Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte

A beautiful church in the hills across the Arno River.   Simple yet incredibly beautiful.   Here are three images from the interior.

Florence - Gail

Florence

A few shots from around Florence...

Florence - Tempio Sōtō Zen Shinnoyoji

Attended this wonderful Zen Buddhist temple here in Florence.    Anna Maria Iten Shinnyo is the Zen Master for the temple.   Such an incredible experience.   Meditation on Friday evening and a day long workshop on Dhāranīs.   This is the buddhist chant that forms part of the Zazen meetings.   The Dhāranīs workshop was taught by Rev. Aigo Seiga Castro who is a professor and Zen Master from Valencia Spain.   To our good fortune the lecture that went from 10am to 8pm was in english with translation to italian for the other attendees.   We had a marvelous time with this group for both the meditation and the lecture.   They made us feel totally at home.

A special gift from sister Temple in Japan.

Two friends we met at the Temple:   Piergiorgio and Ivano.

Blossomed on day that shrine was installed

Zen Master Anna Maria Iten Shinnyo

Zen Master and Monks

Venice...

Cool mornings, water, alleyways, bridges, commerce, wanderings, Doge history, language, travelers.

Beautiful wife in Venice!!!

Cool mornings along the canals and alleyways of Venice!!!

Venice

Some photos from Venice Italy....  Cloudy cool weather.. but really nice.  I think that I like to see Venice just a little blurry...

Genova - Stagliano Cemetery

Genova

Along with a modern city, Genova has a historic core that is a maze of alleyways.   It is nearly impossible to navigate from point A to point B as the available paper maps aren't very good.   Mapping apps help a lot when you can get a signal but they tend to get lost themselves with the narrow passages between old multistory buildings.   BUT... this is where all the fun is... getting lost and finding your way back.   We stayed in the core of historic Genova, in a walk-up 7 story building, on the 7th floor.   We also found that we were in the heart of the red light district.   Interesting characters everywhere.