Santa Maria Novella, Part 2

As promised, more from Santa Maria Novella.

Just one more photo from the main church. This carved pulpit is more like what I was expecting when we saw the Donatello ones in San Lorenzo. It was designed by Brunelleschi and executed by his adopted son Cavalccanti.

In Rick Steves' Florence guidebook, he tells us not to miss the bookshop in SMN, the most beautiful one in the world. He is obviously right! It must have been a chapel at one time. I always enjoy browsing the bookshops everywhere we go, but haven't bought anything yet. I've been tempted by some gorgeous jigsaw puzzles, but we don't have any place to put them here.

Walking outside the main church, the first area is the Cloister of the Dead. The entire area was a cemetery until the mid-1800s. This is just one of the four sides. The center area was green.

After touring around the areas that were open to us, we came out onto the green courtyard. What a lovely sight! The exit is in the far corner.

As we neared the exit, the view back toward the church showed the lovely steeple. There is work being done on the exterior of the side of the church, and you can see the scaffolding peeking up.