Our Easter was a happy one! We were able to sleep in and enjoy breakfast at our B & B. Elisa's mother made apple cake for breakfast, which was wonderful.
B & B Art sits in the center of town. It is actually within the old city wall of the village. We discovered that it is called "Art" because there is modern art hanging on nearly every wall. Our hostess, Elisa, is so gracious that it is beyond belief. She is stunning with the thickest curly long red hair any of us have ever seen. It goes to her waist and, if not tied back, flows outward.
We wanted the holiday to be less rushed, so we opted to spend the day at a small chapel that overlooks Florence. Unfortunately, the forecast was showers for the whole day. It rained on our entire drive there but, once we arrived, the rain stopped.
We went to San Miniato church which was built using white and green marble. The church was named for Saint Minias who legend says was beheaded on the Arno river bank in 250 A.D. He picked up his head and walked up the hill to the place where the church now stands. It was the first cemetary in Florence and Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio, is buried there. We climbed several steps which gave truly breathtaking views over the city and the Tuscan landscape on its outskirts.
We walked down the road to Michelangelo Piazza where another replica of the statue of David stands. We had brought along two special things for our Easter celebration: a bottle of bubbly Prosecco and a chocolate Kinder egg for each of us. For those of you not familiar with these eggs, they are foiled-covered hollow chocolate with a toy inside that are popular in Germany.
We sat on a park bench near hundreds of red and white tulips and ate our lunch here. We bought individual tomato and cheese pizzas to eat with our sparkling champagne from the previous Zenato winery we had visited. Mary pulled the cork and caused a few heads to turn with the loud pop! We admired the backside of David and people watched while we ate.
We went to mass at San Miniato church where the monks chanted the service in Latin. Beth was able to take communion. Brenda noticed that the liturgy was the same melody that is used in churches back home. As we left the service, the sunset painted a beautiful hue over the buildings, so Donna was in picture-taking heaven!
We didn't return until later and, knowing we needed to conserve space in our stomachs for tomorrow's Italian Food Tour, we opted to eat a light dinner and call it an early night.
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