Entrance Tickets, The Duomo in Florence

Arriving in Florence we went first to the Cathedral, or Duomo, which although completed as long ago as 1436 is still the tallest building in the City.

Even though it was relatively early in the morning there was a huge queue of visitors waiting at the entrance and snaking in a seemingly endless human coil around the building so being naturally impatient decided we couldn’t afford the time to wait so decided to return later.

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Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…

More Garibaldi – Giuseppe in Florence

Florence was very briefly between 1865 and 1871 the capital of the United State of Italy before, much to the relief of the taxpayers of the city, the privilege and the expense was transferred to Rome when it eventually became part of Italy in 1870.   

I was looking for the inevitable statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi but didn’t find it but but did instead come across the Statue of the Battle of Mentana  of 1867 which depicts a Garibaldi freedom fighter during the Third Italian War of Independence when with the secret complicity of the Italian government Giuseppe led a private expedition into the Papal States but which ultimately failed when defeated by French troops protecting the Papacy.  Florence had to wait another four years before transferring the capital status to Rome.

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Florence and The Ponte Vecchio

The most famous bridge in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio, which crosses the River Arno and like the Rialto in Venice is instantly recognisable by the thousands of tourists who visit it annually and saunter aimlessly from one side to the other and then back again.  It is the oldest bridge in Tuscany and by happy chance the only one in the city that, allegedly due to a direct order from Adolph Hitler himself, wasn’t blown up by the retreating Nazis as they abandoned Italy in 1944 towards the end of the Second-World-War.

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Pisa, Train Journey to Florence

The plan was to go to Florence, the political capital of Tuscany and the cultural capital of Italy, the city of the Medici and the Renaissance and a UNESCO World heritage site.  The Medici were a powerful and influential Florentine family from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries who produced three Popes and a succession of rulers of Florence and the family was also a leading influence at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance.  Florence was also very briefly between 1865 and 1871 the capital of unified Italy before, much to the relief of the taxpayers of the city, the privilege and the expense was transferred to Rome.

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