Saturday, December 4, 2010

Florence, Italy (Part 5)

Statues - Part 2
WARNING!  WARNING!  

For those with sensitive eyes and do not want to see the back-sides of the statues, avert your eyes now......with those with a sense of humor, enjoy!

Fountain of Neptune

Michelangelo's David
Fountain of Neptune

Florence, Italy (Part 4)

Gardens & Greenery


Giardino di Boboli
Florence in the background


















Fountain at Giardino di Boboli with
Florence in the background

















Trees overhanging in several paths - I got lost in there, on purpose!






Trees overhanging - Love it!












Fountain of Neptune


Fountain of Neptune


Florence

Florence, Italy (Part 3)

Statues

Michelangelo's David
Michelangelo's David






















The Lion - il Marzocco

Loggia dei Lanzi
























Fountain of Neptune

Hercules and Cacus






















Replica of Michelangelo's David at the
Piazza di Michelangelo


Florence, Italy (Part 2)

Bibloteca Nazionale Centrale




Bibloteca Nazionale Centrale or National Central Library in Florence.

Architectural genius with a turret-like structure.  Two of my favorite things in one building - architecture and books!







Florence



Along the Fiume Arno, this is the view looking right. 

The picture below is the view on the Fiume Arno looking left.

Remember, this day was cloudy and raining, better pictures from higher and sunnier day to come....





Florence

Florence, Italy

October 30th - November 2nd

Florence is beautiful, as you will see from the pictures, however, when I was there it rained every day except one.  That put a damper on the traveling; but didn't stop me from taking pictures.

Florence has charm that is difficult to describe; the cathedrals are amazing, vast and the best I've seen in Italy so far.  The monuments and statues are exquisite, especially seeing the David in person.  There is a beautiful garden in Florence that made me miss home more than usual.  There are crowds everywhere and the shopping is unreal - the first time I saw shops that were familiar to me - Footlocker, Benetton, Adidas, Ben & Jerry's, Cartier and so on.

The food, I haven't really talked about the food here.  As you might imagine, it's amazing, although sometimes I feel like I'm getting ready to do the Ironman Canada with the carb loading!  Lots of pasta and bread, wine and pizza.  Let me talk about the pizza here as it's completely different from the pizza back home.  There is no such thing as thin crust, one crust, no tomato sauce, toppings only and no cheese unless you ask for it as a topping.  Here's the best part - a pizza usually costs about 5Euro, cheap!  Living on a budget, it's fantastic!

Okay, Florence, tons of pictures.....several posts, next posts, just pictures.

Cathedral Santa Croce


 

Cathedral Santa Croce.
Another stunning cathedral and vast.  You can see the dimensions from the street light to the right of the picture.
Basilica di San Lorenzo













Basilica di San Lorenzo.
Tree to the right shows the dimensions of the cathedral.






 


Cathedral Santa Maria Novella (below).  This is most beautiful cathedral I've seen in Italy.  It is so big, I couldn't maneuver my camera in any angle to get a picture of the entire thing.  Also, you'll notice in the pictures that there are no people in them; that is because I was able to take pictures of the cathedral above the sight-line of people.  

Cathedral Santa Maria Novella
Cathedral Santa Maria Novella
Cathedral Santa Maria Novella
Cathedral Santa Maria Novella
These two pictures are the back of the cathedral.  If you notice the picture on the left, you will see a glimpse of the circular building on the far left of the picture; the same to the right.






These two pictures are of the cathedral from the front.  The tall structure in the left picture on the right side is the same structure in the right picture.