Florence, [Walk Around 2]

Warning: There are a couple of pictures of official reproductions of the world–famous statue by Michelangelo; David.
  He’s naked. But he’s also a statue.
  If you’re up–tight or super religious or something; You’ve Been Warned. 
   Seriously. 
     You can see his little carved…Erhgh–hurm. If that bothers you please go do something else.
Also: There’s a statue of Perseus and Medusa’s head. It’s copper or something, but still kind of gross.

Detail: San Lorenzo windows.

Detail: Piazza della Repubblica.

This thing is actually really cool, I was wandering around the Piazza della Repubblica and I noticed this big clump of people, all staring at a thing. So, like a human I had to know what this thing that was so interesting was.

It was a company of american students, and an italian teacher–type guy. He was telling them about where the old roman town was, and he was illustrating it on this thing, which turned out to be a map of the city for blind people.

Detail: Awesome door.

Detail: Awesome door TS

Detail: Awesome door finial.

This is not the real david, it’s a reproduction outside the Palazzo Vecchio, which is not even the building he’s in. But the real one looks just like this.

Note the People standing up in the bottom left–hand corner.

You’re probably familiar with Medusa, {Greek story about a witch–type person with snake hair that turns people to stone. Gotta love those ancient greeks.} Well, Perseus is the guy who snuck up on her and cut her head off. This is a statue of Perseus. And Medusa’s head.

Archway; Palace–Uffizi.

Detail: Ceramic.

{Loggia Mercato Nuovo}

Artichokes are one of the things you can get in Italy where they’re good, and cheap. 

Here you can see that a decent artichoke costs only about .67¢ USD.

These are some dried tomatoes. 

You can buy these bow–ties from the street vendor selling “Silk And Cashmere” scarves.

When no–one was looking I opened one up and had a look. 

Pre–tied.

So, basically, Garbage.

This is the Duomo, wich just means cathedral. It’s really called the ”Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore” but everybody just calls it the Duomo. It’s pretty obviously the biggest cathedral around, and the best landmark for navigating the town.

 We’re going to have a bunch of better pictures of it later, it’s getting it’s own post. 

Florence used to have a wall, but like all walled towns it kept neither the romans out nor the people in. 

And then it grew out of it’s old britches.

This is where Michelangelo’s David used to be, before they moved it to the Galleria dell'Accademia ostensibly for ‘Preservation’ but really I think because you can’t charge tourists €9 a pop if the thing is just sitting outside somewhere. 

This is not HDR. Layer masks! But aside from brightness and colour adjustments this image is unedited. I had to adjust the brightness and colour because my camera couldn’t capture all the bright and dark areas.

Detail: Lamp–post at the Pitti Palace.

Detail: Lamp–Post at the Pitti Palace, with people for scale.

Italian Vignette: Street Scene.

One Black Bicycle

I wasn‘t kidding about the scooters, you guys.

Detail: A horse’s head.

Wine bottles three feet tall.

It’s crazy the stuff they sell to tourists.

Detail: Goofy lion door–knocker

Detail: Kick–board

Italian vignette: Super–intricate door and a ton of scooters.

Italian vignette: Trattoria inside!

Italian Vignette: Really scary alleyway. 

I mean, It was completely empty. And once Dad and I walked through it, there wasn’t anything scary in there, but still.

Bicycle, black, establishing.

Italian Vignette: My favourite bicycle picture.

Everywhere in Italy, teeny–tiny cars.

Which i’m in favour of, because it’s pretty d*mn terrifying when a tourist bus passes you on one of these streets. 

Dad. I think I have some pictures of him smiling, somewhere.

But they’re never the good ones.