The Cavalcade of the Magi (Wise Men)

Epiphany, when the three wise men arrived at the manger, is celebrated in Florence with a procession of people dressed up in mostly Renaissance costumes. This parade which was started in 1417, stopped in1494 and was resurrected in1997. Unfortunately, the photos are very poor as we were standing behind a crowd and did not see much of the action. Below are the three wise men on their horses.

Florence Tabernacles

What are called "tabernacles" are devotional paintings or sculptures which you find at street corners in Florence. Some are very old, others are more recent. In fact the very old ones have usually been put in museums and replaced by copies.

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.