Our first destination in Florence was Piazale Michelangelo, a square dedicated to the famous Renaissance sculpture Michelangelo. Located at the top of a hill, the hill gave us a wonderful view of the city of Florence! Somehow the name of the city of Florence reminds me of Florence and the Machine!
A panoramic view of Florence city. Can see Ponte Vecchio on the left over the river and the massive Florence Cathedral on the right. Of course, since we already in the city of Florence, we wouldn't just see those attractions from far, right?
In a snap of a finger, we travelled down the hill and nearer to all the attractions that we saw on the hill. After getting down from the bus, we noticed there's another group of Malaysian tourists (with Malaysia's flag, that's how we recognised them) who seems ended their tour in Florence! We couldn't help but to wave and cheer to them! We passed by the facade of the cathedral before reaching Piazza della Signoria.
Piazza della Signoria should be renamed as Piazza of Statues, there were so many statues/sculptures at the piazza itself! Here's one of tens of them: Fountain of Neptune, God of the sea!
"The Rape of Sabine Women", an emotional statue. One of the best statues at the piazza in my opinion. The word 'rape' here actually means 'abduction' rather than sex against her will.
Statue of Saint Veronica. It has kinetic feel in it, seems like moving although it's a static statue.
Another statue of Michelangelo is spotted (left) and "Hercules and Cacus" on the right!
After admiring all the statues, we moved on to Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone arch bridge which spans over the Arno River. In the old days, butchers occupied the shops on the bridge, but it's now filled with jewelers, art and souvenir sellers. The bridge itself is actually quite vibrant in colour, I think my camera's setting is not right...
After few twists and turns, a few friends and I were lost, couldn't even see the shadow of our tour mates. It's not fun getting lost in a foreign place, and thankfully it's not in Venice where almost every road doesn't lead to one another. Panicked, we quickly tuned into our walkie talkie to search for our tour guide but to no avail. We have no choice but to ask for the assistance of a tour guide from another tour group from the same tour company to contact our tour guide. So in the end, we waited by the Florence Cathedral (and admired) for our tour group to regroup with us.
It's lunch time! Remember I mentioned in my previous blog entry where I couldn't get a nice food in Italy? Here's the prove! I ordered medium well beef steak with cheese, expecting it will taste as delicious as the one I had in Sheffield, and it turned out to be more like medium rare! Too raw and the odor of the raw meat is just unbearable. Worse, it came with a paper-like piece of cheese rather than cheese gravy. Not to mention the whole plate is almost completely filled with raw vege! The meal made me want to rawr!
I just let the bad things pass and focus on the good things ahead, 俗语说：“抱着愉快的心情旅行”. Fontana del Porcellino, a bronze fountain of a boar. Put a coin in its jaws and let it fall down for good luck they say.
A wooden Pinocchio on a bicycle with moveable parts! This is one costly souvenir! The shield on the left already costs 20 Euros, imagine the Pinocchio! Honestly I don't think Florence is a place to have a vacation if you are looking for adventure and scenery, unless you like historical stuff and statues, many of them!
On the next day, we were brought to the smallest country on the planet - Vatican City. What shocked me was how tiny the country is, you can see the whole country at about 500m away from its border! What separating the country with Italy are some moveable metal fences, and a small gap is opened between the fences to allow tourists to enter the country.
After passing through the fences, we have to queue, a long one, to get to a checkpoint which ensure we didn't bring in any dangerous material into the sacred place.
Once you enter the Vatican City, you can feel that it's very sacred and religious. After all, the country is about the Pope. Do you know the name of the current Pope? Pope Francis! Too bad Pope was not spotted in Vatican City that day, or else... "Can we take a selfie?"
Inside St. Peter's Basilica. Tremendous amount of details were found in its architecture and sculptures. You gonna like this place if you are a religious person, or a person who like arts.
Is this the list of Pope? Sorry I couldn't read the language...
NEXT - Rome, Italy!
No comments:
Post a Comment