MORE FLORENCE

Florence is just brimming with art.  Check out this beautiful faded Renaissance fresco on the side of a building.


 
 

There was a marathon on the weekend I was in Florence, and so the city was more festive than usual.  I was hanging around the Piazza della Signoria, my favourite place in all of Italy, and suddenly this parade of traditional Florentine performers came out of nowhere bearing flags and marching to an infectious drum beat.


 
 

Shutters!


 
 

Just inside the Palazzo Vecchio, which is now another museum.  The rest of the museum is rather boring, but this courtyard just inside the entrance is quite gorgeous.  So step in, skip the entrance fee and look at this courtyard!


 
 

The interior fresco of Florence's famous Duomo, inside the Cattedrale Santa Maria del Fiore.  If you climb up the Duomo, you get to see the fresco close-up.  There are some pretty funny depictions of hell (along the sides), including a man getting eaten by a blobby demon and some cartoonish devils sticking flaming rods up the butts of sinners.


 
 

Florence's Arno river at night, just before the batteries in my camera died!  By the way, virtually all my night pictures were taken with the Night Feature on my Canon Powershot A60.  The feature keeps the shutter open for a longer period of time, so that more light can go through (this would be a cinch with an SLR), especially if it needs to wait for a flash to reflect off the background and come back.  The downside of the Night Feature is that it's hell to use, because it requires that you hold the camera VERY STEADILY; the tiniest tremble could make the image blurry.  I didn't bring a tripod with me on the trip, so I was constantly depending on flat surfaces to place my camera, or poles and other sturdy artifacts to help steady my hand.


 

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Page 1: London, Amsterdam
Page 2: Brussels, Bruges
Page 3a: Paris (I)
Page 3b: Paris (II)
Page 4: Venice, Rome
Page 5: Florence
Page 6: Nice, Montpellier, Bordeaux
Page 7: Bilbao, San Sebastian, Chartres

NEW! Page 8: More London
NEW! Page 9: More Paris
NEW! Page 10: Even more Paris
NEW! Page 11: The Eiffel Tower Page
NEW! Page 12: More Venice and Rome
NEW! Page 13: More Rome
NEW! Page 14: More Florence
NEW! Page 15: More Nice, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Bilbao