Last day in Florence

It was our last day in Florence.  Anne and I went out to wander around and then find the Leather Market so I could buy a handbag. On the way we went past the The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) that we had seen from up on the hill the evening before...

Old buildings lined the square of the church..

We then made our way to the Duomo...

Passing colourful Graffiti...

And an ancient door.  I'm wonder if that was a cat door at the bottom...

'

We met up with the others at the Duomo, and went in to see what it was like inside. I was quite disappointed, it was a lot plainer than I  had imagined...

Looking up in the Dome...

I bought a couple of handbags at the Leather markets.  I ended up getting the same one, one for myself and one for my mother, in different colours. We then went back over the river...

It was here that I realised I wasn't 100% and holding up everyone because I was so slow. So I told Anne to go on with the others, and I went back to the hostel to finish packing and generally have a bit of a rest.

I later met Anne for an Icecream, and we got our luggage, and made our way back to the train station to get a bus to the airport and flew back to Amsterdam..  

Florence, Italy.

The rain of the previous day had left the river a little dirty, but the sky was blue, and it was warming up so we headed out to the Uffizi Gallery.  .

No photographs were allowed in the gallery at all.  I got told off for taking this one...

But I was allowed to take this one of the view from the window of the gallery to the Ponte Vecchio. 

Some of the beautiful artwork in the gallery...  That I wasn't allowed to take photos of.. Honestly, it was my finger, it just pushed the button.

The view from the verandah of Palazzo Vecchio...This massive, Romanesque crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany. Overlooking the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue as well as the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, it is one of the most significant public places in Italy.

And from the reflection in the rubbish bin....

The next two were from the Dutch Painter Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (1629 - 1682). He was a prolific Dutch Gold Age Landscape painter, and is considered the most famous of four Haarlem family members who created landscape paintings, though traditionally their works have been difficult to tell apart.

Ruisdael's favorite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and Hobbema. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage, particularly of oak leaf age, is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt.

He frequently painted coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best.

Unlike the other great Dutch landscape painters, Ruisdael did not aim at a pictorial record of particular scenes, but he carefully thought out and arranged his compositions, introducing into them an infinite variety of subtle contrasts in the formation of the clouds, the plants and tree forms, and the play of light.

Another artist work that I liked.  Unfortunately my photo of what it is didn't turn out in my hurry to take it undetected!

After the Uffizi Gallery, we went to an amazing pizza restaurant for lunch that was hugely popular and I could see why - very lovely food. The back on the Florence streets to explore...  The Florence Cathedral..

After walking around, we climbed the hill for views over the city.  I took a bit longer than everyone to get to the top of the hill!

The Florence Cathedral or The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, stands out above the city. It is the main church of Florence. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting the region of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.

The Palazzo Vecchio standing above the city....

The Basilica of Santa Croce also stands tall by the River Arno. The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south-east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories.

After being on top of the hill for some time, we started back down to the river and noticed the setting sun, so walked quickly to the Ponte Vecchio fror some sunset images...

And like many European Bridges, there were all those locks telling of people's love for other for eternity...

I'm sure we went somewhere for dinner after that, but I can't for the life of me remember what we did! Although it was Steven's last night before heading back to Rome and ultimately the USA. So it was sad goodbyes to Steven.

Our first afternoon in Florence...

We arrived back in Florence, dropped off our rental car and headed to our hostel.  Unfortunately Steven wasn't with us, as the hostel was full, however, we hung out for as long as possible in the meantime together.  This is the view from the hostel window - a view of the Florence Cathedral.

We waited in the hostel resting for the other to arrive.  Jay, Kelly and xx.  Once they had all arrive and we had had suitable amounts of cups of tea and cookies provied by the hostel, we set out to explore..

The River Arno, which cuts through the old part of the city, is as much a character in Florentine history as many of the people who lived there. Historically, the locals have had a love-hate relationship with the Arno – which alternated between nourishing the city with commerce, and destroying it by flood.

This is just out the door from our hostel.

We wandered down to the Ponte Vecchio... Built very close to the Roman crossing, the Old Bridge was until 1218 the only bridge across the Arno in Florence. The current bridge was rebuilt after a flood in 1345. During World War II it was the only bridge across the Arno that the fleeing Germans did not destroy. Instead they blocked access by demolishing the medieval buildings on each side. On November 4, 1966, the bridge miraculously withstood the tremendous weight of water and silt when the Arno once again burst its banks.

We then headed to the Piazza della Signoria to check out all the amazing artworks and buildings surrounding. First up is Bartolomeo Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus.

Benvenuto Cellini's statue Perseus With the Head of Medusa.

The subject matter of the work is the mythological story of Perseus beheading Medusa, a hideous woman-faced Gorgon whose hair was turned to snakes and anyone that looked at her was turned to stone. Perseus stands naked except for a sash and winged sandals, triumphant on top of the body of Medusa with her snakey head in his raised hand. The body of Medusa spews blood from her severed neck. The bronze sculpture and Medusa’s head turns men to stone and is appropriately surrounded by three huge marble statues of men: Hercules, David and later Neptune. Cellini breathed new life into the piazza visitor through his new use of bronze in Perseus and the head of Medusa and the motifs he used to respond to the previous sculpture in the piazza.

The sculpture is thought to be the first statue since classical times where the base included figurative sculpture forming an integral part of the work.

A reproduction of Michelangelo's David...

The Fountain of Neptune is a fountain in Florence, Italy, situated on the Piazza della Signoria (Signoria square), in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned in 1565 and is the work of the sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati.

Neptune...

The Palazzo Pitti (Italian pronunciation: [paˈlattso ˈpitti]), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.

The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.

In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon, and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919.

The palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of this design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres.  Unfortunately it was closed when we were there, so I could only take photos of the exterior.

We ate at a restaurant that we had to queue up for, apparently the best in Florence, so while everyone queue up, I took some photos of the surrounding area, which was very beautiful...

And here we all are - the famous five, plus the photographer (me), not shown!