Travelsmartplanet

The mayor works here at Toronto City Hall (New City Hall) and lots of tourists play amongst the letters here too.
Nathan Phillips, was the mayor of Toronto from 1955 – 1962. The site has a weekly farmers’ market, musical events, art shows, the winter festival of lights, and also political demonstrations! In the winter, the pool becomes an ice skating rink. This is Canada after all.

Acting like a tower?

Toronto has its own version of New York City’s Flatiron building.

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.

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 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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You can of course, see the Tower Bridge from the Tower of London – however even better, you can walk across it. It’s included on the London Pass.

The newest, highest tourist spot in London is called the Shard. You go up up up to the floor 68, 69 and 72 to find a garden of Eden, with a snack bar and plenty of photo ops. Since it is almost twice the height of any other view in the capital, it offers wowy 360-degree views for up to 40 miles. Free on the London City Pass.