Italy from South to North – Day 7: Florence

I planned today’s itinerary around my teleworking obligations: I had to attend an online session at 10 o’clock, with my working day beginning at nine. That being the case, Aron and I still had some time in the morning to spend walking around Florence. We decided to cross the river and hike up the southern hill, where the Piazzale Michelangelo offered us a lovely view of the city, especially Florence’s massive dome.

Having eaten a fresh croissant for breakfast, I hurried back to our hotel, where I managed to connect in time and worked for a few hours. Luckily, my session ended very early, and Aron finished his tour of the Galileo Museum in the meantime. We met again on the Piazza del Duomo, where we joined a queue to enter the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Although we found it less ornate than the other churches we saw on our trip, we thought the ceiling of the cathedral’s dome was beautiful. It depicts the Last Judgement, with Jesus facing the viewer and the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse lining the uppermost level. 

After leaving the Cathedral, we continued to the Basilica di San Lorenzo. Somewhat austere for the burial place of the Medici (and Donatello), it does have a very striking exterior, which would perhaps have been more impressive if it were not so totally eclipsed by the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore. The basilica was just a short walk away from the central market we had picked out for lunch: I had some pasta with gorgonzola sauce, and although I tried the tiramisu and the buontalenti ice cream flavours, I found them a bit too sweet and settled for chestnut and stracciatella.

Our final stop for the day was the Pitti Palace complex, which includes the Gardens of Boboli in addition to its sprawling art collection. The gardens were quite pleasant, though it is a shame that the neighbouring trees obstruct the otherwise perfect view of the cathedral. We found the palace itself less lavish than the royal palace of Caserta, but its beautiful ceiling paintings impressed us (as well as jogging our memory on mythological symbology).

Ponte Vecchio
Ponte Vecchio as seen from Piazzale Michelangelo
The view from Piazzale Michelangelo
Palazzo Vecchio
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
Another view of the Old Bridge
Dante's Purgatorio
The ceiling of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
Jesus presiding over the ceiling
A clock at the cathedral
The Basilica of San Lorenzo
A painting at the basilica
An elevated tomb
Another view of the basilica
A heron in the Gardens of Boboli
A statue in Boboli
The view from Boboli of the Church of San Salvatore al Monte
Another view from Boboli
The view from Boboli of the cathedral
A hall at San Salvatore al Monte
A painting of a religious procession at the palace
An allegorical painting of a fallen soldier
The Old Bridge

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Southern Delhi and Other Bits and Pieces

Image
On my last day in Delhi, I managed to cross off the last few items on my sightseeing list. I began by packing my luggage, all the while congratulating myself on having remembered to ask the hotel to do my laundry in advance. That finished, I ordered an Uber to Akshardham, a massive Hindu temple east of the Yamuna River. The opening hours of the temple are not well advertised, and when I arrived by the front gate, I learned it was still closed. For a few minutes, I took pictures of the temple from afar, when suddenly an autorickshaw driver approached me. He reasoned with me that since the temple would not open until ten, I had better come with him and see other sights. I had to admit the soundness of his reasoning and gave him my next address.
Read more

India: Day 9 – Independence Day

Image
Tuesday the 15 th was Independence Day. I woke up in the morning to find a scorpion in the bathroom, whom I clobbered to death with a flip-flop. I figured that leaving it alone to go seek help might give it a chance to hide somewhere and threaten us later. I paid off my karmic debt in a few minutes by letting a trapped cicada out of the house. Having lodged itself between a shoe and the door, the insect zoomed off into the garden when I threw open the door and pushed the shoe out.
Read more

India: Days 5-8 – On a tea estate in Darjeeling

Image
I woke up a few minutes after four this morning as Sparsh began to rouse the house for our journey to the train station. Frantically but methodically, we washed ourselves and packed the last of our belongings before loading them into three cars and piling the fourteen-headed group inside them. The ride was smooth. Although I had been woken up a few times that night by the loudest thunder I had ever heard, the roads did not seem dangerously wet, and indeed, it was early enough in the morning that the lack of traffic added considerably to my feelings of safety.
Read more