The itinerary
takes you through the old streets of the Gonfaloni of the Oltrarno on either
side of the Porta Romana - Piazza Frescobaldi axis. The Gonfalone della
Ferza covered a spacious area within the city walls between Porta Romana
and Forte Belvedere, Costa San Giorgio, Via Guicciardini, Sdrucciolo de’
Pitti, Piazza Santo Spirito, Via delle Caldaie, Via della Chiesa and Via
dei Serragli up to Piazza della Calza.
The original Porta Romana was known
as the Gate of San Pier Gottolino after a 14th-century church, torn down
in 1545. The gate is truly imposing as are the adjacent sheer defensive
walls with towers at intervals. The walls continue in the direction of
the Belvedere Fort and separate the Boboli Gardens from the countryside
where Poggi laid out the Viale dei Colli in the 19th century. The former
stables of the kings of Italy now house the Istituto d’Arte di Porta Romana,
within which is the Gipsoteca, one of the most important collections of
plaster sculpture in Italy.
The rather odd statue by Michelangelo Pistoletto
known as "Dietro-front" ("About-face") has been set up outside the gate.
Inside the walls, in Piazza della Calza, note the forking of the two arteries
headed towards the city center: Via dei Serragli and Via Romana. Visitors
to Florence were once welcomed by a fresco Giovanni da San Giovanni had
painted on the house facing Porta Romana in the 17th century. It has now
been replaced by a modern work by Mario Romoli.
On the side of Via dei Serragli is the small
church of San Giusto della Calza and the convent, once known as of the
Ingesuati, with the Cenacolo or refectory frescoed in 1514 by Franciabigio.
Take Via Romana, still rather lively with business
and artisan activities, to the church of Serumido, on the site of San Pier
Gattolino, named after a generous artisan who helped rebuild it at the
end of the 16th century. Next to it is the airy neo-classical loggia of
the charming English garden, once Corsi, now Scarselli. Further on, still
on the left side, is the "House of Annalena" (widow of Baldaccio, the condottiere
who won the famous battle of Anghiari for Florence) with apartments in
the former convent premises. A nursery of ornamental plants is another
important artisan activity in the area. |
Porta Romana
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Next comes the picturesque Via Santa Maria where
the Teatro Goldoni, now restored and once more open to the public, was
built in neo-classic style in the early 19th century.
Turn into Via delle Caldaie to reach Piazza Santo
Spirito, crossing Via del Campuccio and Via della Chiesa. This long transversal
artery of the Oltrarno is full of workshops and various artisan activities.
The art of the marionettes
The corner between Via delle Caldaie and Piazza
Santo Spirito is known as "Canto dei Dati" after the family which distinguished
itself for flourishing commercial activities and religious works.
The most striking thing on the opposite corner
between Piazza Santo Spirito and Via Mazzetta is the finely balanced mass
of the aristocratic Palazzo Guadagni with its sober facade and high loggia,
designed by Cronaca for the Dei family early in the 16th century. After
walking along a short stretch of this street, turn left for Borgo Tegolaio,
a name (tegola=tile) which tells us that this was where the kilns for Florentine
"tiles" were once located. Now the prevalent activity is woodworking.
In 15th-century Florence there were a good number
of workshops which produced and decorated wedding chests, and many artists
and architects were also wood carvers. Even now in Borgo Tegolaio and vicinity,
the artisans both restore antiques and create fine period pieces.
Piazza S. Spirito
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Continuing along Via del Presto di
San Martino, on one side is the view of the right flank of the Basilica
of Santo Spirito and on the other one can run across some of the artisans
most skilled in restoring wood and copper repoussé.
In the tree-shaded Piazza Santo Spirito, where
"proud Florence forgets its pride", the immense mass of the Augustinian
church of Santo Spirito rises up. Originally dating to the middle of the
13th century, it was enlarged in the 14th and then re-
built on a design by Brunelleschi in the second
half of the 15th century. A number of artists have turned their hand to
imagining what the bare plastered 18th-century facade with its interesting
silhouette could look like and their creations decorate the premises of
a café in the square.
The inside of the church is majestic, with unbroken
arcading in pietra serena moving all around the nave and aisles, the arms
of the transept and the apse, with the high altar as its fulcrum. Brunelleschi
designed it around 1444 but those who continued the work did not always
follow his highly innovative plans. The perimetral space is articulated
by 38 semi-circular chapels which contain a real picture gallery in their
altar paintings and sculptures, mostly dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The dome was designed by Brunelleschi and realized by Salvi d’Andrea. Below
it is the marble enclosure of the high altar, a Baroque work by Giovanni
Caccini, a fine piece but not in harmony with the 15th-century architecture.
Of considerable interest is the Vestibule with the barrel vault and the
Sacristy designed by Giuliano da Sangallo. |
Back out in the piazza, off to one side of the church
facade, is Baccio d’Agnolo’s bell tower, a tall robust sentinel of the
Oltrarno. In the trussed-timber 14th-century refectory is a fragment of
a "Last Supper" by Andrea Orcagna. It is also the headquarters of the Museo
della Fondazione Romano.
There are numerous refreshment locales in the
piazza as well as artisan workshops specialized in the shaping of hats.
From Via Sant’Agostino we move along Via Maffia
towards Via dei Serragli up to Via Santo Spirito. In the 17th century the
monumental Palazzo Pecori-Rinuccini was built on the corner with Via dei
Serragli. Inside there are works by Ticciati and Zocchi, a delightful 18th-century
"boudoir" and a charming early 19th-century theater.
Francesco Ferrucci, hero of the last Florentine
Republic who died "da forte" in Gavinana, was born in one of the buildings
on the other side of the street.
This street was a favorite with Russian, German
and especially English diplomats, artists and intellectuals. Next to palazzi
belong to the Machiavelli, Vettori, Manetti, Pitti-Bocciolini families,
we find Palazzo Frescobaldi, which boasts of having its "coretto" or private
balcony facing onto the interior of the church of Santo Spirito. Workshops
and shops of various kinds, mostly dealing in antiques, line the street.
A visitor with a bit more time on his hands might like to nose around in
the artisan workshops where they make leather boxes, or where small silversmiths
and wood decorators ply their trade. Nor should the enchanting light-filled
garden that stretches out behind the Frescobaldi and Manetti palazzi, next
to the apse and bell tower of Santo Spirito, be missed.
Decorator of frames
At the end of the itinerary, in Piazza Frescobaldi,
we once more meet up with the customary images of the Medici grand-dukes
in the 17th-century decorative facade of the Palazzo delle Missione, which
became headquarters of the Ministry of the Navy in the nineteenth century.
At the entrance to the bridge built in 1557 by
Ammannati, the statues of "Autumn" by Caccini and of "Winter" by Landini
are still the originals. In 1570 Lapini judged Michelangelo’s bridge to
be "lovely, vague and indefinite". It was destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt
in 1958 and can be seen in all its original beauty of line.
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Ponte Santa Trinita
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