Florence Journal

The Duomo in the snow

The day after - last year I went up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for pictures. This year, since we just moved to other end of town, I just walked into the center for some photos. Here is the Duomo:

More from today on Florence-On-Line.

Florence Snow Photos

Got a bunch of photos of the snowstorm today, there is an album of them on Florence On Line: Florence Snowstorm. Hopefully there will be some snow left tomorrow morning and I can get some more shots, and I will be posting more from today too as soon as I can.

It was crazy out there - cars and buses abandoned everywhere, the trains stopped running, phones were down in various parts of town. It seemed to snow about 6 to 8 inches or more before a freezing rain started, and then around 9 PM it stopped. We saw a truck slide coming off the Ponte Santa Trinita and crash into a row of parked Vespas.

Florence Photos

We just put up an album of favorite photos on flickr - check it out when you get a chance.

The "scrapbook"

Finally got around to adding a "scrapbook" today. This is something I had been planning since we first got to Florence, a place to post things like ticket stubs, official documents, fliers, etc. (instead of saving them all in a book or journal like I did when I was younger). Now curious travelers and expatriates in planning can see what some of these things actually look like: Permesso di Soggiorno, Codice Fiscale, etc.

Santa Croce Photo Album

We just added a photo album for the Cathedral - Basilica of Santa Croce (exterior shots). This cathedral of course is on the Piazza Santa Croce here in Florence. It is an old Franciscan church (circa 1294, possibly by Arnolfo di Cambio) and one of the most storied buildings in art history. For more about the church itself see our earlier post here.

Basilica of Santa Croce photo album.

The Basilica of San Miniato al Monte

The Basilica of San Miniato al Monte is one of the oldest churches in Florence and is frequently called the finest Romanesque basilica in all of Italy. The church as we know it today was started around 1018 and took over one hundred years to complete. St. Minias was possibly from Armenia and believed to have been martyred around 250 (he was beheaded during the anti-Christian persecutions of the Emperor Decius and was said to have picked up his head, crossed the Arno and walked up the hill of Mons Fiorentinus to his hermitage and buried on this hillside). The church is in a wonderful state of preservation and there are several important works inside, including a tabernacle attributed to Rossellino, the tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal with works by Rossellino, Della Robbia and others, frescoes by Agnolo Gaddi, and an amazing fresco cycle of the life of St. Benedict by Spinello Aretino, to name just some of them. Click here for more photos.

Some new photos

We added a few more photos to the September album. Check it out when you get a chance. The October album is coming soon.

Florence In 1972

Here are some neat photos a friend sent to us, taken in 1972. Nothing much has changed it seems, but these pictures have a great feel. Click here for the whole album (4 photos).

New photos

We put a few new pictures into the First Photos of Florence album. Check it out when you get a chance.

Some Pictures

We started our first photo album, just some random shots from around town. We will be adding to this one as we go and also posting some specific albums (museums, churches, piazzas, etc.) once we are settled in.