Florence: a few last photos

That folks is the sarcophagus of none other than Nicholas Machiavelli. Yes-sir-re-bob. One in the same, and in a church too. A big fancy church — the Basilica Santa Croce,   "Might makes right" and all that stuff. This guy's philosophy of leadership would not lead one to believe he would be comfortable in a church but here he is with gilded marble too. This church had a all star cast of bodies around in a number of sarcophagi.  Galileo and Michelangelo happen to be the only name that come to mind now, but Marconi was born in Florence and had a plaque in the church. Florence had something special going there for a while.   

We toured the Pitti Palace, not the Pity Palace nothing pitiful about this place, and these boys collected art with a passion—  check out this room. This is what I call decorating a room.  Walls covered in paintings, middle of the room with sculpture, and ceiling with art work too. Went all out on the crown molding too if you will notice. No need for wall paper, if you have a spare wall, get someone to do a fresco.

Patt liked this room, thought we should make an addition to the house back home and furnish it in a smiler fashion. Problem is that the current lot is not hig enough for the room. The chandelier would fit in our den-family room though if we took out all the furniture and cut out some of the floor. I liked  some of the nude sculptures in the niches around the room.  

That is the Duomo in the background. It sorta dominates the plaza and is just plain impressive.  Meant to have more photos in the previous post about it.

From the inside, it is actually rather plain.

And the doors of the baptistry.

And from the reliquary in the one of the larger churches we were in. I meant to remember, perhaps Santa Croce. This is a jaw bone, one of the more impressive of the bones collected. This particular collection of the relics of the saints was also impressive as it had some all-star saints among those collected. We are talking a couple of the original 12 and others you have heard of.

And this relic just happens to be a piece of a robe that belonged to St Francis of Assisi. Says so right on the little plaque. I am not a big fan of relics, some people must have been at one time because they are displayed in some mighty fancy containers.

We left Florence for Lucca, a much smaller but equally quaint tourist town west of Florence. Charles had the responsibility of renting a car for the four of us. I knew not to expect a Volvo or Range Rover or big Mercedes, but this was being just a little too conservative. These cars park vertically like a motor cycle have about as much power as a lawnmower, appear to have all the comfort of a milking stool, and roominess of a small pill box.  We'll manage.