sitting on a different quilt.: Florence, Italy

We started off the day a lot earlier than yesterday. We headed out by 10am, and finally got to use Google maps on my phone! It was nice to be able to just punch in the address and follow its commands. We made it to Santa Maria Novella around 11am, and I got a latte to drink before we went in. It was definitely the most beautiful church I had ever been inside. There were two big artist names in this church: Giotto and Masaccio. It was so awesome to see the Masaccio because I have talked with my students about it so many times when talking about the developments of drawing perspective.

In front of the Church the day before

Stained glass behind the altar.

Stained glass behind the altar

To the right of the altar.

Close up of the incense burners.

View from the beginning of the nave.

Masaccio & I

After the church we went into the museum part. I wish they had more explanations along with the items. Especially the ones pictured below. Each one has a bone relic in it, surrounded by glass.

That is a piece of bone in there!

After the church, we headed over to the train station to get our tickets to Rome. It was a lot less stressful because we knew the routine a bit, but still had to wait awhile for our number to be called. We made sure we got a seat we wouldn't be kicked out of. Come to find out, we can't buy "business class" because our Euro Pass isn't set up for that... well they really need to work that kink out because if you buy them online.... the system lets you "buy" a business class seat for the price of a coach seat. Then we headed over to the bus station, which caused some anxiety for the day later on. I asked for a ticket to Siena for "domani" which means "tomorrow." He printed one off, but then I looked at it and it was a one way ticket. We had to go back, and buy another one so we didn't end up sleeping on the streets of Siena. While asking them about where do we depart and what times they just gave us a paper with charts on it all in Italian. We decided we were too hungry to figure it out then, and headed to get lunch.

We ate lunch at a place called I Due Fratinelli. It's pretty much a booth in the wall and they sell sandwiches, wine, beer, and all other kinds of drinks. There's only room for 2 workers in this booth. They have about 15 different sandwich combinations. I chose the 7 which was tuna, onion, and tomato with cheese. Craig got the #15 which was ham and cheese. The bread was probably the best part. A light crisp and chewy. Very fresh! Craig said he wants to go back before we leave.

I Due Fratinelli. People would line up in the street, order their food, and then sit on the sidewalk and eat.

So fresh and delicious!

Then we stopped and got gelatto before climbing the massive hill back to our apartment. I told Craig it doesn't seem as bad if we're eating gelatto while we do it, but I also think we're building muscle, too. We got back and I tried to figure some things out with Laura. I asked her about the San Miniato Church and when they did their Gregorian Chant. I had heard a couple different times. After sitting with her and her computer for awhile, speaking broken English and Italian to each other and mimicking with our hands I said, "Well, we'll just see." I gathered out laundry and went back in to try to figure out our bus schedule dilemma for tomorrow. No luck! The website is all in Italian, we I called it was all in Italian. I had already bugged Laura enough today. So we decided to just give it a rest and check out the bus stop on our way to San Miniato.

We left our apartment around 5 pm, and made it to the bus stop. The schedule, of course, didn't help us out any, but we saw two gentlemen standing there and I said something to Craig about asking them. So, I said, "Parla inglese?" (Do you speak English?) and luckily, one of them said yes. He told us we could take this to the bus station in the city and then we'd go to Siena from there. However, we didn't get excited for too long because to take the bus down to the station we would have to pay 2 euro per person and it had to be exact change. We had a 5 euro bill, and close to 2 Euro in change. So, it looks like we're walking to the station tomorrow morning. Regardless, we got it figured out!

View on the way to San Miniato Church

Getting close! Hike up to the church.

San Miniato is right up there with Santa Maria Novella. It is older than S.M.N., and more known for it's Medieval design. I was most excited for the Gregorian Chanting. They weren't doing it when we first arrived, so we decided to come back after we went to Pizzale Michelangelo. After this, we ate and went in to hear the chanting. It was beautiful and really made the night. Here are all the pictures from the evening: