Toby’s take on Florence, Part the 1st

Florence is busy. More so then Venice. Not sure I’d want to be here in the high tourist season when it’s 1) hot and 2) has a fuckton more people. But, on to the pictures…

Outside the Uffitzi museum. More perspective stuff.

Outside the Palazzo Vecchio. For the gamers – this tower is a synchronization point in Assassin’s Creed 2. Note there were no haystacks around.

Inside the palazzo. As usual, I like natural light.

Also note the floor in the second one with the rounded stones. That’s hundreds of years of use.

And also in the palazzo – bees! Or at least a hexagonal ceiling.

One of the other big attractions is the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. It often just gets called “Il Duomo” because that’s the name of the dome on top of it. I don’t have a snap of the cathedral, because I didn’t take one. But here’s the adjacent bell tower:

Inside the cathedral, we have a 24-hour clock that runs anticlockwise, counterclockwise, widdershins, or fucked-up. Take your pick.

This place was lit with too much artificial light, but I got one shot I liked. Didn’t come out as nice as I’d hoped, but whatever. (The altar is pretty much behind me in this shot.)

But the big attraction of Il Duomo is In Duomo, or specifically the Cupola on top. You can go up there. It’s 455 steps, in cramped and narrow passages. Seriously. I’m a masochist, so I did it. But I hate people, so I waited until the last slot today (18:30 local) to go. Worth it:

Yeah – that’s the bell tower, and I’m just a tad higher up than it. (Think this is another AC2 sync point. Or maybe that was the bell tower.)

Some people were complaining about the haze. Fuck them – it added atmosphere.

You can look up pics of the dome elsewhere. But here’s a close-up of the funky brick work used. Taken from inside the dome itself. The shitty quality is because there were people behind me and I was trying to not hold up the line.

And here’s a wooden crocodile on the bank of the Arno, because why the hell not?


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