Florence, the Oltrarno
The Oltrarno is the name
of the district across the Arno River from the center of Florence.
During the Middle Ages it was a poor neighborhood, but by the Renaissance
wealthy families
began moving to the area after demolishing the old buildings for their new
and grand mansions.
The Brancacci
Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine contains beautiful frescoes
from the fifteenth century,
including a series on the legend of Adam and Eve: their temptation (left)
and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden (right).
There is a large hill on this side of the river at the top of which is the medieval church of San Miniato al Monte.
Built on the hill, the interior of the church rises from the nave to the choir, but all of it is covered in marble tile or frescoes.
The pulpit
(below left) is from the eleventh century when the church was begun;
the ceiling of one chapel (below right) was decorated in the fifteenth century.
Among the
frescoes is this depiction of Saint Francis, who once
rolled around naked in thorn bushes to rid himself of sexual thoughts.
From the
top of this hill are astounding views across the river to central Florence.
From here it is easy to see the impressive qualities of the cathedral dome.
At the heart
of the Oltrarno district is the Palazzo Pitti or Pitti Palace, built in the
middle of the fifteenth century
for a wealthy family of that name. It was purchased a century later by the
Medici Dukes of Florence, who resided
there until the last of them died in the mid-eighteenth century and left the
palace to the city. It is now an art museum.
Behind the Pitti Palace are the extensive formal Boboli Gardens.
It is not near Florence
at all, but on our drive from
Tuscany to Rome we stopped for lunch in the town of
Cività Castellana
There wasn't
much to see there except for this lovely
twelfth-century cathedral with a white marble porch and
colorful mosaics and marble designs on its walls and floors.
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