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Published: November 8th 2010
Santa Maria Novella in the Sun
Got our first taste of Masaccio's work in his famous Trinity fresco here. Also discovered Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Tornabouoni Chapel--beautiful!This morning Chris had class, so after a quick visit to the nearby Santa Maria Novella church, we headed over the Arno to Santa Maria del Carmine to view the Brancacci Chapel, with it's famous frescoes by Masaccio. Unexpectedly we found the obligatory 40 minute film prior to viewing the chapel to be fascinating, and it greatly enhanced our understanding and appreciation of the amazing frescoes and their context in art history and Florentine history.
At noon we headed over to the Stanford Center, where we hooked up with Chris and some of his friends for lunch. They took us to the Enoteca Verdi, where the infamous Pino whipped up the most incredible foccacia sandwiches I have ever had--and cheap, too! We enjoyed chatting with Chris' cohorts, then the three of us headed over to the Piazza Duomo to climb up the 400 plus steps up to the top of the Campanile (bell tower). The climb was a bit tough on Dave, who is battling a horrendous cold. While we climbed, Chris distracted us from our "pain" by sharing what he'd learned in art history class about the history of the structure, and we really enjoyed the great views from
the top. We revived ourselves with gelato from Carapina, a Stanford favorite. When he left for class again, we spent a brief time in the Bargello Museum, then re-joined him for an enjoyable dinner at Trattoria Nerrone, another of Chris' discoveries.
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