Florence
Florence is a wonderful, historical and romantic city. There is the usual array of churches and historical buildings and many of Michelangelo's works are here including the statue of David. There are lots of other statues dotted around the city and in one spot, Pallazzo dell' Vecchio, there are more than a dozen statues dating back to the 1500's.
There is a copy of the statue of David here, but we also chose to visit the Galleria dell Academia where the original one is. He is quite impressive, being over 5 metres tall (17 feet) and incredibly detailed, including veins on the forearms and triceps. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures of the real thing.
We spent a lot of time around 'The Duomo', where we went into the church itself, up the Bell Tower and also onto the roof of the Duomo. The views from above were incredible-as was the climb to get up there. We were in the queue to do this for 2 hours so were relieved that it was worthwhile. At least with two of us one could wander off and look in the shops and in fact we visited the nearby Baptistery separately while the other stayed in the queue. The Baptistery has amazingly detailed mosaics on the ceiling while the church has the usual array of paintings and relief's.
Inside the Dome
Outside - from the tower
The Tower from the Dome
As usual we wandered around the city seeing most of the sights including the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge from mediaeval times that wasn't bombed during the war. This bridge has jewellery shops along both sides, but despite trying hard Tracy couldn't find anything to buy.
For dinner we found a small deli that had pizza (square) in the window and a few tables inside. We bought some pizza and found a reasonably priced bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge. The shopkeeper approved our choice of wine (with a smile and thumbs up) and opened it for us, then placed two plastic cups on the bottle. The wine was very nice as was the pizza - which was charged by weight - and it was a fun and cheap dinner.
After dinner we walked to Piazzale Michalangelo for views of the city and to watch the sunset. Both were spectacular.
Our second day in Florence was spent walking to some buildings we hadn't made it to the day before. We spent a large part of it on the opposite side of the river walking next to a preserved section of wall, past the Boboli gardens and up the hill to Fort Belvedere - which is now closed to the public following some deaths there a few years ago - we think people falling off the walls. We saw the Santa Croce Basilica and are kicking ourselves that we didn't go in as we found out later that Michaelangelo's tomb is there. There comes a time when your feet have had enough.
We both really liked Florence and as usual spent many hours and walked many kilometres exploring side streets as well as the normal tourist sites.
We spent a lot of time around 'The Duomo', where we went into the church itself, up the Bell Tower and also onto the roof of the Duomo. The views from above were incredible-as was the climb to get up there. We were in the queue to do this for 2 hours so were relieved that it was worthwhile. At least with two of us one could wander off and look in the shops and in fact we visited the nearby Baptistery separately while the other stayed in the queue. The Baptistery has amazingly detailed mosaics on the ceiling while the church has the usual array of paintings and relief's.
Inside the Dome
Outside - from the tower
The Tower from the Dome
As usual we wandered around the city seeing most of the sights including the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge from mediaeval times that wasn't bombed during the war. This bridge has jewellery shops along both sides, but despite trying hard Tracy couldn't find anything to buy.
For dinner we found a small deli that had pizza (square) in the window and a few tables inside. We bought some pizza and found a reasonably priced bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge. The shopkeeper approved our choice of wine (with a smile and thumbs up) and opened it for us, then placed two plastic cups on the bottle. The wine was very nice as was the pizza - which was charged by weight - and it was a fun and cheap dinner.
After dinner we walked to Piazzale Michalangelo for views of the city and to watch the sunset. Both were spectacular.
Our second day in Florence was spent walking to some buildings we hadn't made it to the day before. We spent a large part of it on the opposite side of the river walking next to a preserved section of wall, past the Boboli gardens and up the hill to Fort Belvedere - which is now closed to the public following some deaths there a few years ago - we think people falling off the walls. We saw the Santa Croce Basilica and are kicking ourselves that we didn't go in as we found out later that Michaelangelo's tomb is there. There comes a time when your feet have had enough.
We both really liked Florence and as usual spent many hours and walked many kilometres exploring side streets as well as the normal tourist sites.
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