Adventure across the Arno!

Today we walked the long trek down across the Arno river. It was hot today and pretty humid and the walk up the hills got a bit tough. Santa Reparata is in northern Florence and we walked to the southern part of Florence. We visited a really old church called "Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte". Built in 1013, it was all original and it was stunning especially on the inside. This is the first church I have been in, while in Florence and it was awesome. On the way back we stopped at a Murano glass shop.

The Arno River

We crossed over this bridge. It's next to the famous, Ponteveccio.

Panorama view from this hill we climbed up.

You can see the Duomo and it's bell tower as well as a synagogue on the right as well as the rest of Florence.

The Ponteveccio is visible on the river in this photo.

This is the view from the Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte church. It's even higher than the first hill and the wear is clearly seen on the marble on the walk up.

The front of the church (you can google a better photo than my iPhones incompetence to show the whole thing)

The inside was awesome! Upon entering,  I was immediately awestruck and everyone inside was very quiet. The beauty of the marble and the intricate detail everywhere was amazing. Frescos were all original and some where peeling off the walls. It was really neat and it was so much cooler to see it now rather than on slides in Art history class. 

The ceiling in this back room was pretty incredible... 

.....so was the woodworking......

That whole room was pretty amazing! Here is the view coming out of that room....

The view of the priest

The giant Jesus mosaic in the back of the church.

Even the floor was made of hundreds of carved marble blocks with things in Latin carved in them. EVERYTHING was elaborately decorated with what glassblowers call "fru"- just super over the top ornate.

The cieling in here was really cool. 

All of these photos really don't do it much justice especially since they were taken with my iPhone. You really do have to experience this place in person to "get it" otherwise these are just like many of the other art history photos.