This morning I am in Assisi, which is nestled in the Apennine mountains - what a delightful, peaceful township, with the most wonderful vistas everywhere you go! We are soon to depart for Pompeii . . .
Florence was a simply beautiful, classical city, with a picturesque river running through it, a stunning cathedral, city squares, statues everywhere, and lots of shops selling the most superbly crafted leather goods and gold jewellery for which the city is renowned. We visited the rooms of one of their top leather goods makers and saw a demonstration of how they apply gold embossing. Their leather was just so soft and beautifully treated and coloured on both sides, and I must admit their leather coats, handbags and so forth were to die for! (Well, not literally, of course.)
But the highlight for me was visiting the cathedral in which Michelangelo and Galileo and Marconi and many others are buried. There were memorials along the marble floor and very artistic memorials right around the walls, with superb paintings and sculptures on them and around them. The cathedral was so full of brilliant, very old works of art it was more an art gallery and museum all in one. It was simply breathtaking!
The following photos are just a sample of what I saw in the main part of the cathedral and smaller chapels. I have only captioned some photos.
 |
| One of the artists whose work was displayed; unfortunately I could not get a decent close-up of his work, but see photo #3. |
 |
| The main altar. |
 |
| Donatello's Christ on the cross is in the alcove on the right in the background. |
 |
| One of the many memorials on the floor. |
 |
| Michelangelo's tomb. |
 |
| Galileo's tomb. |
 |
| The cathedral. |
No comments:
Post a Comment