We left our hotel early one morning at "0-dark Thirty" for the High Speed Rail Terminal on the outskirts of Rome. (Note: This  isn't the old station located in the center of Rome). We were headed for Florence on the High speed, non-stop train. It's a distance of 144 miles.  About an hour and a half later, we stepped off the train in the center of Florence! The train moved at speeds well above 100 mph for the entire trip.  I recall seeing 155 mph on the speedometer in our coach car.

Really, except for a few Third World countries I've been in, the United States has one of the poorest transportation systems!  We can invest in a space program but not a program to move people and goods around efficiently.  What's wrong with this?  

Here's a view of the terminal we started from in Rome:

Florence is a city divided ... by the Arno river runing east and west.  This next image shows the eastern part of the city nestled up against the hills on the north side of the river.

From the image above, panning to the left gets this postcard view of Florence. The Cathedral is on the right side of the image; the Plazzo Vecchio in the center; and the Arno river running easterly on the left side.  That first bridge you see is the Ponte Vecchio.  It is a famous, centuries old, covered bridge with shops lining both sides.  I believe the shops were originally jewelry makers, but I'm not sure that is the case now.

Zooming in closer ... 

And, here we are looking one of the last bridges crossing the Arno in the city.

I converted that image to a "high key" black and white.  It looks like an old architectural drawing or maybe an illustration in an old book?

This is the Plazzo Vecchio, a fortified 13th century palace located at one end of the street that crosses the river at the Ponte Vecchio:

The Cathedral really dominates this part of town.  This is one view of the intricacies of the building's red dome at one end of the building

The walls are built with a really complex design.

At one corner of the Cathedral is this tall tower. The clouds were really cooperating that day!

I don't remember moving from my position above when I took this next image.  I just lowered my camera and turned to the left and captured this picture of the face (entrance) of the church while standing at the base of the tower.

Here's the view looking down the wall of the church while on the opposite side.  You can see more intricate detail of the church's wall.  I don't know what this "lesser" dome covers.

The next two images are my favorites from the day in Florence.  The first is another shot of the tower.  This time standing square to the structure. I converted it to a sepia tone to go with the next image as a pair.

When I started to process this last image in the "digital darkroom", I got quite a surprise... The sun was on the other side of the entrance of the church leaving it in the shadows.  I compensated a small amount for the shadows hoping to get some detail of the church's face.  Later, at home, I noticed a faint rim of light behind the church ... between the church and the sun.  It turned out that I captured a ring around the sun!  The Sun, like the Moon, also gets rings but since it is so much brighter, you can't normally see them.  They happen because of ice crystals forming high in the atmosphere and light shining through it causes the halo.  I'm told that airline pilots flying up around 30,000 feet over the Pacific occasionally see them.  In any event, I immediately set about emphasizing the effect and converted it to a sepia-toned black and white image.  I hope you like it ... a church sanctified by God with a halo!  It would make quite a story ... don't you think?  :)  

The city where the Renaissance started is chock full of history and art.  It's worth a visit of at least three or four days but, alas, not this time.  None the less, I enjoyed my brief visit and I hope you did too.

And, as always, please accept my appreciation for the time and effort you spent looking at this post.

Bye for now,

Adam