The day after our reinforcements from Rome arrived, we took the bus to Firenze (Florence).Florence is a very famous city - there are all kinds of legends about it - they say Napoleon would not let his troops loot and burn Florence because it was too lovely. As the birthplace of the Renaissance it has a special place in history.
While we were there only for the day, we saw the Ponte Vecchio, the David, the model David and a bunch of other statues outside City Hall, the Duomo, the Baptistry, Dante's home, and any number of other things which passed by in a blur while we marched around the city - led by an indomitable woman tour guide who must possess the legs, lungs and heart of a Thoroughbred race horse. I know she walked me near to death, and I'm pretty sure she's a good 40 years older than I am.
I won't be able to do it justice, and to be honest the memories are fading since I waited so long to post about this part of the trip - so if you're interested in reading more about Florence check out this link here. And from me, you're welcome to all the pictures you can carry.
Statuary outside City Hall
David's Mini-Me...
I fell head over heels in love with this lion. I have a billion pictures of him.
Views on the Street
Sandy's initals!
As we were walking towards a meeting place, look who we bumped into enjoying a cuppa...
The Straw Market
Local legend states that anyone rubbing the boar's snout will get married within the year. Nora is rubbing some insurance.
Look, it can't HURT, right? Just in case?
Italy is probably some kind of cow Hell.
The Ponte Vecchio
You see this sort of architecture a lot in Florence - the streets could not be narrowed but the houses needed to be bigger so they built OUT on the second floor and up. Crazy looking.
The Duomo and Baptistry
Renaissance ideals - three dimensions
This is my favorite sequence of shots from the trip. Joel is trying, in vain, to get low enough to hear what the tour guide is saying. He's really tall.
And then he gave up, and just rocked an amazing pose instead.
Photos are not allowed inside the museum where the David resides, but take it from me, he's HUGELY tall, has enormous hands, and is hung like a gnat. Apparently it was considered a mark of nobility. *shrug*
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6 comments:
Ugh. My jealousy rears it's ugly, green head.
And I really need to rub that boar's snout.
Hmmm, if that's how it works then I've known quite a bit of nobility in my life. ;)
Awesome pictures, I love the street ones.
In an effort to find proof re: the nobility thing, I found the most amazingly ridiculous website ever.
http://www.circumstitions.com/Art3.html
They don't let people take pics of the statue of David anymore? That sucks. I'm enjoying these Italy posts. :) My parents and I lived in Faenza and Perugia for a few years when I was a kid and visited Florence. Back then (1980's) we were able to take pics of David. Is the marble holding up good or do they need to do some touch ups from time to time? ;)
~b
This brings back such memories of our trip to Florence! Lovely lovely pictures.
Comments coming slowly as I have much to catch up on.
I can't remember if we could take pictures of David when we were there in 2005. I seem to think we could, but he was so huge that it was impossible to get a good shot anyway.
I'm wandering through your blog because it's that awesome. Goes to show you should always go back and look at stuff before you came along. Thanks so much.
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