Hello again, Blogonauts! Friday carried me further afield from Florence. Several times each day, the "Bus Rapide" (in a “rapid” 75 minutes) transports travelers to Siena, Florence's current tourism cousin and former vicious foe. (Siena’s cathedral still proudly displays the 65-foot flagpoles their army captured in a hard-fought battle against Florentine troops … in the year 1260!) Siena is a true hill town, where streets undulate and lev...

So here's a bit of historic trivia: Assisi, the town where Saint Francis was born and lived most of his life, lies only about 100 miles from here. He was known as a friend of the poor and as a peacemaker. And some of that lives on in the orders of priests, monks, and nuns that he founded. Florence (as well as the entire country of Italy) identifies Francis as its patron saint. But the Medici had a particular affection for Francis’ contemporary, Saint Domi...

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the influence Florence had over the early Renaissance, and upon the arts even afterward, via the purchasing power of the various Medici family members. Florence began as a republic. But once the Pope crowned Cosimo de Medici as Duke, making him royal and thus "divinely chosen" to rule over Florence, he and his family moved across the Arno River into the Pitti Palace. There they continued to accumulate great artworks that bec...

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...

Hello, again, Blogonauts. You guys deserve a break! So I'll be more brief about how I spent my Saturday. Besides simply wandering the city, I visited the Frari Basilica, a Franciscan church that contains some spectacular art work, none of which I was allowed to photograph. (Click on the links to see some samples found on the Web.) Let's just say that Titian and Bellini were well represented. Titian is even entombed here. (Alright, I snuck one photo. Claudio M...