Italy - Florence (Part 2)

Ponte Vecchio.  Once home to butcher shops that used the Arno River for waste disposal but now full of jewelry shops, this iconic Florence bridge was built in 1345. 

Click to enlarge photo.  This is the view across the river.

Then we walked back to the Duomo (Cattedrale de anta Marie del Fiore, or St Mary of the Flower Cathedral).  It was time to hike the campanile's 414 steps.  I believe there were four resting areas during the climb where you could stop, catch your breath and enjoy the view.

This photo and the next show some of the detail on the campanile.

The climb begins.

Most of the rest of these photos show the views from each resting level.

This is the Duomo Baptistry all encased in scaffolding for restoration.  We visit it later in our trip.

Looking down to the level below.

Looking down through a floor grate as we climb higher.  We started off by walking the exterior walls so we were doing squares.  On the upper levels we were doing tight spirals as we stayed in one corner of the tower.

Click on the photo to enlarge.  The dome is the Cathedral's dome.  What we will climb the next day.

The tower is the 94 meter Torre d'Arnolfo on the Palazzo Vecchio.  The Palazzo, or palace, and the loggia (building with three arches) was where we saw all the sculptures in Piazza Della Signoria the day before. 

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

This photo is interesting because you can see the window to our room from here.  See the two dark green trees that are touching each other in the lower right quadrant?  The left one's top is right at the window to the bedroom.  Our bathroom faces another direction so you can't see it.

From here you can see that the top of the Duomo is higher than the top of the campanile we are standing on.

Going down.

Finally back at ground level.

So this is the view from our bedroom window.  Actually what I saw when I was sitting in bed.  See the Duomo on the left and the top of the Campanile on the right with the two trees in the middle?

Oh, did I say Italian cities have lots of scooters?  Well that would be an understatement!  They're everywhere because a lot of the streets are too small for cars.

A huge construction truck.

Another small car.



Next first stop the next day was to the Museum of Precious Stones.

Click to enlarge to read information about the museum.

This is an explanation on what you are seeing in the next photo.

Absolutely amazing the beauty you can create by laying different stones side-by-side.  I wonder how long it took to make...



Laurel and olive garland from previous photo 

Top of the table shown above

The glare from the light coming in the windows made it hard to take photos.

One wall had display cases of many different kinds of rocks and told where they came from.