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We got up about 7, expecting to take a walking tour of the city this morning. After breakfast, we walked over to the train station to check out the route and to catch the tour. The directions on the voucher left a lot to be desired... We were to meet at one corner of a very large square. That narrowed the meeting spot down to an area the size of a football field... As far as we knew, no one else had shown up at all. After waiting in the sun for over 20 minutes, we walked back to our hotel for my usual melt-down. Talking with the clerk at the front desk, it seems we were about 100 yards from where we were to meet the bus for the tour.
We decided to chalk it all up to experience and tackled the city on our own. We spent the rest of the day walking around Florence, seeing most of the major sights.
We started by walking to the vicinity of the Baptistry and the Duomo, going into the Museo del Opera di Duomo (no photography allowed) and the Baptistry. Fantastic mosaics on the ceiling the Baptistry. The Museo has the original doors to the Baptistry - the ones called the Gates of Paradise. We were going to go into the Duomo, but the line stretched around the corner and down the block. It was quite long.
The photo on the left above shows part of the long line for admission to the Duomo. This just shows the line after it has turned the corner from the front of the church. It continued down the side of the church and around the next corner. This photo only shows about half the length of the church... The photo in the center shows part of the Doors to Paradise and the statues above the door. The door and the statues are reproductions. The originals are contained in the Duomo Museum. The statues show the baptism of Christ. The photo on the right shows part of the ceiling mosaic of the Baptistry. Baptistries are frequently separate buildings from the churches. Traditionally, one must be baptized before allowed into the churches and cathedrals, hence, they were in their own buildings.
The three photos above are of the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence. The one on the left is a detail of the carvings over one of the side entrances to the cathedral. The center photo shows part of the famous dome and the sides of the Duomo leading up to it. The photo on the right is of the Bell Tower, which was once attached to the cathedral, but no longer is.
The photos above show some of the store windows we passed during our wanderings. The one on the left is of silk scarves. The one on the right has flower boxes in front of a store with some strangely colored mannikins.
We had lunch at one of the many restaurants in the Piazza della Republica, then continued on to the Piazza della Signoria with its many statues.
The photo on the left above is Neptune, part of the Neptune Fountain in the Piazza della Signoria. The photo in the center is a detail of another part of the Neptune Fountain. A pigeon seems to have made itself at home on this nymph's head... The photo on the right above is of a reproduction of Michelangelo's David, also located in the Piazza della Signoria. The original David has been moved to the Academia, but originally stood in this location.
We walked through the courtyard outside the Uffizi Museum, which there was a lot of construction going on, to the banks of the Arno river. There, we watched the scullers row up and down that stretch of the river.
We walked over the Ponte Vecchio (or Old Bridge), which is the only bridge over the Arno to survive the bombings of World War II. We ran into Barry and Dinah (from the photo workshop) on the bridge. She had bought a pretty ring that needed resizing and they were picking it up. They had to leave from Rome that evening, so were just about ready to leave town.
On the far side of the Arno, we spent some time in the Piazza Santo Spirito, which is less touristy than most of the piazzas in Florence. Some of the locals were playing chess in the piazza, including one pair playing on an oversized chess set. The chess pieces were about two feet in height.
Then we crossed back over the Arno on the Santa Trinita Bridge.
We then walked to Santa Maria Novello. The facade was covered with scaffolding as renovations were going on. That was a shame. It's such a pretty church.
We went from there back to the train station, where we verified that the pieces of paper we had been given in Kingsport really are our train tickets to Venice and that we don't need anything else to board the train. We spent some time watching the trains come and go and the hustle and bustle of the train station. Watching some of the other passengers, we figured out how to validate our tickets in the yellow machines and just what you do with your luggage - sling it on board, where there are some places to stow it. We felt greatly reassured that we had the whole procedure figured out.
So we walked back to the hotel for showers. Dinner was back at the Piazza della Republica at the more famous of the restaurants - the one with the red tablecloths. The wait staff must be resting on their reputation, as service was excruciatingly slow!
The highlight of the evening was watching the nearby carousel and attempting to photograph it in motion.
The three photos above are of the carousel in Piazza della Republica. The one on the right was taken when the ride stopped.
This photo shows the moon over the triumphal arch that dominates one side of the Piazza della Republica. The arch was built in 1895 to commerate the establishment of the Italian Republic with Florence as its capital. Florence remained the capital for five years, when the seat of government moved to Rome.
We stopped for gelato cones on the way back to the hotel, where we checked email at the computer in the lobby (next to a 13th century well) and did a little laundry. Finally got to bed about 11:30. It was a long day.