Florence

---

Day 10 - Florence

I'm afraid I didn't do Florence justice :-( Being slightly hungover and generally really tired from all the travelling, we headed into the centre of Florence on a very warm day to be greated by thousands of tourists. I did manage to last for most of a guided walking tour of the city though.

It's another beautiful city which is considered by many to be the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. It is the capital city of the region of Tuscany and has had many famous inhabitants including Florence Nightingale, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, etc.

Our first stop was the Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) in the Piazza Santa Croce. This building (as is all in Florence) is very ornate with striking colouring. The exterior is marble with the 3 different colours coming from Carrara (white), Prato (green), and Siena (red). There seems to be a theme of wicked doors in Florence and this place was no exception. Outside in the sqare is the statue of Dante. Personally, I reckon he looks like Terence Stamp in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

We then wandered through the streets, including going pass the house where Michelangelo lived with his family. We stopped at the Duomo of Florence (the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore) which is very famous for its Dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. There is a statue of Filippo looking up at his dome across the street. The Cathedral complex also includes Giotto's Bell Tower and the church proper, the Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery of St John). This is believed to be the oldest building in Florence. The detail is incredible. The facade holds hundreds of statues and is extremely ornate. Going with the general Florence door themes, there are number of large bronze doors each intensely decorated. There is no minimalism here!

Onwards we wandered through the Piazza della Repubblica and into the Piazza della Signoria. This is an L-shaped square (how can a square be L-shaped??) surrounded by the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery, the Loggia dei Lanzi (Gallery of Statues) and much more. It is filled with statues, fountains, and people.

The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence and is a massive, gothic fortress-palace. It's entrance is decorated with a number of statues including Michelangelo's statue of David (now a copy as the original has been moved to the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts - which had too long a queue for me this day). There was also the "bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I" by Giambologna (1594), The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1575), and "Hercules and Cacus", by Bandinelli (1533). It is basically an open-air gallery. Walking through the Gallery of Statues made me feel that I had wandered into The Chronicles of Nadia and the witch had turned everything into marble statues.

At this point our guide continued, but me and Amy flagged. We ditched the tour and wandered to the Uffizi Museum. The queue here was also too long for us, so after some pictures of the statues of those artists re-incarnated as 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (for some reason I missed Raphael??) we headed back to the hotel for a Nana nap.

It was a quiet group of people that headed out for dinner. I think everyone needed a bit of time out so most of us had an early night.

---

Photos

Basilica di Santa Croce
Basilica of the Holy Cross - the principle Franciscan Church of Florence.
Situated on the Piazza Santa Croce. Believed to have been begun in 1294.

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore
Known just as the Duomo of Florence.
The cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence. Translates to "Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower".

Palazzo Vecchio
The town hall of Florence. Overlooks the Piazza della Signoria with its famous David statue as well the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi

Durante degli Alighieri
Better known as Dante Alighieri or simply Dante - Florentine poet who wrote la Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy).
I think he looks like Terence Stamp!

Streets of Florence
With Palazzo Vecchio (Town Hall of Florence) in the background

Filippo Brunelleschi
Florentine architect - designed the Cathedral Dome. He is looking up at his work.

Battistero di San Giovanni
Baptistery of St John - believed to be the oldest building in Florence.

Detail on the Bell Tower
The white marble is from Carrara, the green marble from Prato, and the red marble from Siena

One of the Cathedral's Bronze Doors
The three huge bronze doors date from 1899 to 1903 and are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna.

Piazza della Signoria
In front of the Palazzo Vecchio

Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria
Bartolomeo Ammannati (1563-1565)

Entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio
With ornamentive marble frontispiece and the two statues - David (by Michelangelo - a copy as the original has been moved into a museum) and Hercules and Cacus (Baccio Bandinelli)

Loggia dei Lanzi
A building housing a large number of statues on the corner of the Piazza della Signoria, right next to the Uffizi Gallery.

Loggia dei Lanzi
The Gallery of Statues

Tower seen from the Uffizi

Leonardo Da Vinci
Statue outide the Ufizi Gallery. (I was trying to capture all 4 of the TMNTs)

Michelangelo
Outside the Ufizi

Donatello
Outside the Ufizi