Loggia de' Lanzi and the Palazzo Vecchio,
with the gleaming, gigantic figure of Michelangelo's David against
the dark gateway. This, more than the Piazza del Duomo, is the centre
of Florence.

The Palazzo Vecchio was for centuries called the Signoria, being the
home of the Gonfalonier of Florence and the Signoria who assisted
his councils. It was begun by Arnolfo, the architect of the Duomo and
S. Croce, at the end of the thirteenth century, that being, as we have
seen, a period of great prosperity and ambition in Florence, but many
alterations and additions were made--by Michelozzo, Cronaca, Vasari,
and others--to bring it to what it now is. After being the scene
of many riots, executions, and much political strife and dubiety,
it became a ducal palace in 1532, and is now a civic building and
show-place. In the old days the Palazzo had a ringhiera, or platform,
in front of it, from which proclamations were made. To know what
this was like one has but to go to S. Trinita on a very fine morning
and look at Ghirlandaio's fresco of the granting of the charter to
S. Francis. The scene, painted in 1485, includes not only the Signoria
but the Loggia de' Lanzi (then the Loggia dell' Orcagna)--both before
any statues were set up.

Every facade of the Palazzo Vecchio is splendid. I cannot say which
I admire more--that which one sees from the Loggia de' Lanzi, with
its beautiful coping of corbels, at once so heavy and so light, with
coloured escutcheons between them, or that in the Via de' Gondi, with
its fine jumble of old brickwork among the stones. The Palazzo Vecchio
is one of the most resolute and independent buildings in the world;
and it had need to be strong, for the waves of Florentine revolt were
always breaking against it. The tower rising from this square fortress
has at once grace and strength and presents a complete contrast to
Giotto's campanile; for Giotto's campanile is so light and delicate and
reasonable and this tower of the Signoria so stern and noble. There
is a difference as between a beautiful woman and a powerful man. In
the functions of the two towers--the dominating towers of Florence--is
a wide difference also, for the campanile calls to prayer, while for
years the sombre notes of the great Signoria bell--the Vacca--rang out
only to bid the citizens to conclave or battle or to sound an alarm.

It was this Vacca wich (with others) the brave Piero Capponi
threatened to ring when Charles VIII wished,