Tracks of the StoneBear Odyssey ROF = Ring of Fire

Monday, February 29, 2016

Florence, Italy 2A Piazza della Signoria

ITL Florence 2A 

Tracks of the StoneBear   Copyright MMXV ALL Rights reserved

ROF= Ring of fire journey

ITL= Italy Journey 

Monday November 16, 2015

Florence, Italy 2A 2nd day 

Piazza della Signoria  

After walking the Ponte Vecchio... Vechio bridge.... 

Walked about 2 to 3 blocks north. A mercado... street vendors tents/ booths of linens, scarfs, leather handbags/ belts/ wallets/ ect... 

 The city cathedral with it's bell tower.... really good.

Neptune Fountain... many other marble sculptures line the front of the entrance into the cathedral.

 The city cathedral with it's bell tower.... really good.

Neptune Fountain... many other marble sculptures line the front of the entrance into the cathedral.

About 2 blocks east is the Piazza della Signoria. This is the origin of the Florentine Plaza. ... also called Plaza Vecchio (The Old Palace)/ the town hall of the city.      

The plaza is 3 to 4+ football fields size. 

The Loggia dei Lanzi is an open arched structure with some 20+ marble Italian sculptures... some by Michelangelo.

You could spend a half day here.... you could spend a week/ a month here studying the history of the sculptures.  This is Florence and it's right here. It's magnificent! 

You look at these sculptures and see the details in them and stand in awe.

This truly was the center of the universe for the artisans of the Renaissance.

Inside the cathedral was just as magnificent as the many other cathedrals we've seen. This is holy ground. 

You are reduced to surrender in these great cathedrals. No wonder they formed up the crusades and got young kids to join up. 

You never drink twice from the same stream. 

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Florence, Italy 2A The DOMA

ITL Florence 2A The DOMA

Tracks of the StoneBear  Copyright MMXV ALL Rights reserved

ROF= Ring of fire journey

ITL= Italy Journey 

Sunday November 15, 2015 

Florence, Italy 2A The Doma   

Our hotel was near the Liberta circle arch...   

The Piazza della Liberta arch.  ....built in 1738 to celebrate the arrival of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty in Florence. I love this European history. 

We walked in the evening down several blocks to a local market.   

We could see The Dome... The Doma.  It's majestic. it draws you in. You can't help but walk/ gravitate towards it. 

Oh my god!  This is powerful.  

You get up closer and it's even more overwhelming.  

My god... this has to have been the center of the universe in the middle ages.  

I built houses, construction,.. for 30 years and know what kind of attention to detail it takes to build a residential house. It takes planning,... somewhat vision to see what could be. 

... but this is beyond comprehension.   

?What kind of vision produced this?  ... and in the middle ages. 

The scaffolding required.... that alone would be phenomenal.  

Just the masonry structure...

This is the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore; The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers... the IL Duomo di Firenze as it was originally called, begun in 1296 and completed in 1436.  

The basilica artisan detail is beyond elaborate and is still the largest brick masonry dome in the world.   

Up close you see the phenomenal size.  The detail.... 

several blocks away looking back... maybe 1/4 mile away... maybe more.  I zoom in on the top crest.... those are people walking around the crest promenade.

These pictures don't come close to capturing the power of this cathedral. 

Inside is even more phenomenal. 

After a lifetime of odyssey some things can't be put into words.

Throughout this lifetime,... this brief time between the eternities has been a gift of journey,... an odyssey of the roads less traveled on the way to Emmaus.

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The Doma was commissioned/ built by the DeMedicci family. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral

... As the opening stroke of the Pazzi Conspiracy, he was assassinated on Sunday, 26 April 1478 in the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, by Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli. He was killed by a sword wound to the head and was stabbed 23 times.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliano_de%27_Medici

This is western civ history at it's best... maybe worst... but phenomenal. 

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The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Italian pronunciation: [katteˈdraːle di ˈsanta maˈriːa del ˈfjoːre]; in English "Cathedral ofSaint Mary of the Flowers") is the main church of Florence, Italy. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered byFilippo Brunelleschi.[1] The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris

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You never drink twice from the same stream.