| Southward, near the Arno,
stands the handsome Franciscan Church of Santa Croce, built, except
for a modern facade, in the 13th and 14th centuries. This church,
with an interior of classic Franciscan simplicity and decorated with
frescoes by Giotto and other masters, is called the Pantheon of
Florence because it contains the tombs of Michelangelo, the
statesman and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, the poet
and dramatist Conte Vittorio Alfieri, and the operatic composer
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, as well as monuments to many other noted
Italians. |