Or vo’ qual d’esse meno a te dispiaccia
  Di te fregiar; benche di tutte il fonte
  Tu sola fosti, e’l viver mio non conte
  Se non dal Di, ch’al viver tuo si allaccia.

  Della figlia di Ciniro infelice
  L’orrendo a un tempo ed innocente amore
  Sempre da’ tuoi begli occhi il planto elice;

  Prova emmi questo, ch’al mio dubbio core
  Tacitamente imperiosa dice,
  Ch’io di Mirra consacri a te il dolore.

In this sanctuary (church of the Santa Croce) are likewise the tombs and monuments of other great men which Italy has produced.  There is the monument erected to Galileo which represents the earth turning round the sun with the emphatic words:  Eppur si muove. Here too repose the ashes of Machiavelli and Michel Angelo.  This church is in fact the Westminster Abbey of Florence.

To go from the Piazza del gran Duca to the Piazza del Duomo, where stands the Cathedral, you have only to pass thro’ a long narrow street or rather alley (for it is impervious to carriages) with shops on each side and always filled with people going to or returning from the Duomo.  This Cathedral is of immense size.  The architecture is singular from its being a mixture of the Gothic and Greek.  It appears the most ponderous load that ever was laid on the shoulders of poor mother earth.  There is nothing light in its structure to relieve the massiveness of the building, and in this respect it forms a striking contrast to the Cathedral of Milan which appears the work of Sylphs.  The outside of this Duomo of Florence is decorated and incrusted with black and white marble, which increases the massiveness of its appearance.  The steeple or Campanile stands by itself, altogether separate from the Cathedral, and this is the case with most of the Churches in Italy that are not of pure Gothic architecture.  This Campanile is curiously inlaid and incrusted on its outside with red, white and black marble.  The Baptistery is another building on the same Piazza.  It is in the same stile of building as the Duomo, but incloses much less space, and was formerly a separate church, called the church of St John the Baptist.  The immense bronze doors or rather gates, both of the Duomo and Battisterio, attracted my peculiar notice.  On them are figured bas-reliefs of exquisite and admirable workmanship, representing Scripture histories.  It was the symmetry and perfection of these gates that induced Michel Angelo to call them in a fit of enthusiasm The Gates of Paradise.  At the door of the Battisterio are the columns in red granite, which once adorned the gates of the city at Pisa, and were carried off by the Florentines in one of their wars.  Chains are fastened round these columns, as a memorial of the conquest.  The cupolas both of the Duomo and Battisterio are octangular.  There is a stone seat on the Piazza del Duomo where they pretend that Dante used occasionally to sit; hence it is called to this day Il Sasso di Dante.