In most other cities or countries even, Santa Croce would be a massive, impressive edifice. Here it is just one among many. It is spectacular, nonetheless.
This is the City of the Dead. Only here could one remark, Oh yes, here also is buried Rossino, Machiavelli, and Alfieri. Among the greatest dead guys buried here are Galileo (except for the fingers in scientific reliquaries in the Museo Galileo), Michelangelo (although he was moved to Rome), and a cenotaph commemorating Dante. There are also tombs, or memorial plaques, it wasn't clear, to Enrico Fermi and Guglielmo Marconi.
Also: fantastic art. What a surprise. Fantastic altar pieces by Giotto, frescoes commemorating the heroics of the saints, including St. Nicolas who not only tossed bags of coins over a wall to keep poor girls from an awful fate, but also reviving from the dead three boys who had been pickled in barrels. I happen to like this stained glass window of Elias (Elijah) on his chariot of fire, or maybe his chariot is just on fire.
Also fantastic: this restored painting of Christ Descends into Limbo by Bronzino, who painted many of the Biblical figures with the faces of Florentine patrons. He put his own face as Kind David's.
Tomorrow we will do a light morning and in the afternoon fly out of Florence, via Vienna, back to Munich. A weekend there and then home on Monday.
