Florence Part II

According to Unesco, more than 60% of the world’s most important works of art are found in Italy… half of these are in Florence. I think I may be coming down with Stendahl Syndrome.
Aside from the galleries we saw quite a bit of Florence in a single day. Claudio took us to several of his favorite spots. San Miniato al Monte is a small 1000-year-old basilica on Monte alle Croci directly across the river from Santa Croce. At the base of Monte al Croce is Porta San Niccolo, one of the few remaining 14th century gateways in the old wall. Half way up the Monte we stopped at Piazzale Michelangelo, a vast plaza with a stone and bronze monument to Mr. Buonarroti in the center. Around the monument are 4 bronze copies of Michelangelo’s funerary figures Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk from the Medici Mausoleum. Atop these stands a bronze David looking out over the city he has come to symbolize. From this plaza you can see up the Arno and at least 7 of it’s bridges or across at the miraculous city. Everything is visible. It gives you a great overview of the city and a great place for you to plan your attack.
As we continued up we passed San Salvatore al Monte a peach colored Franciscan church. At the top is San Miniato. It is covered in green and white marble and commands one of the best views of Florence imaginable. Just over the terrace wall is a strange cemetery of crypts, mausoleums and graves including that of Carlo Collodi, the creator of Pinocchio.
On the way back to the city center we could see the wealth of the Medicis, their offices, palaces and private passages which today are open to the public, an idea that would have caused a few seizures in those 16th Century aristocrats.
To quote a dear friend “I may never get over this.”