If there is a single piazza in Italy that is the best example of a living museum, Piazza Signoria in Florence is high on the list.  As the political epicenter of the Florentine republic civic life began here.

When the great bell rang cows mood and the Florentines came running. traitors hanged from windows, fledgling masters sketched, leaders imprisoned in the tower gazed down on the great piazza, friars burned at the stake, tyrant slayers stared down their enemies, lions roared, a giant lost its arm, and Medusa calls this piazza home.

All of this and so much more while being hugged by the Renaissance, embraced by the Florence of today, and at night, when the throngs have left you can stand in the center of Piazza Signoria and let Italy seep into your soul.

Over the next series of episodes we will cover:

Judith and Holofernes by Donatello - his only signed work

The Marzocca

The David and its place in Piazza Signoria

Hercules and Caucus

The sight of Savanarola’s burning

The Loggia dei Lanzi

Perseus and Medusa

The Rape of the Sabines

Ajax with the Body of Patroclus

Hercules and the Centaur

and

the Rape of Polyxena