WEEK 2

DAY 12 Wednesday 1 June 2005

Florence

Departed at 0830 for a day in Florence. With local guides for the morning we drove through Florence, across the Arno River and up to the "Panorama Terrace" where a wonderful scenic view of Florence unfolds. From here you can see all of Florence and surrounding towns, the Arno River and many of the large buildings in Florence.

A panorama of Florence from the "Panorama Terrace"

Looking down onto the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio

The Basilica

A copy of Michaelangelo's statue of David in the carpark

We returned to the centre of Florence, parking the buses beside the Arno River then walking the few blocks into the city, first to the church of Santa Croce . Outside is a statue of Dante, and inside are the graves of Galileo, Michaelangelo and Machiavelli.

The original coin Mint in Florence, one of the oldest in the world	A weir across the Arno beside the Mint	Statue of Dante beside the Santa Croce Church
Looking across the Piazza to Santa Croce	A closer view. The statue of Dante is just to the left of the Church	The edge of the piazza. The small sign above the central arch marks the height of flood waters in 1968.
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We then proceeded to the Piazza della Signoria with more statues and the open air museum of art works commissioned by the Medici family when they held power in the region.

White hats in a street in Florence	Unusually plain architecture for Florence	Statue of Neptune - most towns in Italy seem to have one of these
The Ponte Vecchio across the Arno River	Looking further downstream from the Ponte Vecchio	Another copy of David.

We all headed to a local cafe for lunch at 1230 then with time available until 1630, we walked through the city looking at shops and sights, before assembling again beside Cosmo on his horse and walking back to the buses.

Archduke Cosmo Medici

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Last updated: >21/09/2010