Florence

Florence used to hold a special place in my heart. It still does, but not the same manner as Rome. When I first went to Florence in 1979, I do not remember the vast crowds and hoards of people. The city is too crowded for me today. I enjoy the sights, especially the region around the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio. I enjoy shopping in Florence, as the fashion and jewelery are not found anywhere in the world like they are in Florence. My pictures focus on what I like to look at and what draws me back to this city. I would like to go back by myself some day and spend 2 days walking to places I want to see. This trip did not allow me to get to some of the locations I love to see, but I did see the heart of Florence!
You cannot understand the Italians nor the city of Florence if you have not read the Divine Comedy by Dante Allighieri. Being the first major work in Italian, it is comparable to Beowulf in English. It is the story of who is who in Italy and in the late middle ages and what the Florentines thought of them. It is a road map to the history of what will become modern Italy. Many of the images painted by the artist of Italy go back to the Divine Comedy, so to Dante!

This is where it all starts, the Palacio Vecchio, The Old Palace. It is here that the Medici start their empire. The stones that built the Old Palace are the stones taken from the other towers in Florence that the Medici had destroyed and then used the stone to build this one and ONLY tower in the new city they built.

The Ponte Vecchio, Old Bridge, is famous for the gold shops that line either side of the bridge. It was the only bridge crossing the Arno River that was not destroyed, be design, by the Americans as they liberated Italy from the German occupation in World War II. I include two shots of the bridge, one up close the other from a park near the region of the New Palace or the Pitti Palace of the Medici.


And of course we MUST remember it is ME that is traveling and I am NOT the most safe person about. I can slice my hand with a dull butter knife, so when I see help near by I try and make friends because you never know when I may need a bit of first aid!


Thus was Florence seen, and remembered by me in this trip...