A City of Ideas

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Florence ... home to Michelangelo ... Dante ... Galileo ... Macchiavelli. A small bit of turf from which so much greatness flowered. Not that the city was always hospitable to its geniuses. Dante, for example, was exiled -- but in his exile, he composed the Divine Comedy. Each of the above-mentioned giants has a monument inside the Basilica Santa Croce, shown above. (Dante is not actually buried there.) Visiting the Basilica made me think of the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.   Above: The Ponte Vecchio, which dates to Medieval times, was the only bridge in Florence spared destruction by the retreating Nazis during World War II. Right & Below: The tri-coloured facade of the Duomo and its bell-tower. White for faith, green for hope, red for charity.           Above: The rooftops of Florence, seen from the Palace of the Medicis, the Palazzo Vecchio. Below left: This aerial Passageway connecting the Palace with the Uffizi Gallery actually continues across the River Arno via the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.       The entrance to the Palazzo Vacchio       Above: Sightseers below the Ponte Vecchio Left: The dome of the Duomo can be seen from nearly anywhere within the old city.   Looking into the yard of the cloisters of Santa Croce     A street-corner shrine near Santa Croce   Sunset on the Arno     Statue of Dante outside the entrance to the Basilica Santa Croce     Back   Back to index   Next     © 2010 W. Luther Jett. All rights reserved.