The bella Italia.

I had the privilege of seeing the beautiful Florence all snowed in December, though the area (called Toscana) was a chaos with closed highways and airports.

In the de la Signoria square you can see copies of the "David" of Michelangelo  and the "Hércules y Cacus" of Bartolomeo, covered with snow.

 

Along the banks of river Arno I found this chain with lots of padlocks, the meaning is: as long the padlock remains closed in the chain (with the lover's name writen in it)  as long their love last. You should " throw" the key to the river so no one can open it again but it is forbidden so you can keep it and take it with you.

You can find an special bridge really close to the chains...Vecchio's bridge. What is different is that there are buildings on the bridge, nowadays, all of them shops . The bridge did resist the bombs during the Second War World!.

 Views from both sides of the bridge.

In San Giovanni square, you can visit a church: basílica de Santa María di Fiore, you can visit the cupola ( after climbing one thousand steps) designed by Brunelleschi who has an statue pointing at the cupola outside of the church. The visit includes not only to see the cupola inside and see the paintings but as well outside and have a beautiful view of the city.

 

Inside the Duomo ( Cathedral or church) there is an strange clock, 24 hours sphere . The system used it is called the italic hour where the day starts at sunset.