Florence with the Kids
Traveling
with children is great fun, but you do have to tailor your museum visits to
meet their needs: My father was an archaeologist, and by the time I was five I
had spent long hours in every major European archaeology museum - though I love
art, I still have an aversion to vase collections.
This doesn't mean that you should avoid the Uffizi just because you're traveling with a ten-year-old -- just that you will have to plan things for your child as well. In Florence you're in luck.
Just upriver of the Uffizi gallery, in Piazza dei Giudici, is the Museum of the History of Science. It has a fascinating collection of all manner of scientific instruments from back when the experimental apparatuses were also works of art, including Galileo's telescopes, Alessandro Volta's galvanometers and batteries, models based on Leonardo's drawings, and surgical instruments of various kinds. It's open daily 9:30-1 and (MWF) 2-7, closed Sunday.
The University of Florence's Museum of Paleontology, Via La Pira 4, doesn't have much in the way of dinosaurs, but it does lots of mammal remains, including several huge mammoth skeletons (most from the Valdarno). As you look up at them you'll understand why it took the Romans so long to defeat Hannibal's army. The museum also has an interesting display on how fossils form. Across the courtyard from the paleontology museum there is a mineralogy museum (go through the arch and turn right), but it's more suited to collectors than children. Both museums are open weekday mornings.
Firenze Com'Era (Florence as it Was), Via dell'Oriolo 24, has scale models of the city at various times and exhibitions of one kind and another. It is open daily except Tuesday, from 9-2.
The
Museo Stibbert, Via
Federico Stibbert, is one of Florence's most interesting and eccentric
collections. Frederic Stibbert was a wealthy Scott who settled in Florence in
the 1800s and proceeded to collect what interested him: Japanese arms and
armor, European armor and weaponry from all periods, clothing, dolls,
furniture, porcelains, and more. The armor collection rivals that of the Tower
of London. In one of the halls there's a
company of 14 mounted
knights, and in another there's the robe Napoleon I wore when he was
crowned King of Italy. The only drawback to visiting the Stibbert is that the
lighting is poor: You should pick a bright day. The museum is open daily 9-1,
except Thursday, and is free on Sunday. Visits are guided and depart on the
hour; the gardens are open from 9 to dusk and are free.
One of the most interesting museums for children (somewhat older ones), open 9-12 weekday mornings except Wednesday, and Sunday 9-1, is Florence's zoology museum, commonly known as La Specola, Via Torrigiani 19. It was founded by Archduke Leopold 1st in 1775 and has a vast collection of stuffed animals, sea shells, birds, and other such things. It also has the anatomical wax models used of old to teach anatomy to aspiring doctors -- not for the faint of heart, but I loved them when I was nine.
If you have access to a car, then things get much easier. San Gimignano is lots of fun, though I wouldn't recommend the Kriminal Museum, a grisly collection of torture instruments off Piazza della Cisterna. Do, on the other hand, visit the Museum of the History of Handicrafts, which has everything from a 17th century doctor's office to a 1920's Fordson tractor (outside Porta San Giovann).
Another town children of all ages will love is Vinci, home of
Leonardo. The fortezza at one end of town has been transformed into a
museum, with models built from the drawings in his notebooks, including
bicycles, irrigation pumps, and even a car. Most look like they would work just
fine, though I have my doubts about the parachute suspended above the entrance.
Text © 1996 Kyle M. Phillips, III
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The photographs were used with the
kind permission of the folks at DadaNet's Proposte Artistiche.