Pictures from 6/23/08

The reason that it took me so long to post another entry was because I was having trouble figuring out how to post pictures on this site. It's not difficult, but it doesn't really work the way I want it to. So this will have to do.
I took this first set of pictures on my first day in Florence when Sarah was showing me around Florence in an effort to keep me awake. I didn't even think to take my camera out until we crossed the Arno River into the hilly Altrarno area. There are some amazing views of the city from over there. We started our assent and I began taking pictures from the Piazzale Michelangelo.


This is the first shot from the Piazzale Michelangelo. You can see much of Florence, including the Duomo (aka the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore) and various other things that I can't remember, and the Arno River.


Unfortunately Sarah's not with me at the moment. So I will go ahead and just say that this is another shot of Florence east of the last shot. If Sarah was here I could tell you what some of the other things were.


This is some ridiculous statue I found. It doesn't look realistic at all and the proportions are way off. Total rubbish.

The rest of these pictures were taken at or from the church called San Miniato al Monte. Unfortunatley we couldn't take any pictures from inside, but this church was amazing. You can look it up on wikipedia or something to get some pictures. This is a shot of the building immediately to the right of the church.

Another shot of Florence, this time from the front of San Miniato al Monte which is on one of the highest points in Florence.

Once again...

San Miniato al Monte is a very old church. It was begun in 1013, so it is almost 1000 years old. It is named after St. Miniato (or Minas) who was an Armenian prince that became a hermit. Supposedly he was beheaded at the order of the Roman Emperor, but he merely picked up his head and walked back across the river and up the hill to his hermitage. This church is considered the finest Romanesque structure in Tuscany and one of the most beautiful churches in Italy. I agree, which means nothing because I don't even know what Romanesque means.

In case you haven't seen it enough.

This is a gate from the original city wall. Jealous?

This is another portion of the city wall.

And another. All three of these shots of the wall are from the small portion of Florence on the south side of the Arno.