It will probably come as no surprise that Florence is one
of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, with
literally dozens of historic locations to visit including the
Duomo (Cathedral), the Uffizi Gallery and Giotto's Tower. No
trip to Florence is complete though, without a visit to the
famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge in Italian).
Situated in the middle of the city and crossing the Arno
River, the Ponte Vecchio is famous for it's jewellery shops
and also for the Vasari Corridor which sits above the shops.
The Vasari corridor connects is a secret passageway which
connects the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti and was
commissioned by Duke Cosimo I de' Medici to enable him to move
freely between his residence and the government palace as he
felt insecure about travelling in public.
If as we
found on our visit, the Vasari Corridor is closed for
renovation work :( then one of the main streets (Via Roma)
from the Duomo leads south directly to the Ponte Vecchio, and
takes about half an hour at a leisurely pace.
During our visit
though we stayed away from the city centre in the Hotel San
Gallo Palace off the Piazza Della Liberta. This area is
quieter than the city centre but does mean a bit of a trek to
get anywhere, however we didn't mind so much as there was a
small parade of cafe's and bars just next door and we had a
pleasant stay in the hotel with a decent breakfast each
morning.
On the morning we decided to visit Ponte
Vecchio we decided to go the long way round, effectively
walking south alongside the ringroad down the the Arno River,
and then approached the bridge from the east. Although this
turned out to be a longer walk than we had expected, I am glad
we chose this route as I feel we would have missed out on so
many photographic opportunities if we had stuck to the city
centre streets, and we just wouldnt have seen this view of the
Ponte Vecchio.
As with a good few of my photographs I
decided that this scene was suitable for some HDR treatment,
particularly as the buildings on the left were in shadow and
subsequently quite dark when you expose for the main interest
(the bridge itself). There is often no way around this and
this is where tone mapping comes into it's own, helping to
remove much of the shadows, increase the colour saturation and
therefore provide balance to the final image. |
