Firenze! It’s everything everyone told me it would be.
The Renaissance! The risotto! The river Arno! The Duomo! The Medicis!
The Ponte Vecchio! The gelato! The art the art THE ART! Meraviglioso!!!
My head was spinning from the sheer volume of great works I saw.
ALL the biggies are here, in one place! Boggles the mind. Things I remember from college, things I’d forgotten, exquisite things I had never seen in my life, things that brought me to tears. Three days isn’t nearly enough time to see it all. You need that much time just to shop properly (which I did not do. see? now I need to go back). If you’ve got to pick one place in Italy, this is it. It will never leave you. And please, don’t bring a huge suitcase. Trust me.
Hotel Toscana
Florence’s Duomo...
...Santa Maria del Fiori
Duomo Baptistry
THE Ghiberti Doors!
Piazza della Signoria
Palazzo Vecchio...
former Medici home
Loggia dei Lanzi...
Rape of the Sabines
(Giambologna, 1583)
Hercules and the Centaur (Giambologna, 1599)
Rape of Polyxena
(Pio Fedi, 1866)
the Piazza from the Uffizi
more postcards? si!
sunset on the Arno...
...Julie on the bancomat
formaggi !!!
Mercato Centrale...
more scarves? si!
streets of Firenze...
The Uffizi Gallery
Uffizi bathrooms
too cool to not photograph
what an original idea
along the Arno...
Ponte Vecchio...
only bridge not destroyed in WW
you know what goes with the Arno? GELATO!
more Arno...
On the Ponte Vecchio...
lots of gold jewelry...
chicks with gelato...
...statue of Cellini
master goldsmith of Renaissance
entrance to Boboli Gardens...
...behind the Pitti Palace
ahhh! dinner at La Giostra
oooooh. romantic.
this is where your euros go...
La Giostra
Jesus is cool...
Piazza Republica
more Firenze graffiti
rainy day along the Arno
lookin’ for Jim’s dollar bill
Smart Car
moon after risotto
part of the old wall...
view of Florence from
the Piazzale Michelangelo
yet another David copy
Nancy, Julie and me
me and Nancy
good luck to take wedding pics at historical places...
Santa Croce
Michelangelo’s tomb here
outside in the piazza
a puppeteer!
yes. that’s a Ray Charles puppet
Bargello Museo Nazionale...
...a sculpture museum
...that’s a former prison
