Lunedi....

Every day when we start our, the neighborhood is dominated by the Duomo...

This morning however we started by visiting the Chiesa Santa Maria Novello, across from the train station. Fabulous, if bloody (and I could understand how some might be unnerved by it), Christian iconography; alas, photos of any kind were not allowed. We also toured the refectory. Santa Maria Novello was Domenican run, and so most of the paintings, icons, and frescoes where of the trinity of leaders of the Dominenican order, Dominic himself, St. Peter the Matyr, and St. Thomas Aquinas, who tamed pagan Aristotleian philosophy for Christianity. Keep in mind that originally Aristotle was viewed, in the 11th and 12th centuries, as pagan and highly suspicious. Aquinas so rehabilitated Aristotle that, a few centuries later, when Galileo proved Aristotle was wrong on a few points, he was viewed with hostility. (There were other factors as well--it wasn't simply anti-science hostility.)

We went from Santa Maria Novello to the Basilica San Lorenzo, looking for the Medici apartments, but they are closed on Mondays, as are many museums. We did find an extensive outdoor market, and Donna bought a new purse. (Later in a shop near our hotel I bought a new computer bag, Florence being famous for its leather products.)





After another picnic lunch in our room (yum) and nap, we returned to the Palazzo Vecchio and toured again the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio: the fabulous extensive apartments of the Medicis.

The rooms were as ostentatious and fabulous as anything at Versailles, or almost. In addition were many outstanding paintings and frescoes, many centered not only Biblical themes but also classical Roman myths (I started to write Greco-Roman, but it was pretty thoroughy Roman, naturally..)

Tomorrow we tackled the Uffizi, the Louvre of Italy, though not as extensive but nearly as overwhelming. For Wednesday we are thinking about going down to Rome, which is only 2 hours away by train.