A more wandering day today, but still saw lots. After breakfast we walked to the interactive Leonardo da Vinci museum (as opposed to the other Leonardo da Vinci museum a few doors down and presumably non-interactive) where they have built a lot of his inventions. Like the name implies, you can play with them and see how they move, although I can confirm that neither his wing nor helicopter take flight. There was also a small section on his paintings which explained a bit on the different techniques used, and how some paintings are only partially attributed to him, with others doing the bulk of the work.
From the da Vinci museum we wandered past the Duomo again and over to Basilica di San Lorenzo, constructed in 393, although it has been renovated many times in the intervening years, including a reconstruction in 1059, and a major renovation in 1418. Underneath the basilica is, among others, Donatello’s tomb.
From the basilica we stopped at the nearby central market, a Granville Island style market, for lunch. From there we stopped outside Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. At this point we were thinking more of gelato, so continued on towards the river and ended up going into Chiesa di San Salvatore in Ognissanti, another church that is built in with the surrounding buildings (instead of standing mostly on its own like the other churches). It was absolutely beautiful inside, which we weren’t expecting given that it is significantly less popular than other churches we viewed. We were among only a handful of others when we were there.
At this point gelato was a must, so we walked along the river before turning back into the city to stop at Gelateria dei Neri. Wandering slowly back through the city we’ve returned to our house. After relaxing a bit we will head to a nearby pizzeria for dinner. Tomorrow we take the train to Genoa. After all the walking for the last two days, a few hours of relaxed sitting in a train will be welcomed.
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