Florence is a bustling, busy, beautiful city. It also has more than one railway station, so obviously one should take care to alight at the correct one. Google Maps telling me that the cathedral was 55 minutes walk away was a clue.
Let’s move on.
The city is built around the river Arno, the same river that flows through Pisa and which I saw two days ago.
Soon after crossing the river I came upon the cathedral. It is magnificent and, as you can see in the photo above, too big to easily get into one photo. Next to the cathedral is a bell tower, oddly at 90º to the ground. It begged climbing.
Giotto’s Campanile, to give it its correct name, is 84.7m tall. Originally a spire was planned to go on top whcih would have taken the height to 122m. Even as it is, it is a tall tower. There are 414 steps up, with (thankfully) three intermediate levels for view consideration and breath recovery.
The view from the top is, as one would expect, stunning, although it’s not quite as tall as the cathedral dome.
It was 35º today, and after climbing up 414 steps I took a few minutes to recover before descending the same 414 steps. When I reached the bottom, I discovered I’d lost my hat, an essential item in this heat. The thought of climbing back up to look for it was too much. A new hat was acquired.
Florence is steeped in history and art, the city dating back to 59BC. It’s generally considered to be the birthplace of the Renaissance embodying art, culture and politics.
I visited the Uffizi Gallery which includes works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Michelangelo. They are dramatic to see, but…well, let me try to explain.
I like some art, but traditional art - whilst I recognise the skill and dedication - mostly doesn’t do it for me. It feels wrong to say that, as if somehow it’s uncultured not to like such art.
My art is music. I see immense beauty in some music, both classical and popular, and I’m moved by some lyrics, but a lot of painted and sculpted art isn’t quite aligned with my brain. Sorry.
That said, this was breathtaking:
On a lighter note, this raised a smile (also in the art gallery):
Elsewhere in Florence, a shop that sold only items relating to ducks. I hadn’t previously received advice about how to get luck, and if I’m honest I’m not sure how sound it is, but feel free to try.
It was a long day, hot, partly hatless, but the journey back to Siena sported a full schedule of train / bus /train and I arrived about at 8pm.