April 2007 - Florence, Italy - April Visits

Our one visitor from the States, after living in Italy for more than eight months, was April. The shopping skills that my sister developed and honed over the last 10 years, since her last visit to Florence, were put to good use on the Ponte Vecchio, Via Tornabuoni, and throughout this shoppers dream of city. She had a new pair of shoes (and a date with a local) within her first 24 hours! April's trip was about more than shopping and italian men. We showed her some sights and ate some amazing meals.

We spent an afternoon at Chiesa Santa Croce combing through the tombs of Dante Aligheri, Prince Machiavelli, and Galileo. We were most interested in Dante's tomb which is actually a memorial since his body is buried in Ravenna.

Here is April getting us oriented with the guidebook. Where is Dante's memorial? Aaaahhh, here it is!!

We enjoyed the lovely courtyard of the cloisters of Santa Croce most of all.

We spent another beautiful sunny afternoon at the Boboli Gardens which lay behind Palazzo Pitti.

We had a wonderful creative, Italian dinner at Alle Murate. This restaurant is also a museum with frescoes from the 14th century preserved on its ceilings.

After dinner we were given audioguides and allowed to tour the frescoes and the Roman well in the basement.

Here we are in the basement of the restaurant which used to be part of a Roman home and still contains traces of the well.

This was a truly unique dining/museum experience.