View from the Piazzale

These five views were taken from Piazzale Michaelangelo on our last evening in the beautiful city of Florence.

The first shot shows a section of the old city wall (Mura di Firenze)that climbs the ridge of the hill and along what is now Via di Belvedere and a view of the Giardino Bardini to the north of the wall.

The next three shots show the calm river Arno with the sun setting behind the mountains and the famous Ponte Vecchio.

Finally you can see the magnificent cathedral with its marble walls illuminated by the lights in the square and with its beautiful golden topped dome.

About The Streets of Florence

In lots of the places I visited around Europe early this summer I took pictures over the rooftops and down in the streets and today I am sharing a few images from around the streets of Florence.

It is a beautiful and colourful city with lots of wonderful and colourful characters.

Now there is a popular belief that Italian people have style and flair. I think the  people in these shots may contradict that; socks with sandals??? The music was good though.

Around Firenze

Well today we have walked miles, about ten miles in fact and so it feels good to finally put my feet up at the end of the day.

I have captured a few random images on out wanderings around museums, cathedrals, parks and the streets of the city. Of course I have also captured some of the more iconic images of this most beautiful city.

The first two pictures link to one of the pictures I shared yesterday where someone has added a snorkeling mask to approximations of classic paintings, they appeared all round the city and so I thought I'd share...

The other two pictures are the sort of images you would probably expect to see. There's an imperfect panorama taking in the Ponte Vecchio, the Arno, the Basilica Di Santa Maria Novella and of course the Duomo of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.

The last is a very soft image of a sunset and the Ponte Vecchio. Hundreds of people had gathered on the Piazzale Michaelangelo to watch the sunset, two couples got engaged and others were having wedding or pre wedding photos done too. It was a nice way to end our time here, as tomorrow we're heading off to Casale Monferrato, a place I know nothing about but hope to have some interesting things to share next time.

Florence by Night

Following on from yesterday's post I have picked a number of images of Florence at night.

The first of today's pictures is of the Ponte Vecchio from the right bank of the Arno.  One of the things Italy is famous for is Gelato, I lost count of the number of times we heard "You gotta try the gelato!".  To be fair it was really good and it was while I was taking the shots of the bridge that we were eating probably the most expensive ice cream cone we've ever had.  Yummy!

Picture two shows the Cathedrale di Santa Maria Del Fiore, the Campanile di Giotto and Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.

The third picture is of the Synagogue 

The next two pictures are again of the Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (il Duomo) and the Campanile.

Apart from the bridge all of the pictures were taken from Piazzale Michaelangelo which overlooks the city on the opposite side of the river.  I hadn't intended to post the statue but it is a bronze replica of Michaelangelo's David and so I thought it fitting to share.