Florence, [Walk Around 1]

  So I had a wonderful trip to Italy recently,  I went to Florence, mainly, but also Rome, Lucca, Fiezole…Others? God, So many places I forgot about some. The point is I took a ton of pictures.
  Blogger doesn’t handle albums very well, I kind of thought Facebook did but they keep losing my captions and randomly deciding I’m a spammer.
  They also decided that Michelangelo’s David {You know, the world famous statue?} constitutes “Nudity”.  HE’S A STATUE NOT A REAL PERSON AND HAS BEEN NAKED SINCE THE FRIKKIN’  RENAISSANCE. .

  Sorry, american totalitarian censorship really gets my goat, especially when it randomly deletes my work.

  Anyway, this blog is going to be my hard copy.  There’s 64 pictures in this folder, I’m going to post 32 today and 32 tomorrow,  because that’s kind of a lot for anybody to look at.
  Subject Matter: General things in florence, {wall details, a hat shop, other cool stuff.} NOT the big tourist stuff like the Ponte Vecchio or the Duomo, because I’m working on specific posts for those.

[//Run.Program//Mindnumb]

Pink Umbrella.

Florentine Street

Van Gogh Umbrella

The First time we {Dad and I} woke up in Italy we were severely jetlagged. 

So much so, In fact, that we woke up at 4:30. 

Pro tip: absolutely NOTHING is open at 4:30.

Detail: Florentine window grate.

Detail: Italian Roofs.

Early morning italian roof landscape. 

Universita Degli Studi.

{University of Study}

There are so many scooters in this country it’s not even funny. 

Spookily empty room at the Stazione Santa Maria Novella.

{Florence Train Station.}

Detail: Amazing lamp post at Piazza San Marcos

This was a really cool little coffee shop across the street from the Stazione Santa Maria Novella {Florence Train Station} They sold really good coffee {Like literally everywhere in Italy} 

But they also sell vintage film cameras, old movie cameras, and 1950’s sitcom dad pipes. 

Florence in Italian.

{Florence Train Station}

All the coffee in Italy is good, {Even the hole-in-the-wall places seem to know the “Heat Up the Metal Components” trick.} Except the stuff in the hotel. 

Seriously, avoid hotel coffee.

Detail: Shot from the Uffizi of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Detail: Italian Windows

This is the Piazza Della Republica, built in the mid-1800’s when Italy became a country. 

Fun Fact: This is where the old Jewish Ghetto used to be.

Detail: “Our city centre used to suck, then we built a monument and now it’s great.”

{Loose Translation by me.}

This is a very stereotypically Italian scene.

{@ Loggia del Mercato Nuovo}

If you don’t know anything about hats you’re about to learn something. 

Borsalino is like the Rolls-Royce of hats, Expensive, wonderful and italian made. 

So, really more like Ferrari.

I went in to look around, the people were very helpful and very nice even though I told them I was just looking, I found a hat I liked and it was €250. Which is…$341. Which is a lot. But it was so lovely.

This one is a woman’s hat.

This is a borsalino hat box. I really like their logo.

They’re really into sheep here. I’m not sure but I think it was the founder’s zodiac.

Carousel at the Piazza Della Repubblica.

Detail: Carousel Waiting area.

Apparently the tradition is to rub the boar’s nose? 

One thing I found out in Italy is that Wild Boar is super delicious, It’s like slow–cooked ham, but heavily seasoned and great.  

Ask your italian waiter for Cinghiale.

{@ Loggia del Mercato Nuovo}

This doesn’t look like such a great camera shop from the outside, {I mean, who still sells Kodak Film?}
But inside they’ve got any sort of camera thing you would need, cameras, lenses, Manfrotto tripods, everything from Leicas to an EOS M. 

Bow tie Display

{Near Ponte Vecchio}

The Palazzo Vecchio, town hall of florence and adjacent to the Uffizi. I didn’t go in the the Palazzo Vecchio but I did go in the Uffizi. There are a ton of really old paintings of the baby jesus and madonna, the gift of the magi, and then the renaissance happens and its all old roman stories where apparently people mainly ran around naked. They even had a couple of Dürer’s, so that was cool.

 The Uffizi is also where Botticelli’s “The Birth Of Venus” is located. 

This is where I bought my first brand-new album, a three LP set of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald Duets.
Nearly $50, but SO WORTH IT.

This is the Basilica Santa Maria Novella, the namesake of the train station.

That day Dad and I woke up at 4:30 we walked by here and that attached forest on the right is 100% birds first thing in the morning. That was terrifying. 

This is the Basilica of San Lorenzo which there are going to be more pictures of later but for right now here are some details of the courtyard area.  

 The Basilica of San Lorenzo, columns.