It always amazes me how resourceful the Italians are at finding places to grow things. Hardly a patch of land goes unused. Under railway and road overpasses, and sometimes even in the ditches of highways there will be a vegetable plot planted. Even under power transmission lines, which North Americans want to avoid at all cost, there are garden plots. And if there is a single family home on a plot of land in a community, 95% of the time what open ground there is has a garden planted with a small paved parking space and patio.
Once again we stayed on the outskirts of Florence and took the bus into town after our first day. The first day though, we did try the car thing. We only succeeded in managing to drive 10 km to go 2 kms, saw lots of the town though! We finally found a parking garage, and did a bit of walking. After the openness of Pisa's main cathedral site, Florence's was tightly packed into a relatively small plaza. The first thing we saw was the bell tower of the church, ahead of us down the street, then we were suddenly hit with the full impact of the Duomo right in front of us as we rounded a corner. What a dramatic looking building it is with it's colorful marble stone work. They are in the process of cleaning years of dirt and crime off the stone, and how bright it is in the parts that have already been done.
Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The centre of the city is contained in medieval walls that were built in the 14th century to defend the city.
The domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore is also known as The Duomo. It is the fourth largest church in Europe, its length being 153 metres (502 ft) and its height 116 metres (381 ft). The dome, 600 years after its completion, is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world. Nearby is the Campanile or bell tower and the San Giovanni Baptistery building. There were 411 steps to the top of the Campanile, needless to say, we did not climb to the top!
Baptistery, right foreground, Duomo, center back
What can I say, I love the patterns !
Devotional candles lit in memory of loved ones
A calender
Hanging around the crypt
Hedgehogs? or wild boar?
Inside the baptistery
More patterns - In these floors I can see where many of our quilting and crochet patterns have come from
Next day we returned by bus to continue our look at Florence. Yesterday, we stopped to see if we could get tickets to the Uffizi Gallery and were able to get some for a 12:30 entry. On our way to the gallery we walked along the river, looking at all the bridges. The most important or well known of these is the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts. Although the original bridge was constructed by the Etruscans, the current bridge was rebuilt in the 14th century. It is the first example in the western world of a bridge built using segmental arches, rather than full arches. It is the only bridge in the city to have survived World War II intact. A diplomat managed to convince the Germans of it's historical importance. Instead they destroyed an equally historical part of the city to the south of the bridge.
The bridge has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises. It is said that the economic concept of bankruptcy originated here. When a merchant could not pay his debts, the table on which he sold his wares (the "banco") was physically broken ("rotto") by soldiers, and this practice was called "bancorotto" (broken table or from "banca rotta" which means "broken bank"). Not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything.
The bridge historically was the locale of butchers, but in the late 1560's when the Medici family built the Vasari elevated corridor over top the shops, linking the Uffizi to the Medici residence, the Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti), the butchers were banished and gold shops took their place. The butchers tended to throw their waste and garbage into the river, so the stench was offensive. For at least 200 years the Vasari Corridor was used only as a passageway back and forth between the two residences. The route, even if it was just one kilometer, wasn't just done on foot - a small carriage for two passengers took the Medici and guests back and forth.
The Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio
The Vesari Corridor is the white section at the top of the bridge structure - it extends 1 km
This shows where the corridor comes from the Uffizi and travels down to the bridge
We found this cluster of locks on the bridge - it is said that if you put your padlock on the bridge and throw the key in the river, your relationship will never be broken. It was quite common to see lots of these locks on the bridge until the city introduced a 50 Euro fine if caught attaching objects to the bridge. Apparently considerable damage was being done to the bridge.
Next we were off to the Uffizi Gallery. It is considered one of the top Art Galleries in the world. We saw statuary and paintings from some of the greats in the art world. The collection was started originally as a private collection by the Medici family, collecting artists of the day, and has been steadily built upon over the centuries. We saw works from the 13th to 18th century. Up until about the beginning of the 17th century, almost all the painting were religious based. Often times the patron commissioning the painting, could be found in the picture along with the biblical subjects portrayed. We spent 4 hours viewing all the painting on display. We saw works as diverse as Titian, Caravaggio, Botticelli, da Vince, Van Dyke, Ver Meer, Durer, Mantegna, Canaletto, Tintoretto, el Greco, Bernini, Giotto, Bellini, Rubens and many others I had never heard off. I think this may have been the high point of everything we have seen so far.
Also they had an exhibit of about 50 tapestries from Brussels and France dating back to as early as 1542. It was amazing to see the detail and delicate work that was done to create these mostly large wall pieces. They were as large as 12 X 30. Some of the colors were faded, but in areas you could still see the original intensity of color. I guess after 500 plus years, I might be a little faded too - heck after two weeks of touring I'm faded!!! I just wanted to touch and look closely at them, but if you leaned in or reached to close, a buzzer went off and someone was immediately approaching to give you the "evil eye" and remind you to "Non Toccare".
Unfortunately - we were not allowed to take any pictures so I have nothing to share with you - which may be a good thing, because there would be so many that I would have liked to show you, that you would be looking at this for days.
Looking from inside the Gallery out to the courtyard - the gallery is the two upper floors on either side along with the connecting corridor from which the picture is being taken
In the plaza in front of the tall towered building in the previous picture, are found these statues. The first one is a copy of Michelangelo's David, the original of which is found in another gallery across town.
One of the many buskers dressed as statues out entertaining the people. This fellow seemed to be getting the most attention and making the most money - he was a cheeky cupid offering kisses!
A fine feathered fellow just enjoying the goings on around him. 
A fun playful fountain with Morgana the dwarf riding a dragon
About 6:30, at the end of our day, we came upon this square where there was a 4 piece band playing, kids were playing soccer and people were sitting around on benches and church steps, just generally enjoying the warm afternoon sun. We spent about half an hour here, before heading back to our hotel for the night.
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