Tues. 30. [30 January 1894] We begin our mornings with an Italian
lesson with Miss Clark from 9 till 10. Today we went to Santa Croce
where we studied Giottos with care and got to have a great feeling for
him. There is a wonderful portrait of St Francis by Cimabue too and
an altar by Luca della Robbia - the dear! - and some beautiful
frescoes, the story of Magdalen, by Gaddi. But the best of all is the
Assumption of St John by Giotto. Ruskin's tomb of an old Florentine is
very nice too. In the afternoon we went to Fiesole where we arrived at
4. Went to see the Mino tomb in the church, the Dominican monastery
on the hilltop, where we talked to a charming monk who looked as if
he had stepped straight out of a Giotto fresco, and had coffee on a
high place in an inn garden from which we watched a stormy
gorgeous sunset over Florence [Firenze] and the long Arno valley
growing darker and darker all except its gleaming river. Our waiter
had known Landor! Walked down and got in at nearly 7.