Firenze & Pisa

24 - 26 August

Lindsay and I left Venezia for Firenze (Florence) with honestly not much of an idea what we were in for passing through the Tuscan part of Italy. Turns out Firenze is one of the artistic and architectural gems of the world with a very long history of such. Names such as Dante and Michaelangelo are from Firenze, as well as the likes of Galileo.

So where to start? How about the third largest church in the Christian religion, which dominated the skyline as we walked into town...

Poking up through the streets is the Campanile (free-standing bell tower) of...

The Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Duomo, which was too large to fit into one photo. Way too large.

Exquisite decorations on the Duomo front entrance

Part of the eastern door on the Firenze Bapistry by Lorenze Ghiberti, nicknamed as the Gates of Paradise by Michaelangelo

Inside was vast, there's not much other word for it.

The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is one of the many bridges over the River Arno that winds its way through town. The bridge itself is covered with shops - almost exclusively expensive jewelers - but also makes quite a nice photo.

Ponte Vecchio & River Arno, with some of the seemingly Firenze-iconic brown houses

Lindsay & I on the Ponte Vecchio looking over the river

From the Ponte Vecchio we headed into the central square, Piazza della Signoria, passing up the Piazzale degi Uffizi, which we discovered was surrounded by sculptures of some of the most famous Florentines around - including this guy:

Galileo Galilei (and some other guy)

The Piazza itself is home to a copy of the world's most famous sculpture, Michaelangelo's David. We didn't go and see the real one - an expensive entry fee and long queues unfortunately. I liked the look of this guy better anyway, on the Fountain of Neptune with the Florentian skyline behind, in the late afternoon sun.

Fountain of Neptune in Piazza della Signoria

We had a quiet evening and headed off the next day for the small town of Pisa for a morning trip, just over an hour or so by train from Firenze. I read in a travel guide that Pisa is a "lovely town, with so much more to see than the famous leaning tower". I'm afraid to say I disagree - it's all about the tower and the church beside it, which together make up the Piazza dei Miracoli ("Square of Miracles", from an Italian writer's description; officially Piazza del Duomo). However - that is a sight to see...

Torre Pendente - the Leaning Tower. It's not leaning that much is it?

Whoah! Heavy! Maybe it is leaning...
(Sorry for the stereotypical tourist shot... But sometimes, you gotta be a tourist!)

Piazza dei Miracoli - the Duomo (church) and tower

The leaning tower was originally intended to be the bell tower for the church. It leans due to very poor marshy foundations underneath, and I understand it was quite the feat of ground engineering to get it to leaning in a stable way for the sake of heritage (and tourism of course!). I would've been quite interested in the engineering behind it, but couldn't find out very much.

I think one of the most amusing sights to see though was everyone else trying to mimic the same photo I've got - tons of people were perched on these short posts leaning comically, and it's utterly hilarious to watch... "Move your right hand back a bit"...

Ahh, tourists. Classic.

Back to Firenze again, we had most of an afternoon to spare and headed up to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, a small square on a hilltop to the south of the city. There, the views were quite something over the town centre.

Firenze skyline with the Ponte Vecchio over the River Arno at left, the central tower marking the Piazza della Signoria, and the Duomo at right

Lindsay contemplating another part of the Florentian skyline

Lindsay, myself and the view on yet another gorgeous European summer's day

We got some gelato to relieve the heat from walking up there, took a few more photos and headed back to our hostel for an early train the next day. Destination? The centre of yet another ancient empire - Rome...