Travelsmartplanet

The CN Tower and a reflection of the Tower in an office building nearby, The tower held the record for the world’s tallest free-standing structure for 32 years until 2007 when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa. It still remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.

Until 2009, The CN Tower was the world’s tallest tower but in that year the Canton Tower was built and surpassed it. It’s still in the top 10 free-standing structures in the world, coming in at #9.

The CN Tower in Toronto, completed in 1976, is 147 stories high. You can go up and look out on the observation deck on the 114th floor. CN stands for the Canadian National Railway, since the tower was built by the company and is located on former railway land. It remains the signature icon of Toronto’s skyline, with more than 2,000,000 visitors zipping up it every year.

It makes sense that a bust/fountain on the Ponte Vecchio would be of a sculptor and goldsmith, Benvenuto Cellini. Cellini did not have any connection with the jewelry shops on the bridge, which are there today because when he was alive, butcher shops lined the bridge. The artist, in a shout out to Cellini, used motifs taken from the pedestal of Perseus, Cellini’s masterpiece. The inscription on the monument states: “To Benvenuto Cellini ­ Master ­ The Goldsmiths of Florence.”

Florence’s Baptistry of the Duomo is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors which have relief sculptures. The south doors were created by Andrea Pisano, and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti.

It was Michelangelo who gave the East doors their fame, calling them “the Gates of Paradise”. The 17-foot-tall gilded doors, weighing 4 1/2 tons, are casts of the original doors created in Ghiberti’s 15th-century workshop.

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri and many other notable Renaissance figures, including members of the Medici family, were baptized in this baptistry.

Florence’s Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore defines the skyline with its magnificent Renaissance dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The vast Gothic structure with its iconic white, pink and green marble identify the city. You can climb to the top of Brunelleschi’s Cupola – if you are brave enough.

You can climb the 414 steps to the top of Giotto’s Bell Tower of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. The climb is worth the view. Hope the 7 bells aren’t ringing when you get up there.

You get a great view of the majestic Renaissance Filippo Brunelleschi -designed domed Florence Cathedral, the Duomo if you ascend one of the hills around it. The Gothic-styled Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore was begun in 1296 along with it’s Baptistery and Giotti’s Bell tower (Campanile). Ghiberti’s original Baptistery doors are in the museum (the ones outside are copies).

Brunelleschi was commissioned in 1418. The dome is egg-shaped and was accomplished without scaffolding. A balcony by Baccio d’Agnolo was added in 1507. Notice that only 1 of the eight sides was finished by 1515, when someone asked Michelangelo (whose artistic opinion was by this time taken as cardinal law), his thoughts of it. The master reportedly scoffed, “It looks like a cricket cage.” Work was immediately stopped, and to this day the other 7 sides remain only rough brick.

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In Venice, the Ponte dei Sospiri or the Bridge of Sighs is an arched limestone bridge that connects the Doge’s Palace to the Prigioni Nuove, or the New Prisons. It got its name from the sighs of the prisoners walking across it.

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Three can fit into the giant sculptured shoes in the promenade of Valduz, Liechtenstein.