Rolling Hills

A typical sight in the low hills of the Crete Senesi, Tuscany, south of Siena. Just to post something sunny these days...

The bridges of Florence

I have to post some bridge-pics of Firenze, even if the light wasn't great this time of the day. Huge clouds made everything look sort of flat...
..anyway, here is THE brigade from far away...
..and here from close, in front of the surrounding hills: the Ponte Vecchio (everything is sort of 'Vecchio' :-)

On top of it runs an ancient corridor, connecting Palazzo Vecchio (!) and Palazzo Pitti, the rest are house with a shopfront, mainly goldsmiths.

And lots of tourists, of course..
..and the tourist entertainment industry as well..
View from the other side: the windows of the corridor right under the roof are visible from this side.

Il Duomo di Firenze

Once more a couple of pics from Florence in April. This time it's about the cathedral, the Duomo. Even with the ultra wide angle lens I wasn't able to get a picture of the whole building, it's simply to huge.


Beautiful building with these colored marble walls and the almost unlimited number of details.
On the inside it was rather empty, besides the many visitors.
We climbed the small stairs under the cupola...
..and when we reached the roof the clouds had covered the sun :-(
Nice view, though, over the old city with the red roofs and the surrounding Tuscan hills in the background.

Palazzo Vecchio from above...

...and here's the roof garden cafe of the Uffizi, the famous art gallery (where we had coffee later the same day:-)
Here another fine roof garden, can I get this on top of my Berlin home please? :-)
This one is Santa Croce....this the central market,...
..and here is the railway station Santa Maria Novella, which is a piece of modern architecture in a medieval city.
On the tower next to us people were taking photos, too. We were higher, anyway :-)
On the descent we were able to admire the painted ceiling from close distance, so many things to admire in this city...

Florence Sculptures

Sorting through the Florence pictures from May I decided some of the sculpture pictures justify a dedicated post. Besides the sculptured rapes and beheadings in the Loggia dei Lanzi Menelaus looks almost peaceful..
..while others keep slaying..
..while the lion guards his ball.
No wonder she looks disgusted.
Then there is the one and only, just outside. At the first glance I thought I was watching a mirror ;-)

Firenze - Giorno Uno

First couple of days we had stayed in Florence before moving further south into the picturesque countryside near Siena. So this is about the first evening after arriving in Florence in the late afternoon of a very hot day. The flight from Berlin to Pisa was surprisingly short, the most time-consuming part of that journey was the ample breakfast we had at Schönefeld airport. Then, from Pisa a quick and easy ride with the Italian railroads to Florence where our small but cozy hotel Casa del Garbo, right on the Piazza della Signoria, was awaiting us.
Actually it's so small you have to make an appointment for the check-in because the reception desk is only open during business hours. So we were in a hurry, had to pull our luggage through the crowded city in the heat of that sunny day, pushing through the heaps of tourists. Anyway, in the end the nice reception girl was still there at her desk, the room..or better the suite..was great and the location awesome, so we had big smiles on our faces after all.


After a short stroll in the neighborhood...
..we discovered the small wine bar, where one can taste several of the great wines of the region for only a small ammount of money. They also offer small Italian snacks to have beside the wine, this was the perfect place for a casual dinner which we were looking for. It's located right behind the Palazzo Vecchio.
Later, when we had learned a great deal about the different wines ;-) we went for the other attraction Florence has beside history, culture, architecture: shopping :-)





In the end of that nice day, when we were on our way back to the hotel...
...we discovered, as a big surprise, that just this night there was open air opera on the Piazza della Signoria, playing La Traviata. I can't think of a better place in the world to watch that, it was so exciting. And best of all, after the music had finished, we just opened the door to the hotel right from the Piazza and were home, I bet we had the shortest way home of the whole audience :-)

Back from Italy

...and heaps of pictures to come, soon....

Tuscany sunset

The sunset over the olive trees and rolling hills of Certaldo. Low detail but high emotion, I like this one. Makes me wishing to be there again...

Leonardo

In Florence I met the famous Leonardo da Vinci, probably the most famous combination of artist/scientist of all times, a true universal genius. And I found out that he was born some kilometers west of Florence, nearby the place I stayed. I guess the more than beautiful countryside of Tuscany had a great influence on his artistic skills.
Hopefully staying there for a week has at least a small influence on my artistic skills as well, because it's badly needed...

Il Castello

It's a strange feeling to stay in a medieval castle. I always tried to imagine life at this place some hundred years ago. It must have been nice, at least for the owner. The thing which impressed me most is the fact, that virtually every room, every patio and every staircase is unique in it's architecture. And the gardens are just the same. That's something I miss in architecture nowadays.

La dolce vita

It was one of some unforgettable evenings. We were invited to taste the local wine of the Tenuta di Sticciano, a beautiful gem among the Tuscany wineyards. Beside the beautiful view and the delicious italian appetizers I can testify that the Chianti, Chianti Riserva and the Chardonnay are really delicious.
Fortunately I managed to take a bottle home, but I suppose it's not getting very old :-)