Florence, Day 2: Climbing the Duomo

The mission: climb the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. 325 feet. 463 steps.


The climb is broken into 3 sections. First, you climb to a lower gallery (directly below the stained glass windows), then to an upper gallery (directly above the stained glass windows), and then up to the cupola.


A few flights up, there is a small room with some statues that have been rescued from the facade. They were very dirty.



The nave, seen from the lower gallery.


I have no idea what kind of crazy person would go out on that little ledge, but there is a door and steps to get there. The door was quite thoroughly locked.


The frescoes on the dome.



Huge wooden beams. The beam in the middle was something like 16-18 inches thick.


The design of these steps did not induce in me a great deal of confidence regarding the engineering skills of Brunelleschi. In some places, these were the stairs up and down. Supposedly, it get pretty crowded in here, which sounds miserable and smelly. On the plus side, the very final set of steps is very steep so, if you get stuck behind a girl in a skirt, at least you get a nice look at her bum on the way up. I was there first thing in the morning, so it was nice and cool, and not crowded at all.



The steps up and over the dome.


Looking down over the roof of the dome.


Because of the pedestrians, skinny streets, and lack of traffic, the city center has a "small town" feel. In reality, Florence is pretty freaking huge.


Giotto's Campanile.


The Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.


Jogging down very long spiral staircase = dizzy. This also shows how the stair were built, which I thought was pretty neat. Each segment contains not just a step, but also part of the central column and part of the exterior wall.

Florence, Day 1: Florence by Night

Bars, nightclubs, fancy dinners, dancing! Hah, no, just bridges and lights.

Looking downriver from the Pointe alla Carraia.


Looking upriver from the Pointe alla Carraia. You can see the Pointe a Santa Trinita and the Pointe Vecchio.


The Pointe Vecchio, seen from the Pointe a Santa Trinita.

Florence, Day 1: Bardini Gardens

Admittance to the Bardini Gardens is included in the ticket for the Boboli Gardens (what a deal!), and just a short walk away through the back gate and past the Belvedere Fortress.


I was kind of running out of steam at this point (pushing 32 hours with only 2-3 hours sleep, already went to the Uffizi, 90 degrees out, several miles of hiking in brutal sun), so I didn't take quite as many pictures.

But there was a terraced (steep!) garden.


And some weird, man-made (I assume) grotto with a neon sign sitting in it. ("Stimmung" means "tendency" in German. I have no idea whether this is profound, or even meaningful.)


A small fountain feeding a stream.


A man-made waterfall.


You can also see some of the ancient city walls.


Oh hey, it's the Duomo. I wonder if you will be seeing more pictures of that at some point? Surprise, you will! That other tower, which looks taller than the dome, isn't really. It is actually the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, on the Piazza della Signoria.

Florence, Day 1: Boboli Gardens (cont)

These are just some random pictures from other parts of the garden.

Another view of the fountain.


A small sunken courtyard at the rear of the palace.


What the fuck is this? I have no idea. There is a bunch of modern art around the gardens. I thought it was mostly pretty ugly and generally just designed to make it hard to take nice pictures...


This was a pretty cool building. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is. I apologize. As I said, Google is convinced that everyone in Italy speaks Italian, so I'm having trouble doing any productive research.


The Large Grotto. Quite weird. One thing of note is that it contains (now just copies of) Michelangelo's "Prisoners" (which, of course, I did not realize at the time, as I didn't get to Accademia until Saturday).

Florence, Day 1: Boboli Gardens

Finally, something I can take pictures of. Take pictures, I shall! As you move south from the Pitti Palace, you see...

A fountain and knot garden.


The gift shop.


Some kind of amphitheatre. Maybe. Those stone wall looking things are actually bleachers, I think.


The Poseidon fountain. I assume that, at some point in the past, it wasn't covered in a thick layer of grime and algae.


The scariest steps ever. These things were incredibly steep, pretty long, and not in very good repair. There was a thin wire that ran down the side, but I think it was more to indicate that you weren't allowed to walk on the grass, as opposed to preventing you from tripping and tumbling to your death.


A giant statue of something or other.


A very cool staircase.


Another fountain and knot garden.


Some cool random views from the knot garden.

Florence, Day 1: Uffizi

I would love to post some of the awesome pictures I took in the Uffizi. Unfortunately, the pictures Nazis at the gallery don't let you take any pictures, so I don't actually have any. And, because Google senses that I'm in Italy and automatically assumes that I speak Italian, I'm even having a tough time Googling up some pictures that other people have taken.

Edit: Well, I'm finally back, so I can look up images of things that I saw and would have taken pictures of if I could.

Hi, I'm perspective, have we met?


Giotto. In just a few short years, Renaissance man discovered the third dimension. There was much rejoicing.


It isn't clear in the picture, but words are shooting out of the angel's mouth at Mary. Sunday morning comics are just around the corner.


The right side of the duke's face was badly scarred during a tournament. It is convenient that his wife had something wrong with the left side of hers, such that they would be painted in this symmetric way.


Botticelli.

and


Leonardo da Vinci.


Medici Venus.


Before I left for Italy, I spent a little bit of time on Wikipedia, reading about the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. So, I walk into a room in the Uffizi, look up and see this, and think to myself Wow, that looks an awful lot like the Sistine Chapel. Weird. Surprise, it is one of the few paintings by Michelangelo.


Raphael.

and

and a self-portrait.


Titian.


Parmigianino. Boy, does she ever have a long neck!