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| Florence, Italy |
| Florence is a wonderful city and was one of our favorite. (I feel like we say that every time...hehe) It is the perfect size---small enough to remain quaint and large enough to be buzzing with people and activity. It rates high among the most beautiful places we have ever been with its brilliant architecture, winding river, scenic piazzas and Tuscan scenery. |
| At the heart of Florence is the Arno river. It is a beautiful place to watch a sunset (featured above and above right). In the pictures below are some fine examples of the Tuscan arcitecture. The one on the bottom right is of a bridge that hovered gracefully over the river. It was less of a bridge actually and more of a shopping center lined with interesting and classic stores and crowded with people gazing at the river or just enjoying the ambiance. |
| Since its very beginnings Florence has been a place where artists have flocked. Artists as great as Michael Angelo have walked upon its winding roads and the city has many piazzas dedicated to the love of art and artists. The picture on the left is of an ancient sculpture of a man proudly displaying a severd head (interesting. . .), and the one below is of a modern artist that has selected a less permenant but still beautiful medium for art (aka. . .the middle of a street). |
| Just like any Italian city Florence had many wonderful churches. This impressive church and surrounding monuments are typical of those in the Tuscan region of Italy and entirely different from anytihing we had seen up until this point. With its intricate marble and striking colors, this architecture seems to have combined both classical and more modern genres. |
| Speaking of churches, we stayed in one. It was an old church in which Dante (author of Dante's Inferno) once presided. The current master of the house was a crazy priest and during our first encouter he danced around and sang "I am a chicky monkey and I come from venus." But he was very nice, and set us up in an apartment with a terrace on the top of his church. During one of our walks of the city we found a take-out mexican food place, not having eaten mexican food since we left the US we were very excited and decided to put the terrace to use and have a romantic dinner with mexican food (in PJ's). HOT STUFF...Aye Yay Yay! |
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