Florence, Italy – 06 MAR 2011

I entered the GPS coordinates to Cimitero delle Porte Sante (Cemetery of the Saint Doors) and ended up here:
According to Wikipedia: San Miniato al Monte is “a basilica in Florence, central Italy, standing atop one of the highest points in the city.”
I thought this was the gate to the cemetery...
...but all I found was this one memorial:
Got back in my car and drove further up the hill.
The view got even better:
I found the Basilica.
With a sign that had some English:
Driving through Florence was quite an experience…lots of one-ways, traffic circles, hexagons, and all kinds of strange confirmations of streets and intersections. Good thing it was a Sunday which means the traffic was light. I was on one street with three lanes of traffic going in the same direction but when we stopped at a traffic light, there were five rows of cars. The Italians are know for requiring less space then anywhere else for passing or driving. The old saying, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades,” applies to driving in this country.
Above: note dragon head on left of fence.
Below: close-up of dragon head.

I went inside, but it was too dark to get any photos.
On the drive up the hill, I noticed an ancient wall but this one seemed to contain up-scale Estates.
I noticed some graves but they were behind locked gates.
There were also open skylights that looked down upon vaults.
Everywhere in Italy there is lovely marble…because they just pull it out of the mountains.
Today, I was doing some research and found a satellite image that showed the cemetery I was looking for was on the other side of the hill…so much for GPS coordinates.