Hello, again, Blogonauts!

Gosh, it has been a couple of days since I've slipped behind the wheel of this blogmobile. There's so much ground to cover! So strap yourselves in ... I'm taking you for a fast spin through history's symbolic art pieces that have come to define Florence.

Sunday's railway journey from Venice to Florence was notable only in that it was missing much that was notable. Train travel in Europe is a breeze. Scattered among the interwoven hills that separate the two cities lay several shadowed snow fields that had yet to melt. It was simply a reminder that winter still has a few weeks remaining in Europe, too.

But once I disembarked from the train, the trek between the railway station and my hotel brought me directly past Florence's chief triple landmarks:
The cathedral (or the Duomo, on which construction began in 1296)
The baptistry, (or the Battistero di San Giovanni, which sits immediately in front of the cathedral and on which construction began in 1059, making it the oldest existing building in the city) and
The bell tower (or Giotto's Campanile, which began its skyward ascension in 1334).

The white, pink, and green marble exteriors were added in a 19th century frenzy of Firenze civic pride, their way to celebrate Italy's unification into a single country. And when there's no constitutional separation of church and state, then tax dollars are easily devoted to church business. (I'm guessing that they got a deal on the marble, because similar Gothic facades adorn other churches within walking distance of the Duomo.)

My hotel is a quiet 10-room pensione tucked into a couple of floors of a subdivided former palace that sits 2 blocks from the Duomo. Rather than having window drapes, each evening I reach out to close the external shutters. I imagine Dante did the same thing when he lived 3 blocks from here.

Once I checked in and unpacked (I'm here a week), I began a walking tour around town. As on other ventures, I have downloaded various audio tours onto my iPhone before leaving home. The Rick Steves Italy tours have been enormously helpful. His step-by-step Florence Renaissance Walk gave me a 45-minute introduction to the city and allowed me to become familiar with many of the sites I wanted to visit.

And I have gone on a visiting rampage! Rather than go into each one of the major sites where I've already spent hours, I'll tick them off, day by day. Click on the links for further details about each:

SUNDAY:
Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" doors (must be seen to be believed)
Loggia dei Lanza (outdoor sculptures on the town square)
Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge, now lined with gold merchants)
Accademia Museum (Michelangelo's David, plus a bunch more)
MONDAY:
(Many European museums close on Monday. But art-hosting churches are usually open):
The Duomo (the interior is disappointing, compared to the eye-popping exterior)
The Duomo Museum (church sculpture by bunches of folks, including Donatello)
The Church of Santa Maria Novella (medieval frescoes & early Renaissance paintings)
The Church of Santa Croce (tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, & Rossini, plus a Dante memorial)
TUESDAY:
The Bargello Museum (mostly Renaissance sculpture, including several Michelangelos & Donatellos)
The Uffizi Gallery (the most extensive collection of Italian Renaissance paintings anywhere. Viewing all this took half a day)

Plus, I ended my day on Tuesday attending a performance of Puccini's "La Boheme."

I would have a lot to say about each of these venues. But that's what I get for skipping days in my writing. Still, I want to do more than scribble notes while I'm here in Italy, so make do with this, for now. Suffice it to say that each place I visited was, in its own way, exquisitely worth the effort.

Check out the pictures, too. Blog to you later!