Friday, November 20, 2009

Sightseeing Florence : Oct 6, 2009

We only got into Florence (Firenze) at about 4pm. And after hunting down our apartment and settling down there weren’t much daylight left. Most museums were already close, so we decided just to walk around Florence, to get ourselves familiarized with the city for the next day!

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or more commonly known as the Duomo (Bottom Left) is within minutes walk from the apartment. We passed by the Duomo everyday, during our 3 days stay in Florence. The Duomo is certainly the most impressive architecture I’ve seen in Florence. The exterior of the Duomo looks like a candy cane of green, white and red marbles. Construction of this Duomo began in 1296 and was completed structurally in 1436. The facade of the building was only completed in the 19th century. 

Details on the facade of the Duomo was certainly intricate (Bottom Right). That picture is the detailed carvings on the entrance to the Duomo.

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Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates Of Paradise (Bottom Left) @ Battistero San Giovani which was located across from the Duomo.This is just the replica, the real thing is being exhibited in Museo dell' Opera del' Duomo.

Wandering around Florence…we came across perhaps what used to be a fountain (Bottom Right) placed in some square.

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We saw a couple Italian guards dressed almost like the Swiss guards (Bottom) at an entrance of a building, with nicely dressed men going into it. We did not know what was going on there and then, and found out that it was some Florence government function of some sorts on TV later that night. I couldn’t resist those cute outfits!! Haha!

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