Trips

            After our wonderful "finds" at the Galileo Museum, we entered the Palazzo Vecchio and wandered until we found Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes.  We did not find Vasari’s View of Florence.

Palazzo Vecchio - Medici Coat of Arms	Inside the Palazzo Vecchio - Ceiling
Palazzo Vecchio - Pope Leo X in the Hall of 500 (Leo X was the first Medici Pope)	Inside the Palazzo Vecchio
View from inside the Palazzo Vecchio	Palazzo Vecchio - Hall of 500
Inside the Palazzo Vecchio - Dante	Inside the Palazzo Vecchio
Inside the Palazzo Vecchio
Inside the Palazzo Vecchio - Michelangelo's Putto	Inside the Palazzo Vecchio - Wooden doors - upper left is the Medici coat of arms
After the Palazzo Vecchio, we walked up onto the Vecchio Bridge (Ponte Vecchio).  Originally there were butcher and fish stalls along the bridge.  When the Medici family used the covered walkway above the shops to cross the Arno River, they did not like the smell from below.  They had those markets moved and jewelry shops replaced them.  The bridge is still shoulder-to-shoulder gold and silver stores.
Arno river	Street scene Locks on the Ponte Vecchio
Locks on the Ponte Vecchio	Ponte Vecchio
We walked along the Arno in the broiling sun to another church, San Salvatore di Ognissanti.  It was closed until 4 PM so we bought a 2-liter bottle of cold water and sat in the shade on a stone bench and waited.  The friar opened the door at 4:10 and we saw Botticelli’s Saint Augustine but not Ghilandaio’s Last Supper.  That painting was in the refectory (friar’s dining room) and closed to the public.	Church of San Salvatore di Ognissanti
Church of San Salvatore di Ognissanti	Botticelli - Saint Augustine
Sat., 7/18/15 – Florence             This morning we walked down to Santa Maria Novella Church.  We even got there before it opened at 9 AM.  Once in the church there was no help at finding the six paintings we were looking for.  We asked a bookstore clerk and then found the Ghirlandaio frescoes behind the high altar: Annunciation to Zachariah, Birth of the Virgin, Visitation, and Masaccio’s Trinity.  In the side chapel, the Strozzi Chapel, we found Orcagna’s Strozzi Altarpiece and the fresco Exorcism of the Demon by Filippino Lippi.
Santa Maria Novella	Santa Maria Novella - Bell Tower
Santa Maria Novella	Santa Maria Novella - Sun dial
Santa Maria Novella	Santa Maria Novella
Tornabuoni Chapel (also Capella Maggiore) - Frescos by Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490	Tornabuoni Chapel - Frescos by Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490
Tornabuoni Chapel - Frescos by Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490	Tornabuoni Chapel - Frescos by Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490
Strozzi Chapel - Orcagna - Strozzi Altarpiece	Masaccio - The Holy Trinity Skeleton (painting) beneath
Santa Maria Novella	Santa Maria Novella

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