If Venice is about romance, I'd say Florence is about history. There is less water (of course), and it's a little bigger and busier than Venice.

The Baptistery

First stop is the Baptistery. This is where John (the Baptist) baptized people so that they could enter church. Conveniently, this Baptistery is located right in front of the Duomo. Back then people had to be cleansed here before they were allowed in the Duomo. This picture came out very dark because there is no electricity inside, and I walked in after dusk.

This is a facade of the Baptistery. It is made of bronze and gives the illusion of receding distance on a basically flat surface. I learned that most facades depict a story, whether it be Biblical or historical, so that illiterate peasants (and there were many) could learn by looking at the pictures (almost like cartoon learning).

Duomo

This structure is Santa Maria del Fiore, commonly known as the "Duomo" because of its huge dome. This is the first dome to be built after the Roman times. The architect had to go and learn the Roman Pantheon before building this.

Giotto's Tower

This tower stands directly opposite the Duomo and provides a perfect view of Duomo rooftop and Florence cityscape. You have to climb more than 400 steps to get to the top. Yours truly did it without stopping. The key is to breath regularly and keep same pace.

Streets of Florence

As you walk around the streets of Florence, you'll often find 4 to 6 story building like this. Back then, Florence was wide open with scarce population. Florentines protected themselves by living in tall buildings such as this. They built kitchen on the top floor for ideal aeration. Middle floors were living quarters. When raided, they poured hot water or grease from the top floor. Height gave Florentines a great advantage even if they didn't know how to fight.

Vespos became popular after the World War; it was a convenient and economic way to get around. It is still popular, and you'll find them lined up neatly in the alley. Be careful as you cross street; a vespo could zip by you before you know it!

Every major city in Europe seems to have a river of their own. London has Thames, Paris has Seine, and Florence has Arno. There are several bridges over the Arno river, but this one is meaningful in that it's the only surviving bridge from the World War. It's currently a marketplace. There are many gold/silver shops and some cheap souvenir booths. I think it would've been more interesting had they lined it with bakeries and dessert shops. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful scene!

Santa Croce Church

Florence is most famous for Michelangelo's David in Accademia. It was most impressive and I wish I could share the photos (only if the museum allowed photo taking)... Next best thing is Santa Croce Church for tomb watching. I found tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante. Their works are so old that it's easy to dismiss them as if they're mythical characters. Standing in front of their tomb, realization struck me hard that they're indeed real (dead but real). What would today be without their contribution to our culture? BTW, you can see Galileo's finger in the Science Museum. His students cut off his middle finger when he died and stored it away. Now it's displayed in the Science Museum (prominently pointing upwards).

You'll often hear that red wine is for men and white wine is for women, reason being that red wine has meaty & chunky taste while white wine has floral & fruity taste. I am a 99% red wine person. I am biased not because of taste but because of how my body handles white wine. For some reason, I get more drunk or get headache when I drink white wine. A colleague gave me a bottle of Naked Chardonnay for X-mas, and I almost gave it away. Then I learned about wine cocktail. I mixed 2 part concentrated pomegranate juice with 1 part Naked Chardonnay. The combination was perfect with spicy spring roll. Naked Chardonnay's clean-cut, citrus taste hid pomegranate juice's bitter aftertaste, and pomegranate fragrance overtook alcoholic smell often found in white wine. I think this is how I'll manage the remaining Chardonnay in the next couple of days.

I went to Italy several months ago. I meant to blog about it earlier but didn't get a chance until now. Venice is one of the three cities I visited. Venice was exactly what I have heard and seen in photos everywhere, so I won't bother to post the same, boring (and probably lower quality) photos here. Instead, I'll talk about the new things I learned in Venice.

Spaghetti with Black Ink Sauce

I was told that seafood is good in Venice since it's a harbor city. One of its delicacy is "Spaghetti with Squid Ink Sauce". Locals partly dared me and partly scared me by saying that the black ink will stain my teeth. My American friends seemed to be more concerned about the fishy taste than cosmetics. Well, I took the dare of both Venetians and Americans and tried "Spaghetti with Squid Ink Sauce". To my surprise, the sauce was not fishy at all. It had salty taste and was perfect with plain Italian bread and red wine. The bread was moist and soft unlike French bread. And no, my teeth didn't stain :-) The spaghetti noodle was very chewy. I didn't find this dish anywhere else in Italy, so I recommend you try it while in Venice.

St. Mark's Basilica

Unlike other Western European churches, this one resembles an Islamic mosque. Venetians designed this way intentionally to distinguish itself from Roman Catholic dominion and build ties with Byzantine Empire. Supposedly, there exists remains of Mark (one of the twelve disciples of Jesus) that were smuggled in by Venetian merchants from Egypt. I say "supposedly" because this story is not proven true or false. Anyway, Venetians used this story to strengthen the pride of its city.

Doge's Palace

Venetians called Duke a "Doge". The palace is decorated with what's called a Venetian column (with clover design). You might have seen them if you ever been to The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. I learned of Doric and Ionic columns in Art History class in college. I didn't know about Venetian column until now.

Doge's Palace is turned to museum. I couldn't take photo inside so I cannot show you the world map that was created in 1500s. I was impressed with the detailed coverage of Far East. It even had "Korea" (most old maps just show China and Japan). North America was drawn as outline only since it was a new world then. What's interesting is the title: "The Land of the Savages".

The Clock Tower

Locals told me that the clock on this tower is the first ever built digital clock in the world. The clock shows 24 hours, Zodiac signs, and Moon phases. The clock changes every 5 minutes instead of every minute. This is pretty high tech considering the period when it was built.

Gondola Ride

What's Venice without a Gondola ride?! I took a ride after dusk. It turned out to be a very relaxing ride after a long day. All the tourists were in the bistro or bar somewhere. Hardly anyone was out in the street except for a few locals walking their dogs (someone told me that locals walk their dogs in order to show off that they're not tourists). As the Gondola snaked between the buildings, I couldn't help but feel serenity from peaceful and dead quiet alleys... despite the stinking water :-)