Churches

Santa Croce

This is an opulent church, and the two adjacent chapels with Giotti's paintings, containing some of Florence's finest works of art.

It is also the Westminster Abbey of Florence. The church is filled with the tombs of famous Florentines, like Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Ghiberti (from the bronze doors on page 4), Dante, Galileo and others.

On the left is a photo of Galileo's tomb. His body was only buried here a century after his death. He was not allowed a Christian burial when he died, for his heretical theories that the earth was not the center of the universe. And we all know that he was wrong because Sarasota is really the center of the universe.

In front of the church is an enormous piazza, the size of a football field. Here is where you see the street hawkers, musicians, jugglers and entertainers.

There are also some pretty good restaurants and bars in the side streets. We had a very enjoyable night and met some interesting people in an Irish bar. An Irish bar? Yes, and it was pretty good to have a few pints of Guinness after all that Italian wine.

San Lorenzo

This is the Medici family church, begun in 1421 by Brunelleschi. It is filled with works of the greatest Renaissance artists like Donatello (who is buried here next to Cosimo the Elder), Verrocchio and Lippi (remember him from page 3?). Lippi painted an incredible Annunciation here.

There are several beautiful tombs here of various Medici family members, designed by Verrocchio (who was trained as a goldsmith, hence the delicacy of the craftsmanship).

Other churches and museums in Florence

You are probably bored by now with all the churches and museums we've seen here. Well, hang in there, just a few more. One of the closest to our hotel was also one of the most interesting:

Santa Maria del Carmine.

It is also called the "Sistine Chapel of the North". In a cycle of 12 large (wall) panels, three consecutive artists -Masolino, Masaccio and Lippi- painted the stories of the Old and New Testaments. But it is the work by Masaccio that revolutionized the art world. He is considered the "father of perspective", because for the first time ever, paintings were made to look three-dimensional rather than flat.

The "perspective" technique was studied by later artists of the Renaissance, including Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo who "flocked to the chapel to study what Masaccio had done". One of the most famous is "The expulsion of Adam & Eve from paradise" (see painting left).

We went here on a Sunday and first spent quite some time in the church to enjoy all the art -especially the ceiling in the main knave, which was also done by quadraturists to make it look like it had three additional stories, each supported by marble columns. But everything was painted "trompe l'oeil".

Then we sat in the back row and watched mass for half an hour. It was so nice to see how the congregation had dressed up for this, especially the children.

Outside, in the square, there was an "antique" market. Lots of junk, but also some very nice stuff. We bought a silver medallion (see photo right) some 2.5 inches across (6.5 cm), which now graces our antique silver collection.

Or San Michele

Orsanmichele (the Italians also write it as one word) looks very important from the outside, perhaps due to the life-size statues that decorate its facade. The works are by some of the best sculptors of the Renaissance. When built in the 14th Century it had a church downstairs and a grain storehouse upstairs.

Since I have already shown so many sculptures on these pages, I thought that it would make a nice difference to see a beautiful Della Robbia in the wall of the church. It is just perfect. No damages.

Museum of San Marco

It is also called Museo dell' Angelico, because the friar Angelico lived in this church and painted some of the most beautiful, yet simple, frescoes of his time. They cover the walls in the cloister and the "cells" on the upper floor, and were painted to give religious inspiration to the Dominicans as they prayed during the day in their rooms.

Fra Angelico combined the life of a devout friar with that of an accomplished painter. He was called Angelico (Italian for “angelic”) and Beato (Italian for “blessed”) because the paintings he did were of calm, religious subjects and because of his extraordinary personal piety.

This is also the convent in which Savonarola once lived and his room is marked by his portrait by Fra Bartolomeo.