#santacruce

Here is the photo of Santa Cruce (Holy Cross), the Franciscan church in Florence. Its facade is all of marble and inside are apparently monuments to great people of Florence. I did not go inside as it is functioning as a museum and it has a cost to enter it. I preferred the little church with the painted ceiling where we had Mass and also time for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. 

Here I am in Florence (Firenze), the city of flowers. The first photo is of the statue of Jesus taken from the baptistry, a large octagonal building in the central piazza of the city. The second photo is of the baptistry. The building was built large because people who were not baptized did not come into the church building until they were baptized and this was done only once a year at Easter vigil. 

The next two photos are of the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence. It is called duomo as a contraction of two words meaning the home of the Lord (domus Domini). This is an amazingly large building. I could not get it all into the camera lens. Beside it is a large bell tower, also very large. The painted ceiling is on the dome inside. This dome was an architectural wonder of its time because it is self-supporting, not built with scaffolding. 

The next photo is of Santa Cruce, the holy cross church of the Franciscans. We did not get to see any Franciscans, regretfully. The painted ceiling of the next church was where we had Mass, a very peaceful place that had an invitation outside it to come and pray. There was Eucharistic adoration after the Mass and we stopped by again before we left to pray again. 

The final photos are of the city along the Arno River and from a lookout point. You can see the large red dome of the Duoma behind me. All this was on Tuesday. I could not upload any photos yesterday because the wifi was not working at the hotel.