Note: You can click on each image below to view a larger version.
| RIGHT: A view over the city from the top of the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, the magnificent Cathedral of Florence. The church in the centre of the image is Santa Croce, another of the major sights. |  |
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ABOVE: More views over the city. The building with the tower in the center of the image above-left is the Palazzo Vecchio, which has been the center of the city's goveMainTextent since its completion in the early 14th century.
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ABOVE LEFT AND CENTER: The Campanile (bell-tower) of the Cathedral, which was begun in 1334 to a design by the great artist Giotto di Bondone, but not completed until 1387.
ABOVE RIGHT: A detail on the walls of the Cathedral.
| RIGHT: Another view of Santa Maria del Fiore. The Cathedral is closely surrounded by other buildings and enormous numbers of tourists, so it proved very difficult to get a reasonable amount of the building in the frame without the view being blocked by something else. | |
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| RIGHT: Decoration above the entrance to Santa Maria del Fiore. | |
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| ABOVE LEFT: A 16th
century mural of the city, in the Palazzo Vecchio.
ABOVE RIGHT: A bronze panel on the east portal of the Battistero San Giovanni (Baptistry of St. John), known as the "Porta del Paradiso" (i.e. "Gate of Paradise") because of its beauty. |
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LEFT: The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") at the narrowest point of the River Arno, where there has been a bridge of some sort since Roman times (and probably earlier). |
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| The upper storey of the buildings on the bridge is actually a private corridor from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. This was built in the 16th century for the Medici family, the city's rulers, to allow them to travel from one palace to the other without having to mix with the common people. | ||
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ABOVE LEFT: The bust of Cellini, a famous goldsmith, on the Ponte Vecchio. Since 1593 only goldsmiths and jewellers have been allowed to have shops on the bridge.
ABOVE RIGHT: A view down the river from the bridge.
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LEFT: A quiet street at sunset. |
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ABOVE LEFT: A view over the city at sunset, with part of Santa Maria del Fiore at the left of the image, and Santa Croce just right of centre.
ABOVE RIGHT: The Ponte Vecchio at night.
URL: http://www.randomnotes.co.uk/Travel/Florenceprint.htm