Florence - Boboli Gardens, Palazzo Pitti, The Duomo Complex, Palazzo Vecchio

The next day in Florence we spent in the magnificent Boboli gardens and Palazzo Pitti and for our last day we visited the Duomo complex - the Santa Mario del Fiore Cathedral, the Baptisteria, the Museum, we climbed the tower and went down to the ruins of Santa Reparata. And of course we walked the narrow medieval streets, filled with the crazy Italian traffic and thousands of tourists, we admired the statues in front of the Palazzo Vecchhio, walked through the street markets in search of presents and souvenirs and ate a lot of gelato. And took thousands of pictures. Just a few dozen here:)

:The Boboli Gardens

: Grotta del Buontalenti

: In Palazzo Pitti

: Leather street market

: Palazzo Vecchio

: The Duomo

: On Giotto's Bell Tower

: View from the tower

: Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise

: In the Baptisteria

: Donatello's Maddalena Penitente at the museum

: Michelangelo's Pieta

: In the Duomo

: In Santa Reparata

: Santa Croce

Florence - Uffizi and Oltrarno

From Bologna we took the fast train (280 km/h) to Florence. For the stay we had booked a flat near the river Arno and our days started and finished with walks along the banks of the river to and from Ponte Vecchio. For our first day we had bought tickets with priority entrance to the Uffizi gallery - I highly recommend priority entrance wherever it is possible, as the queues are enormous and wasting precious hours in waiting is pointless.

: In Uffizi - we spent about five hours there with a break for lunch at the balcony coffee house. I believe I've seen as much paintings and sculptures as is humanly possible to absorb :)

: Crossing Ponte Vecchio to Oltrarno

: In the park of San Miniato al Monte Church

: At Piazzale Michelangelo

: In the rose gardens of Oltrarno

: With the bronze pig, supposed to bring luck

: Sunset over the Arno