Florence Day Two: The City
Monday, June 20.
Trying to see all of Florence in a day is crazy, but that's exactly what we tried to do. We didn't go inside many places, but we saw most of the main city. It's a cool place. Lots of museums. Because of the storm the day before, it wasn't too hot either. Upper eighties maybe. We started out about nine in the morning and got back about nine hours later. It was a good, but long day. We were exhausted by the time we got back. The mosquitoes here are terrible. They were eating us alive. I've never had so many bites. McKenna reacted worse than I did. Poor thing. despite it all, It was a good trip to Florence.

This hot dog is committing suicide. How sad, yet he looks so happy about it. Mustache man on the right reminds me of Carson.

                                               Eating breakfast by the old wall of Florence.

                    Old Wall. Wishing I could read Italian or Latin.

Our first Piazza! Piazza means square in Italian. This is Hercules fighting a lion.

Real monks. :) We tend to see lots of nuns, but not as many monks.

This is the river Arno. Runs right through Florence.

Santa Maria Novella- the monastery/ first pharmacy in Florence. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. Construction began in 1246 and was finished about 1360. It was built by Franciscan friars and was consecrated in 1420. The architecture is Gothic and Renaissance. It was built on top of a ninth century church.

Our first Gelato! It was sooo good. :)

The inside of the monastery is beautiful. The picture on the right is a cemetery connected to some chapels.

The courtyard and a small chapel.

The church has a museum portion that holds relics, old pope clothes, and items important to the church.

End of Santa Maria Novella. We didn't get to see the pharmacy part of it. Meaning the garden where they grow the herbs and plants used for perfume as well as for medicinal purposes.  It's the oldest in Italy. It was established in 1221, when the Dominican monks from the adjacent Basilica of Santa Maria Novella began growing herbs to make balms, salves and medicines for their infirmary. The superior quality of their products became widely known, and in the 17th century, the pharmacy opened its doors to the public. Today it's still in use and uses traditional methods.

View of the Dome from the streets.

This is the Cathedral of Florence. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence, Italy. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style and completed structurally in 1436. The church is one of the largest in Italy and the Dome is the largest brick dome in the world.

We didn't get to go inside because the line would have taken all day to get through. We saw people playing cards while waiting. We walked all around the church though. It's quite ornate.

We didn't go inside this one either, but it's one of the oldest churches in Florence.

I thought this was great. :) Scrat holding ice cream cones.

Since it was a Monday, the museum with the David statue was closed, but we took a picture in front of it.

Le Ponte Di Vecchio. This is he oldest bridge in Florence and has shops built on top of it.

The pizza was ok, but i'm not much of a tuna fan. Should probably learn Italian.

This square has lots of copies of famous statues. It's a cool place.

I'm now besties with Pinocchio. 

This is the church where all the cool people are buried. No joke. It's an honor to be buried here. The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church.It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell'Itale Glorie). Legend says that St. Croce was founded by St. Francis himself.

Galileo

A. G. B. Niccolini. This statue is said to be the inspiration for the statue of liberty. 

Michelangelo

Dante

The construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV. The building's design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans.

Rossini

The Medici chapel is the original location of Galileo's burial. He was moved to his current location  in the nave in 1717. 

Monument to Florence Nightingale.

Back to the cool square. :) I took a Greek and Roman mythology class and we talked about these statues. It's so cool to see them in real life. On the left you have Hercules if I remember right and on the right is Hermes.

                                               Don't do it friend! You have so much to live for.

Found these graffiti signs and thought they were entertaining.

Made the hike to a Michelangelo point that has a great view of the city. It was a decent hike, not too bad except we'd already been walking all day so it felt like we were climbing the stairs to heaven.

                                          The view was pretty great though. Totally worth it.

McKenna collected stickers left by others for Carson while we were there. This one has her a few feet off the ground.

Outside the Galileo museum this sundial tells the time of day, the day of the week, the month and the time of year. Pretty cool, eh? Right: I don't actually know what this this, but they're all over the city. It looks like a snake doesn't it?

                                                               Cool dragon thing. :)

There are so many churches here, well that is true of all of Europe I've decided. I love churches. They're so pretty and peaceful, as well as generally cool which is a nice break from the heat of the day.

Passed this on our way home. I thought it was kind of disturbing and thought I'd share the joy with you all. ;)