Florence
Posted by Martin Orr on Thursday, 10 August 2006 at 16:42
One thing that struck me about Florence was how old the city centre is - all the modern shops are in good, solid stone buildings from the 15th century. It is claimed that the Renaissance began with the competition the city held in 1401 to select the artist to decorate the doors of the Baptistry; today you can't see the doors very closely due to the number of other tourists in front.
The Uffizi, the main art gallery, is also packed with tourists; I queued for two hours to get in. On the other hand the Bargello, the sculpture museum, had no queue at all and some equally interesting works of art, including two of the entries for the baptistry doors competition (for which you had to submit a bronze panel showing Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac).
Now in: Rome
-- Martin