I made a big fuss about getting to Santa Croce as I had seen it in "A room with a View" and read about it so may times in various books. We eventually got to it at the end of our visit to Florence and, while i thought it was absolutely beautiful, it felt a bit of a let down after the Duomo, Piazza della Singoria etc which are all on such a vast scale that this church seems very small!! Beautiful statues outside though and the square seemed nice, tho they were setting out a market while we visited, so we didn't get a proper chance to look around. All in all, this is beautiful, but not my very favourite place in Florence.

Look for the crucifix on the left side of the nave. It was carved by Donatello, and scorned by Brunelleschi. To prove his point, Filippo carved an exquisite crucifix, displayed at the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

This is our favourite church in Floence.

The Basilica dominates a Piazza - and one can appreciate all of it (and get a good piccy of it unlike the Duomo). It is possibly the prettiest church frontage in Florence.

A 6 Euro charge seems a tad steep - but the church contains the thombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini and many other greats as well as wonderfull frescoes, stained glass and general artwork. There are a small network of side rooms and cloisters and an art museum. All in all quite a lot of things to see.

A site that most certainly should be on the checklist for any visitor to Florence.

There's a sign at the ticket window that says, 'no refunds!'. When you get inside, you realize why. The entire center section of the church, and many of the super-cool frescos, are covered top to bottom in scaffolding, hiding everything. From the looks of it, restoration will be going on for a loooooooong time.

Beyond that, it is very interesting to go there for a sense of history. As mentioned, practically every famous Italian you can think of is buried there. I would, however, recommend going in the morning, or on a very sunny day. In the winter, the church gets very dark by the time it reopens in the late afternoon, and that makes it quite difficult to see and appreciate the frescos that do remain to be seen.