Soaking up the culture

Florence Day 5

Yesterday's evening meal was absolutely fabulous - far from cheap but worth every penny.  We decided that we would substitute it for the rather awful meal that we had endured the night before on the day of our 30th wedding anniversary, and so celebrated our anniversary all over again.  :-)   

I think that we're allowed!

In what turned out to be a completely unexpected delight today, we decided to visit the Museo de San Marco, the site of the former Dominican Monastery of San Marco in Florence, to see Fra Angelico's frescos.  The guide book had raved about them, but after a few days of museum visiting we tend to take much of their gushing commentary with a pinch of salt - there is just so much art work to see in Florence.

In this case they really were not exaggerating. The main rooms of the monastery along with each of the monk's cells feature frescos by Fra Angelico and they are wonderful to see.  

This was also the monastery from which Savonarola launched his bonfire of the vanities in his attack on the corruption and greed of the clergy at the time.   

I couldn't bring myself to do anything to this fabulous fresco of the Last Supper (or any of the other frescos), for this week's Abstract Thursday challenge, even though the painterly theme would have been appropriate.

I've given you two more extras.  The first is another for my collection of Florentine bicycle shots and the second is a shot of the lovely flower market that we came across in a colonnade this morning.

We are off now to find tonight's restaurant - fingers crossed that we choose as well as we did yesterday.  The forecast is for rain later on, and it does feel as though we might get a bit of a storm.  Its our last night in Florence and we'll be taking a brolly - but tomorrow sees us arrive in Pisa ...