0317: Walking around Florence

The visual delights of Florence are legendary – the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, etc. The artwork, both inside the many museums and outside in the many piazzas, are certainly an eyeful. But so too is almost every small side street. Graffiti and street art is often clever and thoughtful (There is also, unfortunately, plenty of awful spray paint graffiti).

Turning a corner might yield the sight of a Renaissance mural juxtaposed against modern life. Peeking in a window near the Duomo shows a workshop where artisans keep up centuries old traditions.

A stroll through a graveyard (San Miniato al Monte) showed unique headstones…

…and a most interesting crypt.

And then there is a very clever artist (or artists) at work who turns simple traffic signs into amusing and sometimes provocative statements…

…little visual asides that you catch out of the corner of your eye…

…but linger in your head…

…along with a smile lingering on your face!

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I had to include some fossils today, so I thought this little selection would work nicely.

These are gastropods from the fossil collection of the Paleontology section of the Florence Museum of Natural History.

They relate to an upcoming exhibition that will open at the museum in May. More on that as the date approaches.

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I did manage to take a break from working all of my Florence files to come up with something new at the studio. Ironically, new shooting began with my Moroccan trilobite (above) which I found in a Florence flea market! And, below, something I brought back from a walk in the woods yesterday.

Thanks for the visit.