At the time I snapped this shot, we were traveling at 208 kilometers per hour and it hardly felt like we were moving! Now, much of the terrain between Bologna and Florence is mountainous and hilly, so we spent a lot of time in dark tunnels. At one point when we popped out between tunnels, I clocked us at 250 km/h. For those not familiar with kilometers, that is 150 mph! The train can hit speeds of 360 km/h apparently, but we weren't that lucky.
In less than two hours we were in Florence! My sister-in-law is very good at finding nice places to stay and helped us find an apartment about 0.5 kilometers from the famed Ponte Vecchio, the Pizza della Signioria, and other central points. Thanks, Diane!
We joined a full day tour of Florence. Almost needless to say, the tour included the famous statue of David in the Gallerie dell' Accademia Museum.
Carved by Michelangelo without a model when he was a relatively young man (1501-1504), this statue was to be the symbol of Florence. Now, there is a duplicate of this statue in the Piazza della Signoria, where the original stood for hundreds of years, until 1873. But it does not compare to the real thing. Sonya calls the statue "a model of the perfect man". Huh! I have nothing to say on this!
Michelangelo was an incredible sculptor.
He even captured the veins on the neck and the arms. Although you cannot necessarily see it in the first sculpture, David is ready for a fight. His whole body is tensed with anticipation, and the vein in the neck and the arm shown above, are replicated throughout the statue in the arms and the legs. Incredible!
Our guide stopped at a shop along the way and allowed us to peer through the glass window of a shop to watch some artisans creating statues. These are replicas for statues that are presently outdoors. There are ongoing efforts to created replicas so that the original statues can be relocated to museums and restored to their original splendor, much in the same way that the David was moved to the Accademia (but in 1873).
While we were on tour, there were a lot of artists plying their trade and selling their wares. Sonya, the people photographer, could not resist capturing some of them in action. Here are a few of her snaps.
You wonder if they lived here from childhood and were inspired by the roots of the Renaissance that run deep in this city.
Or if they moved here because of the art reputation of the city?
Now, we never saw anyone actually stopping to buy any paintings, so it is difficult to know whether or not they can actually make a living doing this.
In a prior post, we showed you the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, shown here once again. Have a look at the dome, and the lantern on top of the dome.
And now a bit closer look:
At the top of the dome and the base of the white lantern, you can see people standing. The lantern is 35 meters tall, built many years after the completion of the dome, bringing the total height of the dome and lantern to 114.5 meters (375 feet), or about 38 stories. Pretty impressive for the 1296 - 1436 period!
I mentioned in the earlier post that the dome was used as a model for St. Peter's and other Christian churches. There were additional challenges for Brunelleschi when it came time to construct the dome. It was built while the church was in use, so the use of wood scaffolding from the centre to support the dome was not an option. Brunelleschi used bricks to build the dome, in a herring bone pattern which allowed the dome to be self supporting, while it was being constructed. It remains the largest brick dome in the world. Engineers and architects today are still trying to figure out some of the finer points of how it works.
Speaking of street scenes, when we were back in our apartment having dinner, we heard someone singing just down the street, but could not figure out if it was a man or a woman. She sounded pretty good from the window of our apartment, so we headed down to the square.
She sounded good enough to try and capture a video.
I caught the last minute of this song. You decide how good you think she is!
On our last full day in Florence, we wandered about and took in a few more sites, including the Museo Galileo, a museum dedicated to the history of science.
Here is a quote about Galileo from Wikipedia:
Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of pendulums and "hydrostatic balances", inventing the thermoscope and various military compasses, and using the telescope for scientific observations of celestial objects. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the observation of Saturn and the analysis of sunspots.
Now Galileo believed that the Sun was the centre of our solar system, whereas most believed that the earth was the centre of our solar system. This got him into serious trouble with the Catholic church at the time, and they accused him of being "vehemently suspect of heresy". This was the second most serious accusation of heresy in the church at the time, and it earned him house arrest for the rest of his life. He was forced to recant, but was purported to have said, you will see that I am right. He was of course ultimately proved correct, but it was only after his death. In fact, it was not until 1992 that the Vatican admitted that Galileo was right!
Back to the museum - There were so many cool models in this museum of everything science that it almost boggled the mind. We leave you then with this picture of an Armillary Sphere, one of the machines built around the time of Galileo to show either the sun or the earth as the center of the solar system.
You figure out which one!
Now we are onto Sicily (pronounced See Chee lee ah here)!
Ciao ciao,
SnP
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