gollygoshgumgoonz: Florence

After Pisa I traveled to Florence, and dragged my suitcase along the streets, managing to totally wreck the wheels from their already wrecked state.We now own three suitcases with broken wheels. Obviously the cobbled streets and footpaths of Europe were not a consideration in their design!

So anyway, I have the grey one with me on this trip and bought a cheap trundler to put it on so now at least I can wheel it around. But back to Florence. Or Firenze as the locals call it. I didn't realise this til I booked a ticket for the train.
I spent the day walking around starting with the Piazzale Michelangel and the Giardino di Boboli, which gave me a good view of Florence. On the way between I walked along the city walls.

A selfie with a Florence backdrop

The bridges over the river Arno

A bronze cast of Michelangelo's David, in the Piazzale Michelangelo

A huge, scary black bee!

David's behind with flowers in the foreground

Local scene from the roads between Piazzale Michelangelo and Bibolo gardens.

Olives on ancient trees along the old city walls

South bank road

The Boboli Gardens were laid out for the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany back in the fifteenth century. The house of Medici were a major financial, political, and later royal institution in Italy. They sponsored and commissioned much of the art and architecture in Florence. This included commissions by Leonardo da vinci and sponsorship of Michelangeo's apprenticeship.

The gardens main central path

The Isolotto

Casino del Cavaliere (Porcelain Museum)

Neptune's fountain

The Pitti palace.

The Ancient Egyptian Boboli obelisk brought from the Villa Medici at Rome

A grotty (grotesque in my opinion) grotto (Paris abducts Helen in the background)

The court dwarf Morgante, on a tortoise. Dwarfs and other non-everyday people were owned by rich families as part of their collection of treasures.

Pretty display in a shop window

The del Duomo Campanile in the evening light from where I was staying

A street artist in the P.le degli Uffizi

Full-sized replica of Michelangelo's David, occupying the spot in front of the Palazzo Vecchio where the original was placed until it was moved indoors at the Galleria dell'Accademia.