Early Start

Florence Day 4

I managed to get out of bed early enough to catch the dawn over the Arno this morning, so here is a shot from my exploration of a delightfully empty Florence at that time of the day.  

This shot is actually an amalgamation of 3 separate shots to get the dynamic range in the lighting.  As a result the camera and lens information gets lost in the process.  For those that are interested in that sort of thing it was taken with the Nikon D750 and the 24 - 70mm f2.8 lens.  All three shots were taken at f20 with ISO 200 and a range of long exposures. 

Its been a beautifully warm and sunny day so far in Florence, with (dare I say it) no rain so far.  We wandered around the Bardini and Boboli gardens on the Southern slopes of the Arno this morning looking back at Florence's bustle while enjoying the peace and quiet, birdsong and lack of other people.  You can see some of the views in my extras.

I've been collecting shots of some of the ornate doorknockers they have here and particularly liked the one I've added as an extra.  Definitely one of the 7 Dwarf Lords from Tolkein's Lord of the Rings I feel - not looking too comfortable with the ring he's been given.

We are off to try to find a decent restaurant for this evening's meal next - it shouldn't be hard, although we did manage to choose a bit of a duffer yesterday - a shame really after the excellent choices the two nights before.