Light Festival

Florence hosts an annual light festival this time of year.  What is a light festival? 

Named "F-LIGHT", Florence specially lights many of its landmarks for one month during the holiday season.  The theme of the 2016 festival is "The Source. Back to the genesis."  Click here to see a promotional video. 

The festival started with the lighting of two large Christmas trees in the center of the city. 

In addition to trees, many of the streets and some of the buildings are decorated with lights.  Below is the main department store in Florence with its façade covered with lights.

The festival continues with sophisticated video mapping of some Florence monuments, including the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) over the Arno River.  The other night, we strolled over to the bridge for a look. 

The Ponte Vecchio.  Multiple video projectors shine different pieces of still or moving images on the bridge.  The images appear seamless and the bridge is transformed into a painting or a moving object.  Paintings projected on the bridge including works by Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Raphael and Andy Warhol.  

To see a video of the images on the bridge in motion, click here. 

P.S.  Last year, we saw video mapping in NYC, at a Radio City Musical Hall Rockettes' performance and a NY Rangers playoff game.  It was amazing.  Video mapping is cool.