We arrived in Florence to a beautiful, sunny and much cooler day. We are at a hotel that could have been in the movie "A Room With a View" (the view part--not the room!)--we walk out the door and the Baptistry (covered in scaffolding for restoration work) is RIGHT THERE!
We validated our Firenze cards (great value!) and started walking.....
Santa Croce is one of the churches that I have most wanted to see----it houses the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Michiavelli-----THAT Machiavelli.
The most beautiful part of the church is on the walls----so many frescos by Giotto, Gaddi......and one of the most famous and beautiful frescos is "The Death of St. Francis"----on a side wall, in the Francis chapel to the right of the main altar. Santa Croce doesn't get as much traffic as some of the other churches----but it should.
Of course, we went around to all of the really big museums--the Accademia, San Marco, the Bargello, the Uffizi. My favorite is San Marco----the monastery where Fra Angelico lived and fresco-ed everything in the house. The monk's cells each had a fresco. The biggest cell/s had belonged to Savonarola--the Dominican preacher who was condemned as a heretic and executed---but the monks at San Marco consider him as a martyr.
The most beautiful fresco at San Marco is Fra Angelico's "Annunciation"---breathtaking.
I feel like I have completely gorged on world famous art......and I can't show much of it to you because they don't allow photos at most of the places we went.....
Photos:
1. Ponte Vecchio
2. Fun in the Uffizi bookshop
3. Facade--Florence Duomo
4. David
5. Fra Angelico "Annunciation"
6. Fra Angelico "Sermon on the Mount"
7. Plaque that commemorates Savonarola's execution
8. Santa Croce facade
9. Michelangelo's tomb
10. Giotto "The Death of St. Francis"
1 comment:
Your photos are great. I loved my time in Florence. The David was being worked on when we were there and had scaffolding by him. In cities that old something always needs work.
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