Yesterday, I went on the afternoon outing to Santa Croce with the school. Marco was our guide, and he's just wonderful (as usual). It's a beautiful church and very important to the people of Florence. Michelangelo, Vasari and Machiavelli are buried there, and there are empty tombs for Dante and Giaccomo Rossini, although there seems to be some question as to whether or not Rossini is actually there or still in Paris, where he was first buried.
There's also a beautiful chapel belonging to the Pazzi family, built mostly by Brunelleschi, with terra cotta work by della Robbia
The interior is fantastic - here's a very poor quality video of Marco explaining it to us:
Later last night, I had dinner with Marco and his friend Giovanni (along with Magre the english spaniel again). We went to a restaurant called Ora d'aria, run by a chef who is considered one of the top chefs in Florence and all of Italy right now. Here's an article (in english) about him:
Dinner was great, and lasted almost 3 hours. We all had the tasting menu, and it was very haute cuisine - tiny little dishes with exquisite tastes of food on them. I'm not really even sure what I ate, but it all tasted delicious.
So now I'm off to spend my final day in Florence. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do, but probably I'll end up at 4 Lions for dinner, which has been a gastronomic highlight. As much as I enjoyed last night, there's something so wonderful about a plate of pasta and some bread, right? This will be my last entry from Italy, since I'll be packing tonight. Hopefully, when I get home to Seattle, I'll be able to upload more photos from the trip - between Aunt Clare and I, there must be hundreds!
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