Mon 11.Jul.2016
Firenze, Toscana, Italy
Florence! That key ingredient, without which no tour can claim to be Italy!
Watch any TV game show. When somebody wins a trip to Italy, where does it take them? Rome,
Venice, and Florence. Nothing else, always those, and nobody complains.
It leaves a whole lot
of Italy open for indie travelers, or even
more adventurous package fans.
That said, the Big Three are worth seeing at some point. Florence can dazzle.
They have a duomo here too. (It is Italy!)
Unlike Orvieto and Siena, which decorate their duomi with prison stripes,
Firenze's duomo sports riotously gaudy patterns of red, green, and shades of off-white;
a dome by Brunelleschi (inventor of perspective); a bell tower by Giotto; and a sensory
overload of flashy work by other famous renaissance artists.
We'll see more of the duomo in upcoming posts. For now, let's watch people trying to
photograph this fascinating, frustrating target.
It is impossible to get a good full view of this sprawing, intricate structure. On the sides,
other buildings are too close - you need to shoot straight up.
From the piazza in front of the duomo, the view is blocked by the cathedral's own baptistry
and bell tower.
If you enjoy people watching, there are plenty of people at the Piazza Del Duomo to do it on.
A grand colonnade by the Piazza Della Republica.
Does any city have so many piazzas as Firenze? Seems like you can't walk three blocks without stumbling
into one.
Need a touch of home? I found this pretty decent Chinese restaurant within about fifty meters
of Piazza Della Republica.
Across The Lazy River
South across the river Arno, this little street winds uphill to a great scenic view from Fort Belvedere.
The fort was closed the day I hiked up there.
In the upper part of the street, a house sports this sign. My Italian is fragmentary; mostly I guess
from Spanish or Latin. Near as I can guess, the sign says that in 1609 Galileo Galilei, having mastered the
use of something, began the astronomical observations that led to the discovery of the "Medician Moons" of
Jupiter. In English, those are now called the Galilean moons; in Galileo's own times, Medician was
probably a smarter way to go.
Sunset in the maze of streets between Santa Croce and the Uffizi.
From the side, you could see that this guy is stepping off of the Ponte Alle Grazie into the river.
The light and background made for a better picture from this angle, so you just have to take my word
for it. Or go see for yourself. You won't regret it, unless being broke afterward is a problem for you.
Actually, you could say that about Italy, period.
Open air sculptures in the Piazza della Signoria.
At first glance, the guy in the center appears to have things in hand, so to speak.
Piazzale Michelangelo, with a view to rival that from Forte Belvedere.
Brunelleschi's
famous dome is visible on the duomo; the tower left of the palm tree is at the Piazza della Signoria,
next to the Uffizi.
San Gimignano
The modest hill town of San Gimignano is a popular day trip from Firenze.
I did just that with three friends, one of whom lives in Firenze now.
San Gimignano is famous for a skyline from medieval times, when the town's families
competed to build tall family towers.
That is a first scattershot look at Firenze.
Maybe I can fill in some of the gaps with the next post.
Ciao!