This morning we got up early and headed out to be the first people waiting for the Medici Chapel to open - how sad are we? We walked over the Ponte Vecchio and we were alone. No squillions of tourists jostling to have their photos taken, no bicycles trying to run us down. Just the beautiful view of the river, cobblestones on the bridge, and all the little gold shops shuttered up.

We arrived at the Medici Chapel (sans coffee - boo hoo) and headed straight for the Chapel of the Princes . This Chapel is very dark, with the walls covered in semi precious stones, and the dome has the story from genesis and the last judgement frescoed by Pietro Benvenuiti. The chapel gets some bad press, but I love it. It's so beautiful, with stunning walls and floor, although it might be a tad over the top!

We then headed down to the New Sacristy which has a number of magnificent statues by Michelangelo of several of the Medici family, Florentine big-wigs who apparently treated the young Michelangelo like one of the family. The first tomb is the Tomb of Lorenzo II, grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and this tomb has the statues of Dusk and Dawn. Dawn is waking from sleep, and dusk is about to fall asleep. Opposite is the tomb of Giuliano, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent and younger brother of Pope Leo X. There are two statues representing Day (a powerfully built man) and Night (a young sleeping woman). Incidentally, Leo X was responsible for excommunicating Martin Luther . On the entrance wall is the unfinished tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his younger brother Giuliano, with three statues - the Madonna and Child, Saint Cosmos and Saint Damian. It seems bizarre that the tomb of the key person, Lorenzo the Magnificent, is unfinished, but there are stunning statues of two relatively unimportant people (a son and a grandson). No idea why this is the case.

All the statues are fabulous, despite some of them not being quite finished - Michelangelo worked on the statues for 17 years (whilst working on a number of other projects) and some of the statues were finished after his death by Vasari.

After we left the Chapel, we headed to the Boboli Gardens to take a short cut through the park to the Viale Niccolo Machiavelli, a road that winds its way around the top of Florence with fabulous views of the town below. Unfortunately there were very few exits to the Gardens, and none of them on the side of the Viale, so having walked from end to end, we exited the farthest from where we wanted to be. Some shortcut! But the Gardens were quite beautiful, and very cool compared to the heat of the day, quite unlike how we felt after we had walked up the Viale to the Michelangelo lookout! And no cafes for coffee along the way, which was most unfortunate!

Garth made a curry for dinner, and we ate it drinking numerous Chiantis, sitting underneath the air conditioner and thinking how cold it is in Canberra. Chortle!