Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Contrasting with the pure beauty of these frescoes are the plain rooms that Savonarola
called home from 1489. These house a portrait and a few personal items.
Piazza della
Santissima Annunziata
PIAZZA
Giambologna's equestrian statue of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici commands the
scene from the centre of this majestic square, dominated by the facades of
Chiesa della San-
orphanage (founded 1421).
Look up to admire the hospital's classically influenced portico, designed by Brunelles-
chi and famously decorated with terracotta medallions of babies in swaddling clothes by
Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525). At the north end of the portico, the false door surroun-
ded by railings was once a revolving door where unwanted children were left. You can
pay €1 to visit its lovely courtyard (open 10am to 3.30pm Monday to Saturday, and to
1.30pm Sunday), but the interior is closed until April 2015 for major restoration works; it
will reopen as a Museum of Childhood.
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1
Santa Croce
Basilica di Santa Croce
CHURCH
(
www.santacroceopera.it
;
Piazza di Santa Croce; adult/reduced €6/4, family ticket €12; 9.30am-5pm
Mon-Sat, 2-5pm Sun)
When Lucy Honeychurch, the hero of EM Forster's
A Room with a
View
, is stranded in Santa Croce without a Baedeker, she looks around and wonders why
the basilica is thought to be such an important building. After all, doesn't it look just like a
barn? On entering, many visitors to this massive Franciscan church share the same senti-
ment - the austere interior is indeed a shock after the magnificent neo-gothic facade en-
livened by varying shades of coloured marble.
Although most visitors come to see the tombs of famous Florentines buried here - in-
cluding Michelangelo, Galileo, Ghiberti and Machiavelli - it's the frescoes by Giotto and
his school in the chapels to the right of the altar that are the real highlights. Some of these
