Credit where it's due

So just us as the French have "creme anglaise", Italian credits Britain with:
(a) Zuppe inglese
(b) La chiave inglese
Answers at the bottom of the blog.



Florence's kickass Santa Croce church has numerous attractions that I'd have thought mean nothing in a list if you don't know the pieces (Cimabue's Cruxifixion, Brunelleschi's Capella de'Pazzi, Giotto's and Taddi's frescoes, Ghiberti's Baptistry doors, Donatello's Crucifix - see, means nothing to me and I've seen them.) Anyway, you can read about them on the link.
The bit I wanted to pick out were the masses of important people buried there (like St Paul's in London I guess). Below clockwise from top right, in shoddy camera phone style: Michaelangelo's tomb, Machiavelli's cenotaph, Galileo's tomb and Dante's memorial.



I'll post on Pisa another time, but as it relates to the above, here's a picture of the most important chandelier in science:



It hangs from Pisa's duomo and was what sparked Galileo to come with his pendulum theory.

Someone or other has declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy in honour of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observations, so if astronomy's your thing next year would be a good time to visit Pisa and Florence as they'll be hosting lots of events.


Answers to the English question:
(a) Trifle (Lit. "English soup"). Or at least as far as the Italians can bear to approximate. Their version sounds much tastier than ours, and is available in geleteria. I'll be giving it a go as soon as I can face forgoing one of the other flavour gelati.
(b) The spanner ("the English key").
I'll post more as I come across them.