Tea Time: A Mishmash of Florence: Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, and Pizza

Seeing as I don't have much more time to write this evening and am still determined to wrap up Italy by midnight, this post will briefly touch on the what I didn't get the chance to earlier.
I'd love to do an in-depth review of our hotel in Florence, but unfortunately that's just not going to happen. I'd highly recommend it, however. The Grand Hotel Minerva, located just south of Santa Maria Novella, a stone's throw away from the train station. The staff were all unfailingly polite and friendly, our room was modern and very clean with a great bathroom, the buffet breakfast was well-attended and featured a variety of tasty food, need I go on? I've seen some mixed reviews of it online however; it seems like most of the negative ones were posted during the high season and had lots of complaints about drunks being loud in the piazza just outside the hotel. We had a room facing an inner courtyard and never saw any drunks on the way in/out of the hotel, but maybe we were just lucky. Whatever the case, I'd definitely stay there again.
We never actually made it inside Santa Maria Novella, but it was a great sight to see every time we walked through the piazza. It's one of Florence's 'top 25 sights' in my guidebook, but our trip featured more of the 'top 10' than the top 25.
Santa Croce, however, was one church that I really wanted to do a post on, all by itself, but again never found the time. The final resting place of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and many others, it also features a memorial to Dante. The architecture is amazing, inside and out. It's especially lovely when seen in the early evening, just after sunset.
Ponte Vecchio is Florence's most famous bridge: lined with old shops (selling gold and jewelry), the current structure was one that was rebuilt in 1345. It was the only bridge that wasn't destroyed by the Germans in WWII. When you're walking on it, it's hard to remember that you aren't just on a narrow street, but it also makes a great scene when viewed from the banks of the Arno.
Ok, that's all on Italy! I was hoping for another post tonight but it's just not going to happen. So, until our trip to Belgium in April, it'll be about life in England from here on out!

Santa Maria Novella