Florence Video Clips

My sister filmed a couple of clips of us out and about in Florence

Friday Music Blogging

Two songs which I most remember being played on Italian music channels while I was holidaying in Florence

Sienna Photos






Sienna Cathedral

Florence Photos


Grotta di Buontalenti


Local liquor, Grappa, some herb based drink and a port and brandy mixture which is a local Florence tipple


One of the many luxury shops for the moneyed traveller

Florence Photos


A statue outside one of the grottoes at the Boboli Gardens


A view of Florence from the Boboli Gardens


The Ponte Vecchio, lined with gold shops


Cafe Gilli


A roof decoration at the Boboli Gardens

More Florence Blogging

Its our last day in the beautiful city of Florence, here are a selection of photos from last night and today


Our apartment/B&B room

A rather nice delicatessen near to our B&B, served yummy ciabatta sandwiches with delicious fillings

A gold and silver shop on the Ponte Vecchio

The street outside our B&B

Cocktails (l-r) Bucks Fizz, Gilli Capriana and a White Chocolate Martini

Mum, my sister and me (and the chief waiter) at Cafe Gilli, which serves delicious espressos and pastries in the morning, and glam cocktails in the evening, been in Florence in one form or another since 1733

Viareggio/Torre del Lago (Puccini Festival)

On Saturday we stayed overnight in the delightful Italian seaside resort of Viareggio as in the evening we were attending a performance of 'La boheme', every year a Puccini Festival is held to celebrate the composers works.

Sienna Blogging

On Friday, mum, me and my sister took a day trip to Sienna


A street in Sienna with flags of one of the teams which take part in the famous Palio Horse Race

The High Altar at Sienna Cathedral, by Baldassarre Peruzzi

Sienna Cathedral

A shop in one of the streets of Sienna

Palazzo Pubblico

Florence Blogging


Gilli's Martini

a most delightful trattoria delicious escallopina in white wine sauce served with the yummiest parmentier potatoes

A grotto at the Boboli Gardens

Bacchus on a Turtle by Valerio Cioli

View across from the Ponte Vecchio

Florence Blogging


A view of the Piazza della Signoria from the Loggia della Signoria


Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus outside the Palazzo Vecchio


The Piazza della Signoria


The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati


All around Florence on bike stands, these locks would be found inscribed with love messages




Above the front entrance door, there is a notable ornamental marble frontispiece, dating from 1528. In the middle, flanked by two gilded lions, is the Monogram of Christ, surrounded by a glory, above the text (in Latin): "Rex Regum et Dominus Dominantium" (translation: "Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords". This text dates from 1851 and does not replace an earlier text by Savonarola^[3] as mentioned in guidebooks. Between 1529 and 1851 they were concealed behind a large shield with the grand-ducal coat of arms.

Florence Blogging

Various statues at the Loggia della Signoria, which is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art.


Rape of the Sabine Women by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne, better known by his Italianized name Giambologna




Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus


The group The Rape of Polyxena, is a fine diagonal sculpture by Pio Fedi from 1865.


On the back of the Loggia are five marble female statues (three are identified as Matidia, Marciana and Agrippina Minor), Sabines and a statue of a barbarian prisoner Thusnelda from Roman times from the era of Trajan to Hadrian












Nearby is Giambologna's less celebrated marble sculpture Hercules beating the Centaur Nessus (1599)