Florence

This was my first view of Firenze (that's "Florence"; pronounced "fi-ren-zay"). Many of its buildings are stuccoed with this yellowish hue. There are no skyscrapers, and really no modern-looking buildings at all. Every building has a red roof, in accordance with city code.

Florence has the most beautiful streets. The hallway above the arch over the street in the first picture is part of a private passageway -- over a kilometer long -- connecting the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti art galleries.
Here is a lovely medieval street: it would be an alley by today's standards. To conserve valuable land, the Florentines would build their residences around these narrow, winding paths. Cars are almost nonexistant in the middle of this city, and its medieval structure is why. Bikes (motorized and not) are everywhere. Can you tell that Florence is the perfect place for an anti-automobile ped like myself?
We walked past the Church of Santa Croce (that's "cro-chay"), which looks nice in the dark. There is scaffolding on many of Florence's buildings, because the city needs almost constant restoration. Incidentally, I was happy to discover that my digital camera is an excellent collector of light and takes nice night photographs.

Our first full day in Florence began with a walking tour. We saw some great names: "Purgatory Street" and "Hell Street!"
The building in this first picture is very old and attractive; however, it was recently converted into a trendy clothing store. Such a co-existance of differences is common in a city like Florence: after all, Italy holds some of the most incredible Western history of all, yet it can still be on the cutting edge in entertainment and fashion. I still don't approve of the building being an apparel shop, though.
We also were able to see the beautiful Arno for the first time in daylight. These old-style bridges are really quite fantastic looking -- they were, in fact, demolished in one of the World Wars and later rebuilt. The only bridge that remains intact from its 14th-century construction date is the Ponte Vecchio (literally, the "Old Bridge"), which was harmed but not destroyed by the bombs. You can see a pretty good picture of the Ponte Vecchio on the third page of this album.
A closer view of a bridge:

This isn't the real Michelangelo David, but it is a very good copy. The real thing stands in the Galleria d'Accademia, and I got to see it as well. The original statue used to stand where this replica now does, but it was showing wear from weather and needed to be sheltered. The scaffolding around him in this picture is unfortunate but unavoidable. And while we're on the subject of David, I do believe that I can strike a pretty decent David pose. Especially considering the fact that I am neither nude nor male. I would also like to point out that I am as stylish as an Italian.

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