The Medici Chapels

Today we toured the Medici Chapels, home to some of Michelangelo’s sculptures, as well as the burial place of some of the greatest Renaissance families, including Lorenzo the Magnificent.  The two chapels were built between the 16th and 17th centuries as an extension to the Basilica of San Lorenzo.  Our tour guide was Emmanuella, and as it turned out we were the only people on this tour so we had her all to ourselves.  Another beautiful place of worship!

After the tour, we went out into the plaza and Emmanuella pointed out the Basilica di San Lorenzo and part of a wall that she said was the oldest in Florence, dating to 600 AD.  

She also pointed out to us a pasta restaurant that she said was the best in the city, and we checked it out but decided against it.  Can a person eat too much pasta?

Across the street was a macelleria, a butcher shop, and like many we had seen it displayed in its windows huge pieces of beef, the source of Florentine steak, that were being aged under refrigeration.

Our time in Florence on our own was coming to an end because our next tour, Chapter Three, was scheduled to begin in two days.  The flexible passes to the museums during our time here had been convenient, and together with all of the free time it had been a welcome, restful time between the first tour and the next, which we knew would be a little more demanding because we would be packing up every other day and traveling longer distances in Italy.

We stopped at a favorite place we had discovered, just across from the Duomo, a rooftop bar connected to a small hotel whose name I never recorded.  Afterward, we walked across the plaza to the Duomo Café and enjoyed a simple supper of Tuscan soup and bruschetta.