Sketching Italy - Part II
For those who missed the first post, Part I is HERE
And the first thing I've run into was an art fair next to San Lorenzo cathedral, where artists were selling their beautiful art:
Florence in comparison to Venice is much larger and the colors of Florence are more solid and settled vs vibrant colors of Venetian buildings.
Lots of towers in Florence are made of sand-color stones, reveling the age in the texture:
Hundreds of tourists occupied the plaza next to Palazzo Vecchio, a truly old, magnificent building. Each statue on the Piazza told a story, mythical or historical.
Here is Perseus, holding Medusa's head:
Far in the distance, Neptune is overseeing the crowd.
David (a copy of the original that we saw in Accademia ), is guarding the entry to Palazzo Vecchio:
Besides the fact that Florence streets, statues, and fountains are like a museum under an open sky, there is also a largest collection of Renaissance art in Uffizi Gallery that I had chance to visit. Unfortunately, in most museums they don't allow photo cameras; and, I could imagine, they wouldn't permit a watercolorist sitting and painting there.. But the memory of a beautiful art will stay with me forever.
One of the five days in Florence, we escaped the city going on 12 hour tour to Tuscany, where we had chance to visit Pisa, Siena, a thousand year old San Gimignano. On the way there, we admired Italian wineries of Tuscany and multiple Sunflowers fields:
On our last day in Florence we crossed the famous bridge Ponte Vecchio and stepped into the beauty of Palazzo Pitti with its fountains and terraces.
Quiet walk at Boboli Gardens impressed with hidden paths, peaceful ponds, and moss-green marble statutes:
The Florentine time was up and we headed out to the train station. Less than a two-hour train ride from Florence to Rome was lovely. We were passing by farms, mountains, old towns: colorful Italian landscapes:
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