A Piece....

Since I have never left the country (I will not count going to Canada as a family vacation because at the time it didn't require a passport), I have done all of my "exotic" travel through pictures. The internet is such a wonderful way to do just that. The down side, your one request could bring you more of what you don't want than what you do... so be exact in what you type.

So to give you an idea, a very small idea, of what I will be seeing.... here are some pictures to get you just as excited as me.... or not. I will happily admit to turning into a major geek when I get to talking about this trip.

A Map of the general area of where I will be.... and that is the hotel where I will be staying. The write up I got says that it is family owned and "remarkably well located" to where we will go and what we will see.

This is the famous Baptistery with the beautiful 'Doors of Paradise' by Ghiberti. To see this up close and personal will probably make me cry. Not ashamed to admit my new found love of architecture and it's details.

'The David' and not my favorite version, but the one in Florence. I have been informed by a good friend, who has been there before, that despite my hatred strong dislike of this particular version, I will still be in awe. I would love to go to Rome to see my favorite sculpture's version... maybe another time (I will think positive that it could happen).

This is the Duomo, the main cathedral in Florence. Not much to say about it other than this was done by Arnolfo di Cambio and Brunelleschi (I had to look that up, so please no thinking of how impressive that was) and it just looks magnificent.





Here we have The Church/Complex of San Lorenzo. Just beautiful, right! Please keep in mind that there is so much more to see inside, i just don't want to overwhelm you with such awesomeness all at once.

Bernini's David! Fantastic right!

Next, we have the Loggia die Lanzi... basically a really big, open space that has lots of beautiful sculptures. I'm sure there will be another version of the David here that I will, no doubt, criticize and be in awe of at the same time (dang my bias towards Bernini). 

Last, but very far from being the least, we have the Ponte Vecchio. I hope to get a picture as beautiful as this one, but I am not holding my breath on that. This bridge has markets all along it's length, and I will be seeing what I could get here in the way of Christmas presents. 

This selection of photos is only a tiny slice of what I will be seeing and photographing, but it gives you an idea of the magnitude of this trip. 

Kind of funny, but before I had gone to the meeting letting us know what we would be seeing I started reading Dan Brown's 'Inferno'... basically everywhere that Robert Langdon travels to in that book, I will be visiting myself. I happen to take the book with me to the meeting (thinking I would have time to read a little), when I heard the list of places I pulled the book out and said "like in here...." The professor in charge decided he should be reading the book as well.

If any of my fellow blog followers have been to Florence and has a fantastic idea of what my project should be, let me know. How do I narrow down 10 days in art paradise into one little photography project?! What should I focus on? What would you like to see in a 'coffee table' kind of book? I have time to think of an idea, but any help would be greatly appreciated!