There is a lot to see in the church of Santa Caterina in Pisa, if in fact you CAN see it. When I visited the church in April of 2023, it was pitch dark inside. Moreover, one of the most important artworks of the church had gone missing without a…
On my way back to the railway station of Pisa I accidentally passed by the church of San Sisto. I immediately noticed the multicoloured decorative basins under the roofline. In the Middle Ages, such basins were often part of the booty taken during attacks on and raids in Muslim-held territories.…
It was 25 April 2023, the day that the Italians celebrated their Festa della Liberazione or Liberation Day. I had travelled to Pisa on a crowded train and was strolling through the city, looking for interesting churches that I had not seen before. That is how I got to the…
It is a stiff walk to the oratory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Arezzo. The building is not situated in the city centre, but about one kilometre south of it. The route to the oratory is nevertheless quite simple. From the train station of Arezzo one can follow the…
On a sunny morning in April of this year I visited the former abbey (badia) of Flora and Lucilla in Arezzo. I had the church of the abbey practically to myself: apart from an expert who was busy restoring the famous fresco of San Lorenzo by Bartolomeo della Gatta there…
There is a lot to see in the basilica of Santo Spirito in Oltrarno, and there is a lot more to tell about the building, but unfortunately it is difficult to tell this story and simultaneously show images. The main reason is that it is strictly prohibited to take pictures…
The old refectory (cenacolo) of the Santo Spirito complex houses a very special museum, administered by the Fondazione Salvatore Romano. In the museum we can see the personal collection of the art dealer and collector of ancient art Salvatore Romano (1875-1955). Romano was originally from the town of Meta on…
In the north of Florence there used to be a large monastic complex administered by Camaldolese nuns. This complex of Sant’Apollonia, dedicated to a saint who had all of her teeth pulled out, was founded in 1339. The convent was disbanded in the second half of the nineteenth century and…
None of my travel guides mention the church of San Remigio in Florence, but thanks to a question from one of my colleagues I did end up there during my last stay in the city. He was doing research on a Dutch painter from the nineteenth century who had travelled…
The church of Sant’Ambrogio adjoins a charming little square full of bars and terraces. I happened to pass by the church on a lovely evening, when many people were sitting outside on benches or on the steps of the church. A band was playing enthusiastically, but unfortunately it got a…
A square box at the corner of the Via de’ Cerretani and Via de’ Vecchietti. I think that is a fair description of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The church is in fact one of the oldest in Florence. There is probably no truth in the story that it…
The church of Santa Maria a Ricorboli is not mentioned in any travel guide. There was a considerable chance that I would never have visited it, had it not been discussed on the best website about churches in Florence, the unrivalled The Churches of Florence. The article there mentioned a…
The church of Santa Felicita stands close to the famous Ponte Vecchio. Its history goes back to the early Christian age, but in its current form the Santa Felicita dates from the eighteenth century. The most interesting art in the building is older, with most tourists visiting the church because…
One of the main goals of my last trip to Florence was viewing the works of the famous painter Giotto (ca. 1266-1337) that I had not seen previously. Of course it is not always possible to attribute works to this innovative master with certainty, so I had already broadened my…
A ghastly prison once stood next to the castle of Prato, which was discussed previously on this website.[1] On 6 July 1484 a miracle is said to have taken place there. On one of the walls of the prison there was a fresco of a Madonna and Child. An eight-year-old…
One should usually take the opening hours of restaurants on Google Maps with a pinch of salt. We had seen that a certain restaurant close to the church of San Francesco, which we had just visited, was set to open as early as 18:00. That was quite convenient for us,…
The Castello dell’Imperatore was built on the spot previously occupied by a stronghold of the local Alberti family. In the eleventh century the settlement that had sprung up around this Castrum Prati was merged with the village of Borgo al Cornio, and that is how the city of Prato was…
It is clear that the church of San Francesco, which adjoins the eponymous square in Prato, wants to welcome foreign tourists: most of the information panels in the building are in both Italian and English. The church furthermore has an excellent and well-structured website, which contains a lot of information…
The museum of the Duomo of Prato is housed in the rooms below and adjacent to the cathedral. The entrance is located in Guidetto’s splendid bell-tower from about 1220, and from there one enters a corridor that leads to the so-called Volte. The name refers to the vaults of the…
Unlike many other Italian cities, Prato does not really have any roots in Antiquity. It was preceded by the medieval village of Borgo al Cornio, which had a small church (pieve) dedicated to Saint Stephan the Protomartyr (Santo Stefano) since at least the tenth century. The church was probably a…