A Day on Our Own in Florence

We have no schedule today, no bus musters, and no promises to keep. So we can do what we want to in Florence.

The first thing I wanted to do today was to go to Santa Maria Del Fiore to show my friend the baptistery and the cathedral. We did that quickly enough, so the next step was to walk over to the church of Santa Croce, where Italian geniuses are buried. As we waited to enter the church, I snapped a photo of a high school group posing for a class picture. In the church we saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rossini, and Cherubini. We took our time and enjoyed the cloister, the museum, and the refectory. We stopped to have lunch at an outdoor restaurant adjacent to the church. We were not being herded in a tour group, and I didn’t have a vox plugged into my ear. We took our time enjoying a cool, sunny morning in one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

After lunch my friends asked me what I wanted to do next and I told him that I wanted to see the chapel of the Medici family. I grabbed a coffee-chocolate gelato cone on the way, savoring it as we walked. Glenda and I had been to the chapel on a previous visit, but on that occasion we were rushed through the sacristy as the guide hurriedly told us that the sarcophagi whizzing by had been carved by Michelangelo. How surprised I was today to learn that there is an upper floor with a spectacular rotunda carved in multicolor marble housing massive tombs of later members of the Medici family. There is also a museum that contains multitudes of reliquaries and other religious art collected by the Medicis. We saw some of the splendid vestments worn by Pope Leo X, who was a member of the Medici family.

As an extra little treat Glenda and I had a happy memory as we passed the Grand Hotel Baglioni only a block from our current lodging. We had stayed at that hotel on our previous visit to Florence. Returning to the Hotel L’Orologico on the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella about 2:45 pm, pleasantly tired, we were grateful for a fantastic day in Florence.

So now, it’s it’s back to Rome and then home. We are still enjoying ourselves, but I think we are ready to get back to our place, our food, and our music.Read more