We were determined this morning to hike up to San Miniato and we did.
Walking over the Ponte alle Grazie and into the Oltrarno, we first stopped for coffee. We started going up the zig zagging steps until we got to the Rose Garden. The roses were just moments past their prime and we thoroughly enjoyed them and the humorous contemporary sculpture throughout.

After using the rose garden as a break in our climb we started out again. It was really no big deal to arrive at the church of San Miniato. The saint, Minas, is famous for carrying his own head from the banks of the Arno up the hills to the site of the church. The first chapel was there in the 8th century. We hung out in the church for a long time. Interesting and cut groups of school kids were there touring too. Things got a whole lot quieter after they left.
The exterior is of beautiful white Carrara marble and green stone from Prato:

We then walked around in front of the church in the cemetery with beautiful sculptures.

All the while we are seeing drop dead gorgeous views of Florence.

We walked down to Piazzale Michelangelo stopping there for a little bit for more viewing of the city.
We came down and walked to Zeb, a newish restaurant. For lunch we had 2 superb pasta dishes. One was a simple homemade spaghetti with black truffles (14 euro). It had just enough salt to bring out the truffle flavor and the pasta was cooked to perfection. Also, large “ravioli” were not square–kind of free form–stuffed with ricotta and zucchini flowers, topped with a burrata sauce, zucchini and poppy seeds. You would have to taste it to believe the loveliness of the gentle flavors–(12 euro).
We shared one dessert–a small glass with mixed berries on the bottom, custard above and perfectly crispy puffed pastry on top.
We took home 2 pieces of pork stuffed with asparagus and one large stuffed round zucchini. Which, even though they were “to go” were really delicious for our supper.
So far, we have not walked across the Ponte Vecchio so we did that. And wandered around the Uffizzi, Piazza Signoria, and into the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio. So so crowded!

Finally we came home to rest and read for a while and then start getting organized for leaving tomorrow morning.
At around 6:00 we met Elio and Ilaria (his girlfriend) to say good bye. It was hard–brought up all my feelings whenever I say good bye to Josh. We have really gotten close with Elio here in his home territory.
I fixed up 2 nice plates for us with the stuff we brought home from Zeb and some veggies from the refrigerator and we had a last bottle of red from the vino sfuso place. We took all these upstairs to our beautiful terrace and had a fabulous dinner up there with the views of the city we have really gotten to know, this trip.