Rain, frescos and David

Saturday 10/5

We woke at 5 am to booming thunder and the threat of lightening bursting through our windows. It was an absolute down-pour for several hours. Once the rain reduced to a reasonable flow, we thought we'd try to make our way to Basilica di Santa Maria Novella- a major church to visit and one we had been passing daily on our way into town.

Inside the Santa Maria Novella

Giotto's Crucifix

We were thrilled to see a fresco we had learned about: Masaccio's "Trinity", one of the first Renaissance artists to use perspective. The three dimensional effect was amazing and to think it was painted in 1424, and still perfectly preserved.

Masaccio's "Trinity"

We saw the Filippino Lippi frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel and the spectacular Ghirlandaio frescoes in the main chancel. We were having a blast photographing all of this art (without flash, of course) and hope we can figure out what is what by the time we get home and have hundreds of pictures.

Filippino Lippi's frescoes

Ghirlandaio's frescoes

As we left, it started to rain again, so we ducked into the Mercato  Centrale- an enclosed Florentine market dating from the 1800's. It is a maze of stalls where butchers, bakers and fruit vendors sell their wares. We enjoyed a break and had freshly-roasted porchetta panini, with a delicate apricot torta for our dolce.

Fortified, we were ready to brave the elements and walked over to the Museo di San Marco, a 15th century Dominican monastery where Fra Angelico decorated the walls of the monk's otherwise austere cells with a devotional fresco. We saw the cell where Savonarola stayed, with many of his artifacts on display (not able to photo these). Fra Angelico's "Annunciation" was another amazing sight.

Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation"

France Angelico's fresco inside a Monk's cell

Fra Angelico's fresco

We ended the day by braving the crowd at the Academia, to see David--a must see for every trip to Florence! Actually the crowd was manageable, and we enjoyed greatly all of the other treasures at this museum as we'll--topping off yet another major day of Renaissance art viewing.

Gary was such a good sport about all of this art, art and more art, that I agreed to go back to the same place for dinner where we had gone the other night: Trattoria Lucia. It was packed with locals and we had a great time--including complimentary limoncello!