Florence - Churches, Bridges, and Scooters!!

In Florence, we stayed right outside the Uffizi museum and within walking distance of the Duomo, shown above. Florence was a beautiful, old city with lots of history and an enviable amount of art.

This was inside the Bautista next to the Duomo. A less expensive and equally beautiful building. The artwork in here is a unique blend of Catholic design and Muslim geometrical patterns.

Our first night in Florence, we had an amazing dinner with lots of wine. Chris became increasingly flirtatious, especially when he stumbled upon this beauty!!

The travellers!!

This is the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. Rumour has it that it is the only bridge that survived WWII because Hitler thought it was too beautiful to bomb.

Attempting to discover some of the less travelled tourist spots, Chris and I went to Santa Croce, an old church that houses the tombs of many famous Italians, including Galileo and Michaelangelo.

Wall after wall of beautiful frescoes in amazing condition!

Here's a polyptych from the Byzantine era. Gold leaf halos are common from this period, as well as the stacking of angels - just a few things I remember from Art History class at PCC.

A beautiful Della Robia in a historical museum in Santa Croce.

The Santa Croce - it was such a beautiful day!! There were artists throughout this courtyard with their sketchpads, documenting this historic place.

It was such a nice day that Chris and I decided to tour the city via scooter! Here's the brave driver getting ready to embark on the scariest ride of his life!! Note the smile - it's the last one you'll see!!!!

Once we got out of the city, we stopped at the Michaelangelo Piazza with this breathtaking view of Florence.

I was on the back of the scooter smiling and feeling carefree. Chris was driving the scooter holding the handles so tight his hands were getting cramped. He was a little nervous!!!

The ride got a little easier once we made it to the outskirts of Florence where we found small, country roads like this one. There were no cars, too, so Chris was feeling much more comfortable.

Here's a quick video from the scooter ride!!! Hee hee!!