Our second day in Florence we woke up quite late cause the previous day we were out till 2 am trying to locate Florence’s secret bakeries, but we couldn’t. Anyway, the next morning we walked to this famous pharmacy , Santa Maria Novella, which is the oldest historic pharmacy in the whole of Europe. It was started four centuries ago by Dominican monks who prepared elixirs, ointments and balms with herbs and flowers and apparently the same formula is used to date.
This is us, stepping out for the day…
Inside the posh pharmacy…
Everything smells nice… the architecture of the old building which was a convent long back is quite captivating.
This was probably a chapel in the convent, look at that choir bench…
And check out my outfit, both the t-shirt and jeans are from Max. Anyway, this was how I travelled just the necessary clothes, a couple of jeans, a few t-shirts and a couple of dresses.
A closer look at my t-shirt… I love this wolf.
Swans straining…
The roof at this place…
After buying a few things, we walk out….
and I come across this sulpture…
I have no idea what it means, but pretty fascinating
The dome again… one can never tire of this view.
Stopped here to get something to eat
This is the creamy coffee that churns away in a corner… amazing.
Crossing the dome again…
Another small church… the Michaelangelo church
Inside the Michaelangelo church…
Pretty glow of candlelights…
Intricate altar
This is the plaque of the famous
Boar statue…
We then went to the Uffizi Gallery…
Saw incredible paintings…
Spring by Botticelli
The next picture by Botticelli is quite famous…
The birth of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty…
Pretty
Nice work on the gown…
Again by Botticelli
Some room at the gallery…
Such a brilliant picture…
The view outside
The Ponte Vecchio bridge…
The duomo
After roaming around, taking in all the mind blowing paintings and sculptures, this is how we felt too… we wanted to just relax somewhere.
Description of the above relaxed figure…
I think this is also a museum…
Shades of Florence
Another nice painting
Found another of Clet Abrahms work
There’s another street artist guy called Blub, who does underwater paintings… spotted one here
And here.
Another defining symbol of Firenze, the ponte Vecchio bridge.
Pretty building…
Some square where we sat down for a bite…
Before climbing the stairs to
The Church of San Miniato al Monte
There’s an Olivetan monastry adjoining the church, and we came in time to hear gregorian chants by the monks…
it was otherworldly amazing… like it must have been centuries ago, check the video to listen to a snippet of the chanting.
The monks praying in a small underground chapel…
The view of Florence from the San Miniato church
The graveyards
A shop where the monks sell the many things they make… Bought a hazelnut ice cream and
this tiny wooden cross to wear on my chain.
Here we are, eating ice cream made by monks and taking in the beauty of Firenze. Some moments just get etched in your being forever and this was one of them… until the mosquitoes arrived and that truly felt like home.
So pretty…
On the way down came across these fascinating trees..
How beautiful…
A cross on the way down…
A wedding photo-shoot was going on
We then reached the Michaelangelo square…
With the statue of David towering over everybody else
Walked back to the old town and had some amazing pizza…
at Scuzie Scuzie, the owner is from Naples and their rustic authentic pizza was quite filling. Walked to the station after this to check our tickets for Pisa the next day, then walked back to the room, packed and went to sleep. It was an amazing day spent falling in love with Firenze’s hidden charms…
Beautiful! Merry Christmas!
Thanks Rajiv 🙂 Merry Christmas