After breakfast yesterday morning, I went back and met Jen and her group at the hotel. A couple of us headed out to grab a quick sandwich and then at 3:30pm, we all met to walk to the Santa Croce Church. Santa Croce is one of Florence's biggest and oldest churches. Inside the church, the Nave runs 375 feet long and their are hundreds of people buried under the church floors. Others have their own tombs along the sides of the church. Here are some named you might recognize: Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Machiavelli, Alighieri and Rossini. It weird to stand there in front of Michelangelo's tomb and think "he's really in there and he used to go to church here as a boy". He died in 1564 so his tomb is over 440 years old...In 1966 there was a huge flood of the Arno River and the church was under 15 feet of water...inside you can still see the water lines on the walls from the massive floods. In addition we also saw St. Francis's tunic - almost 900 years old!
After spending about 2 hours there, we left and went for Gelato at the world famous Vivoli's which is across the piazza from the church. After getting our fill, we walked along the south side of the river and then up to the Ponte Vecchio. We actually saw some guy standing on his head, leaning up against a wall, singing, eating, playing a flute....it was very odd...yet interesting! After our walk, we all headed to a quaint little ristorante that Jen's professor visits often. He knew the owners who served us up the "Bruno Special" named after a friend, Father Bruno. The special consisted of Vino Bianca, Vina Rose (white and red wine), L'acqua (water with and without "gas"), 3 different types of pastas, a plate of ribs, roast beef and chicken over a bed of potatoes, and dolci (dessert) which we passed on thanks to the Gelato from earlier. All in all, a great day with a lot of history and culture!
Today we are heading to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's famous "David". Then we are off to the Uffizi Galleria to see some of da Vinci's work.
Yesterday's lesson learned: Galileo Galilei was a pretty amazing character....and his finger is still kept in a jar at the Science Museum here in Firenze (Florence). Kind of odd...but kind of cool.
Until later....ciao!
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Amy, every night Doug and I sit check out your blog and share big smiles over how much fun you're having. We are SO happy to hear that you're seeing ALL of the "important" sights AND having so much fun (and so much wine!) :-) Your meal at Bruno's was quintessentially Tuscan. Perfect. I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions of "The David" and the Uffizi. It's hard to believe when you're seeing a famous painting or sculpture--the "real thing"--that you've only seen in books before. This is the trip of a lifetime! I'm so glad you guys are making so many wonderful memories. You'll enjoy them all over again every time someone mentions Italy.--Nancy
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