Florence – Firenze

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Wednesday 3.2.210 day 112
Florence - Firenze
We stayed here last night and then got up and ripped out the pages of our lonely planet book as there was so much to see and we did not want to take the whole book with us and headed straight to the piazza del Duomo it dominates the town the Santa Maria cathedral took 150 years to build. Brunellechi won a public completion to build the dome he was a gold smith by trade The Dome is the largest unsupported stone dome in the world. We had a coffee and pizza for bfast in the piazza. Next to the Duomo is the 11 century Romanesque baptistery. We went to the basilica di san Lorenza and the palazzo Medici Riccardi. We also went to the Plazza delia Signoria the hub of the citys polical life though the centuries. Ammannati’s huge fountain of Neptune and a copy of Michelangelo’s David and a copy of Donatello’s Marzocco. There are lots of other statues there as well as the signs of government. Close to that is the Uffizi Gallery designed and built by Vasari in the second half of the 16th century at the request of Cosimo de medici. It originally housed the government offices. Vasari also designed the corridoio Vasarino a long private corridor that links gallery with the palace. The Gallery houses the Medic family’s private collection. It houses the worlds single greatest collection of Florentine art. We then went across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge across the Arno this bridge is covered in jewellery shops. It is the only bridge not blown up by the Nazis in 1944 some say on Hitler’s express orders other say that the German commander disobeyed the orders. We walked to the Palace Pitti. We then walked back over the Vecchio Bridge to the Basilica Di Santa Croce it was free to enter last time I was here but now cost €5 to get in. It has a grand interior and is full of tomb’s of famous Florentines like Michelangelo, Dante, poet Vittorio Alfieri, Galileo Galilei, Nicolo Machiavelli, Gioacchino Rossini. The original statue of Liberty by Pio Fedi there is also works of art by Donatello and Brunelleschi and part of the rob of Saint Francis Assi. Just around the corner is the Casa Buonarroti which Michelangelo used to own also went to The Galleria Academia that houses Michelangelo’s David. We were so tired and cold after doing all this that we went back home and went to sleep.

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