Ocotber 11, 2016

Whenever I visit Italy I'm humbled and awed. Humbled by the brevity and transience of our lives amidst such time-worn beauty, and awed by the history of striving to make sense of our existence through art and architecture. The imperatives of our daily lives seem to disappear when we gaze at a 14th-century fresco or walk through an 800 year-old cloister.

And our second day in Florence didn't disappoint. We strolled around the city and visited two major churches, Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, the largest Franciscan church in the world. Though I've been to both before, my jaw dropped in wonder. I particularly love Italian painting of the 14th and 15th centuries, just before the Renaissance. The skewed perspective, the muted colors, and the yearning for realism but not quite getting there yet have long exerted a magical effect on me. There is a wealth of such stuff in both places, including entire chapels decorated by Giotto and his pupils and contemporaries. And in Santa Croce there are lavish tombs where some of the most important figures in human culture are interred--Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante (although his body is actually in Ravenna because of political rivalries at the time), and even Marconi, the inventor of the radio. Standing before those tombs brought on a powerful rush of emotion.

And oh yeah, the food! Delicious dinner with interesting antipasti and two pasta dishes that were new to us, and pizza and salad for lunch. Kinda like heaven on earth for me.