Florence - Buildings and Views

 I can't really call this one Florence - Architecture, much as I'd love to, but I just don't know enough about architecture for that not to feel pretentious. So this is a collection of photos of famous and perhaps not so famous buildings in Florence and some views over the city which were taken from various different places. I did my best to keep the omnipresent building cranes out of my photos but it was a difficult thing to do and occasionally I failed. 

above and below, photos taken from windows of the Uffizi - you can see the rain on the hills in the top one

this is the terrace cafe at the Uffizi looking towards Il Duomo

and this from the same place looking over to the much nearer Palazzo Vecchio

This is the front of Santa Croce from the ground ...

...and this is Santa Croce from part way up the Palazzo Vecchio. You can see how far back it goes, it's absolutely huge and presumably it would have cost too much, even in Florence, to face the sides and back with marble as well as the front!

This is a very small part of Il Duomo, it's impossible to get all of it in at ground level. It's amazing. Years ago someone told me I wouldn't like it because it was garish, but you know, I did like it. As I said to someone else, I wouldn't build one like it in my back garden but taken for what it is it's rather lovely. And totally breathtaking. 

This is the bell tower of Il Duomo. You can pay to climb it. We didn't. 

Part of the charm of Florence, like Paris, is just being there and slowing down and looking at stiff that might not be famous but somehow says something about the city. We did a fair bit of sitting and people watching and building spotting; this one was in the square in front of the Cathedral. I loved it.You can also see how crowded the area around the cathedral is, even in the wet! It rained quite hard that day. 

Today's  was definitely a photo heavy post!