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Florence, Italy
FROM ITS SUMPTUOUS ART AND SHOPPING TO ITS ADORING MEN who whistle from every street corner, Florence, Italy celebrates the feminine. Grab a pair of designer sunglasses, tie on a silk scarf, and go!
Florence is awash with paintings and sculptures that honor the voluptuousness of women. “After a few hours of strolling through these museums, you realize that it is O.K. to be curvy, to have a little chicho,” says Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, a Latina from the Bronx. “In fact, it makes you feel beautiful!”
Start with the Uffizi, keeper of the luminous Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. Painted in the late fifteenth century, this masterpiece depicts the Goddess Venus emerging from the sea as a full-figured woman atop a seashell (which, in classical antiquity, is a metaphor for the vulva). Some scholars say that Venus and the other female figures in the painting represent a trinity of Mother, Daughter, and Holy Spirit. Next, visit Titian’s Venus of Urbino. This controversial piece depicts a young woman reclining nude on a bed while gazing straight at you, her left hand coquettishly covering her pubic area. A dog, symbolizing fidelity, is fast asleep in the background while maids dig through a chest, presumably for something for Venus to wear. Mark Twain may have called her “the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses,” in his travelogue, A Tramp Abroad, but Venus still packs in the crowds, 500 years and counting. The Uffizi is located at Pizzale degli Uffizi 6. Advance booking is often required.
After drinking in the female form, move on to the Galleria dell’ Accademia at via Ricasoli 60 to behold the male. Here stands Michelangelo’s most heralded piece: David. Carved from a 19-ton block of marble, this exquisite statue lends credo to the artist’s claim that the body is “a divine creation; a beauty without peer.” But for years, David’s pisello, or rather his lack of one, has attracted the bulk of the attention—just 5.91 inches on a 14-foot man! In 2005, however, the Dutch Institute for Art History deemed this size “normal” for someone fixing to take on Goliath.
Shoe fiends should then head to the newly renovated Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, accessed via Piazza Santa Trinitá 5. The eleventh of fourteen children, Ferragamo is said to have made his first pair of shoes at age nine, after learning his parents couldn’t afford shoes for his sister to wear at Communion. He went on to craft functional works of art for princesses and movie stars, including Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren, and Bette Davis. Prance up the red carpet staircase to the museum on the second floor, which showcases Ferragamo’s grandiose collection that dates back to 1927.
By now you must be ready to shop for your own art. Florence has great taste, with boutiques specializing in everything from cashmere-lined leather gloves to glass-beaded jewelry—and many items are handcrafted in century-old workshops nearby. For handmade paper, drop into the mother-and-daughter-owned bookbinding company, Il Torchio, located at Via dei Bardi 17. The Farmacia Santa Maria Novella at Via della Scala 16 sells cologne and other potions made from recipes concocted by seventeenth-century Dominican monks. If you prefer your fragrances custom-made, stop by Lorenzo Villoresi’s laboratory at Via dei Bardi 14. Italian readers should visit the Libreria delle Donne, a terrific women’s bookstore at Via Fiesolana 2/B. Find a job, tutor, or roommate on their community board.