Here were are in Florence and driving in circles trying to get to our hotel as the authority kept closing streets to buses to enable traffic to flow better. Yeah right! However it gave me the opportunity to snap a picture of this lovely sunset on the sixth pass over this bridge.
The Duomo in Florence is one elaborate building to say the least. The dome that you see in the background was absent and wide open for 200 years because no one knew how to construct a dome. Then Brunelleshi came along, said that he knew how to do it and it was done in 16 years. The interesting part is than when he was finished he destroyed all paperwork so that no one could copy his work and architects and engineers of today have not been able to figure it out. You can climb up into it but it's about 400 steps and we certainly weren't up to that.
A group of statues near the top.
Check out the details on the building. All of this was done over a span of a hundred and seventy years. The nice part is that they have cleaned the side that I'm showing here of a thousand years of dirt and grime. and it is well worth the effort to do so.
The front view.
Zooming in on the circular window near the top.
Really zooming in. Just a single statue is breathtaking but when you combine the marble details the rope effect in the carvings and the intricate patterns the ability of the craftsmen is mind boggling.
We didn't go inside but the interior is apparently subdued in comparison.
The main entrance door to the cathedral.
The door to the Baptistery. It took twenty one years to make a twenty eight paneled door of bronze which is on the south side of the Baptistery. This one of gold took twenty seven years to make and faces the Duomo. His entire career was spent making two complete sets of doors. The original had panels of solid gold but during a severe flooding of the town due to the dam breaking, it was underwater. When the waters receded, the panels were found blocks away from the location and so they were replicated and the originals are safely stored away.
A close up of one of the panels.
There are so many stories in the pictures and panels of these religious buildings as well as the homes. I think it might have been due to illiteracy of a high percentage of the population.
The view of the tower and dome from the other side. Cleaned and in the process of being cleaned.
Now we are in the Piazza Signoria. The fountain has Neptune as the central figure, apparently the likeness of Cosimo. The fountain and two other statues are in front of a building that used to be the town hall. It was seized by Cosimo de Medici as his own property and turned into a home for his wife and numerous children.
This is the closest we got to seeing a statue of David. We arrived on a Monday and all the museums were closed so we could not get in to see the original David. It has been moved inside to preserve him. The statue in the fountain is glaring at David.
David is looking at Hercules and Cacus
Before long the seized building (which is huge) wasn't big enough for the wife and so it reverted to being the town hall again. Cosimo was afraid of assassination during his walks to work so he built the corridor above the shops on this bridge for his safe passage from his new home to the town hall.
Another view.
These three statues are in the same Piazza Signoria
This is Perseus with the head of Medusa, a bronze done by Cellini
This one is Hercules slaying the centaur Nessus by Boulogne and Francavilla
This is Rape of the Polyxena by Pio Fedi
A personal comment here, most of the statues and a lot of the pictures were full of violence. Today we think crime is bad but if these art works are true depictions of the time then we are fortunate to be living in current times.
The interior of the "town hall" when it was a home.
The name of the town hall is the Palazzo Vecchio if anyone wants to check for more information.We wanted to see more of it but you are not allowed to take backpacks in and mine had my valuables so no way was I leaving it with anyone.
We closed out our day with a Be My Guest Tuscan dinner at a residence outside of Florence called Fattoria Di Maiano where we had a lovely dinner and incredible wine in this peaceful setting.
This is also where the movie Room With a View was made. They make a marvelous olive oil here.
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