Cimitero delle Porte Sante

Yes, an other graveyard, but one you will never have seen the like of. It has a great many personal monuments and it is quite extensive. A fascinating place.

Single Shot

Next door to us is Piazza Santissima Annuziata.That piazza is the turf of older gypsy women. There are no gypsy men, no gypsy younger woman, just mature women. They are easy to recognize by the ankle-long velvet skirts they always wear.They spend most of the day begging, especially at the church door. Every night, they sleep on the loggia of the Innocenti on the same piazza, where they are protected from the rain. One thing we wonder about is their bedding. They have a lot of it, and what can they do with it in the daytime? Probably a charity lets them store it close by.

So far, I have not taken pictures of them.  However this morning I could not resist snapping this one who was begging at the church door  while chatting with a friend on her cellphone. A professional through and through.

Knobs

The last post was on doors, this one is on knobs to open these doors. You would not believe the diversity of door knobs there are in Florence. We walked for 2 hours one morning, and in these two hours I took pictures of 120 different styles of door knobs/handles including this majestic lion.

Portes cochères

One of the things I like best about Florence are these big doors that open to let a car get into a courtyard or a garage. Sometimes one of these will be left open, and you can see part of the courtyard. These courtyards run the gamut from a simple parking area to a magnificent garden.