 18th century.

By 1940 Nazi Germany had turned it into a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp. More than 150,000 Jews were sent there, including 15,000 children. They were held there for months or years, before being sent by rail transports to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in Poland. Less than 150 children survived.

In the evening we went to a concert of classical music in the Spanish Synagogue.

But before the concert we had a wonderful dinner at the 5th District Restaurant & Café by King Solomon.

And once again we found these stepping stones.

Wallenstein Garden

We walked down from the Castle to the Wallenstein Garden. Constructed from 1624 to 1630, Wallenstein Palace is the first secular building in Prague and it currently holds the Czech Senate. The Gardens are one of the earliest Baroque gardens in Prague. Some scenes for the movie Amadeus were shot in the garden.

Other gardens we visited were Vrtba Garden above, and the Franciscan Garden below.

Old Town Square

The Old Town Square (Starom?stskéin nám?stí Prague) is beautiful! It rivals my favorite in Brussels. It is one of two main squares in Prague, the other being Wenceslas Square five minutes away. The Old Town Square was founded in the 12th century as the central marketplace for Prague, it is surrounded by Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque buildings. And dungeons were built below the square.

The most significant building on the square is the Old Town Hall which has its famous 15th-century Astronomical Clock on the side. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still in operation.

Several churches on the square include Tyn church built in the 14th century, the St. Nicholas Church built in the 18th century.

Within the square itself is a bronze statue of the reformer and Czech national hero, Jan Hus.

The crosses in the pavement symbolize the executions that took place on that site in November 1620 during the Thirty Year War. Some where hanged and some beheaded. Several of the heads were put into cages and hung on the Charles Bridge where they stayed for ten years!

My favorite building on the square is the Štorch House. The house was built in 1897 by the publisher Alexandr Štorch, but of course it was not the first house on this site. 

The facade of the house is is the work of the painter Mikoláš Aleš is a fresco. It depicts Saint Wenceslas on horseback, accompanied by words: “St. Wenceslas, Duke of the Czech Land, pray for us.”

During the Prague Uprising in May 1945 the house burned down but was repaired. The bookstore on the ground floor operated for a hundred years. Today there is a Thai massage parlor. BTW, I had the best massage I’ve ever had at our hotel in Prague!

House signs are visible particularly in the Mala Strata. They date from the 14th century and were used instead of numbers. Sometimes it would be how a person was identified too, like Joseph of the house of Lamb.

Prague is full of wonderful and often quirky sculptures.

Below left is the figure of Kafka sitting on the shoulders of a much larger figure with a hole for a head. It was inspired by Kafka’s story, Description of a Struggle.

David ?erný is a well-known and controversial Czech sculptor, the sculpture below to the right is located outside the Frantz Kafka Museum in Mala Strana. It is called the Piss sculpture. ?erný said the sculpture represents a typically Czech dialogue and mentality, where one person tries to “out-piss” the other, or get ahead at the other person’s expense.

?erný has over 25 sculptures around the city – including Kafkas revolving head sculpture near the national museum.

Other neat sculptures were a hand-carved bird on the nest was in front of a wonderful hand made shop and Man with umbrella hangs about 25 feet above the street. Some say the artwork explores the theme of balance and lightness, representing freedom and the human urge to soar above ordinary life.

The large butterfly sculptures are also by David ?erný. They are two giant butterflies with bodies made from the Second World War spitfire planes that were flown by Czech pilots for the British Army – RAF, they were just installed this spring.

Hanging Man is a life-size sculpture of Sigmund Freud hanging from a pole, seemingly contemplating whether to let go or hold on. He is handing on one hand and his other hand is in his pocket. The statue was made in 1997 when David ?erný was contemplating the arrival of a new century and wondered what it will bring. He chose Sigmund Freud, because he deemed him to be the most influential and important person in the 20th century.

The lady in the shroud is by Anna Chromy and is called “Cloak of Conscience,” it sits outside of the Estates Theatre. It is allegedly haunted: visitors have claimed faces in the figure’s empty cloak have appeared in photos that have used flash photography.  

Lesser Side

The area on the other side of the Charles Bridge is called the Lesser Side, and the neighborhood at the base of the bridge is the Mala Strana. Its full of cafes and small shops, and many Embassies. The Lennon Wall is opposite the French Embassy.

Further along is the Memorial to Victuims of Communism created by the Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek. The memorial shows six bronze statues depicting a single individual standing on a flight of stairs. Each statue is in a different state of decay representing the different stages of the individual’s destruction under the Communist government. It was one of the most moving sculpture I have ever seen.

There is a bronze strip that runs along the center of the memorial, showing the estimated numbers of individuals that faced state repression during the Communist era: 205,486 arrested; 170,938 forced to exile; 4,500 died in prison; 327 shot trying to escape; and 248 executed.

Our guide told us his experience with the Soviet occupation. He said the Soviets had taken the joy and innovation out of the country, you had to watch what you said, everything was substandard, and there was limited food.

In 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell he was a student at University. Protests were happening at the Town Square and he joined in. His parents tried to discourage him, they said it would do no good and nothing would change, but it did.

It was a moment that precipitated the end of communism in Czechoslovakia, a peaceful overthrow called the “Velvet Revolution.”

During the 1970s and 1980s, many Czech and Slovak artists were put in prison or forced to emigrate. Dissidents were often harassed and sometimes imprisoned for speaking out against the regime. Those who signed the Charter 77 declaration of human rights were arrested, interrogated, and lost their jobs.

The Czech economy was weak, and many Czechs were bitter that the USSR controlled their economy for its own benefit. Czech farmers had to follow Communist Party guidance on what to produce and efforts to modernize farming were discouraged.

A bronze plaque at the sculpture reads: The memorial to the victims of communism is dedicated to all victims not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism. From 1948 to 1989 the country formerly known as Czechoslovakia was ruled by a Communist regime which saw widespread political persecution visited upon the country’s citizens. The victims of this tumultuous time are remembered by the Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

Charles Bridge

The Charles Bridge was started in 1357 is lined with 30 monuments of various saints. It replaced a bridge that was built in the 12th century.

I knew the buildings in Prague would be wonderful, they are more so than I imagined, these don’t even scratch the surface.

Up next! Berlin and Amsterdam. Did you miss Part 1 of the trip? Read it here.