Oltrarno

Oltrano is the area of Florence which lies “across the Arno”. It’s a much quieter area but does have some stand out sights such as the Pitti Palace, Santo Spirito and Santa Maria del Carmine. So this morning I headed over the bridge. Given the proposed emphasis on churches Julia opted to explore other areas on the hotel side of the Arno. It was also the day that my camera decided to play up and not focus or respond to instructions. Lucky for me the camera in the iPhone 7S is rather good!

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Didn’t go into the Palazzo Pitti. It’s a massive building started by a banker called Pitti in 1458 and bought by the Medici in 1549. We went into I once before and is an amazingin collection of paintings, furniture, jewellery and other treasures. I carried on the side streets and ended up at an unknown (to me!) church – Chiesa di Santa Felicita.

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Like lots of the churches around here Santa Felicia resents a pretty plain face to the world. Imagine, I nearly walked by it. First church on the site was built late 2nd century, early 3rd century. This one dates from the 18th Century. Its connected to the Vasari Corridor which runs from the Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti. The corridor meant that the Medici Dukes could move across town in private and presumably safety. There’s a grill in the church where they could watch mass without being seen by the common herd below. The corridor is currently closed indefinitely.

Then a wander to through the streets. Ended up at the Piazza Tasso at the end of a remaining section of the 14th century city walls. Noted a plaque on the wall, which commemorates the shooting bay Italians fascist of five locals including an 8 year old boy the day before Florence was liberated. This was also next to some interesting gardens. But I couldn’t find a way in and I was on my church mission anyway and conscious of the fact that many close from 12 onwards. Just as well i didn’t find a way in as I probably would have been done for trespass. Mr Wikipedia informs me that its a 17 acre private garden belonging to two branches of the Torrigiani family.

So it was onto Santa Maria del Carmine.

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Santa Maria del Carmine is a Carmelite Church (apparently there is still an attached convent) and was built from 1268. The interior was damaged by fire ini the 18th Centruy and so reflects that time. But its hidden treasure – one of those things when you decide to go walking and see what you find rather than doing extensive research in advance – is the Brancacci Chapel which  survived the fire and subsequent restoration. It has some of the most amazing renaissance frescoes. It gets its own blog.

From here I planned to go to Santa Spirito. But it was closed until later in the day. So it was a wander back to the hotel for 1:30 catch up with Ju. We then headed off……….well that will go in a subsequent entry as now its time to go out for dinner.

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