Piazzale Michelangelo & San Miniato Basilica

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

After language class and lunch, we joined a group of other students from the school and teacher Silvia B. for a guided walk through Piazzale Michelangelo and the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte.

One of our Road Scholar classmates, Maggie, had to leave the program early. So Cheryl’s class, which includes most of our fellow students, took this photo to help her remember us.

Our first stop on the afternoon guided walk was at the Tower of San Niccolò, which originally formed part of the perimeter wall that protected the old city of Florence.

From there, we walked up a steep path and then climbed several flights of stairs to get to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It sits on a hill with a beautiful view of the city of Florence and the mountains north of the city.

From this vantage point, we could see a wide panorama from Fort Belvedere on the south side of the river Arno (not visible in this photo), to the Ponte Vecchio and other bridges across the river, and then across the entire cityscape.

A huge replica of Michelangelo’s David looms over the Piazzale and the many tour buses and street vendors that stop here.

Silvia took this photo of our afternoon tour group on the Piazza Michelangelo.

There was a tour group in the same area that had come up the hill in cute vintage Italian cars and Vespa scooters.

From the Piazzale Michelangelo, we climbed still more steps up to the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, which stands atop one of the highest points in the city. The basilica is undergoing an extensive renovation, so the façade is covered with scaffolding.

Even though the interior of the basilica is also full of scaffolding and construction workers, one of the Olivetan monks from the adjacent monastery was still keeping a watchful eye on the visitors entering the ancient building.

The 1,000-year-old basilica has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany and one of the most scenic churches in Italy. It will be truly spectacular once the restoration is completed.

The crypt containing the original chapel is the oldest part of the building.

The Olivetan monks make famous liqueurs, honey and herbal teas, which they sell from a shop next to the church.

On the grounds of San Miniato there is a large cemetery, which like the basilica is still in active use. This is only one small part of it.

A family mausoleum, or cappella familiare, in the San Miniato Cemetery.

After leaving the cemetery, we began our descent back to the historic center of Florence through the city’s Rose Garden.

Many people were enjoying the sunshine on the grounds of the Rose Garden, which is free to the public.

We left the rose garden at Porta San Miniato, one of the remaining gates in the old city walls of Florence, and started up the road to the left to get back to our apartment.

The route we took along the old city walls, Via Belvedere, turned out to be a continuous, steep grade up to the hill, where Fort Belvedere was built to guard the city. It was a long slog.

But we finally arrived at another of the city’s old gates, Porta San Giorgio, at the very top of our street below Fort Belvedere. From there, it was a short downhill walk past Galileo’s house to our apartment.