Boboli Gardens, Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato, and a lot of Food

Ok, so the weather has been not so nice here for the last couple of days.  I heard that it was supposed to rain on Friday, so I decided to do probably the least suitable activity and go visit the Boboli Gardens.  To compensate, I wore long pants and brought my rain jacket in case it should pour.

It didn't rain.  But it was super hot and humid and the gardens are a huge hill.  So basically I was sweaty and miserable and preyed on by mosquitos throughout the whole thing.  Probably my least enjoyable day yet in Florence.  The gardens were nice, and the pictures look a lot better than the experience was.  They did have great views of the city, and some beautiful fountains and landscaping, but other than that I was just too uncomfortable to really care.

Here are some pictures though:

    

But the rest of the day completely made up for a not so nice beginning.  For lunch, I decided to go to a place that my Italian friends had recommended.  It was an amazing pizza place on the other side of the river called Gusto Pizza.  The pizza was amazing (the first I've had here, actually), and the tables were really cute.  They were wine barrels with glass over the top and inside people had put their receipts and napkins with comments written all over them.  I wish I'd had a pen!

After my lunch I went "home" because it was gross out and I really had nothing I wanted to do.  The mom of the family I'm staying with was going out and she offered to take me to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a terrace that offers some of the best views of the city.  Of course I said yes, and even though it was raining a little, it was still gorgeous!

    

Then, since we were already in the area, we went to San Miniato Church.  St. Minias (the church's namesake) was beheaded on the banks of the Arno.  He apparently then picked up his head and walked up the hill to the current site of the church.  He died there and was buried in the cemetery (the first Christian cemetery in Florence).  The church kind of represents the transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance.  The facade is in the Romanesque style, but the tabernacle inside is classic Renaissance panels by Della Robbia.  There is also a crypt, which we didn't have time to enter since the church was closing.  The church is home to the Benedictine order, whose motto is "ora et labora" (pray and work).

Here's the facade (while pictures were allowed inside, it was too dark to get good ones as it was the end of the day) and the view from the church:

    

Finally, since the daughter of the family that I'm staying with is leaving to go to school in Spain, we went out for dinner to a really awesome vegetarian restaurant.  The place is self-service, so it was kind of chaotic finding a table, but the food was amazing!  I had pasta with melanzana (eggplant).  I dont know why, but the eggplant here (really all the veggies) are so so much better than in the US.  They're probably fresher or Italians just know how to cook them.  But regardless it was great.

So that was my day.  A rough start at the Boboli Gardens, an amazing lunch of pizza, a trip up to Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato, and a great vegetarian dinner!