Santo Spirito: the artisan Oltrarno

Stops along the way

Things to notice.

1. 01

   1

   Piazza Santo Spirito

   Start in the square before it fills. There's a small produce market under the plane trees most weekday mornings and a café or two putting out chairs. Sit with the blank facade in front of you and the workshops at your back — this is the *Oltrarno* doing its actual job, not performing for anyone.

   01

   Piazza Santo Spirito

   Start in the square before it fills. There's a small produce market under the plane trees most weekday mornings and a café or two putting out chairs. Sit with the blank facade in front of you and the workshops at your back — this is the *Oltrarno* doing its actual job, not performing for anyone.

   ◉Street View
2. 02

   2

   Basilica di Santo Spirito

   Brunelleschi's last church, and the one where you can read his geometry cleanly — a forest of grey *pietra serena* columns, the whole thing built on a grid you can almost pace out. The facade outside is famously, gloriously blank. Step in; it's free and usually calm.

   02

   Basilica di Santo Spirito

   Brunelleschi's last church, and the one where you can read his geometry cleanly — a forest of grey *pietra serena* columns, the whole thing built on a grid you can almost pace out. The facade outside is famously, gloriously blank. Step in; it's free and usually calm.

   ◉Street View
3. 03

   3

   Via Santo Spirito

   Walk east along the street the *artigiani* (workshops) gave their name to. Gilders, restorers, frame-makers and upholsterers still work behind open doors — peer in, but don't treat it as a museum; these are people at a bench. The palaces above the shopfronts are mostly 16th-century.

   03

   Via Santo Spirito

   Walk east along the street the *artigiani* (workshops) gave their name to. Gilders, restorers, frame-makers and upholsterers still work behind open doors — peer in, but don't treat it as a museum; these are people at a bench. The palaces above the shopfronts are mostly 16th-century.

   ◉Street View
4. 04

   4

   Via dei Velluti

   Duck down the short lane named for the velvet-weavers who once worked it. It's narrow, quiet, and barely changed in plan since the medieval city. A two-minute detour that tells you more about the quarter than any plaque.

   04

   Via dei Velluti

   Duck down the short lane named for the velvet-weavers who once worked it. It's narrow, quiet, and barely changed in plan since the medieval city. A two-minute detour that tells you more about the quarter than any plaque.

   ◉Street View
5. 05

   5

   Santa Felicita

   The little church at the foot of the Vasari Corridor, holding Pontormo's *Deposition* in the Capponi chapel just inside the door — one of the strangest, most luminous paintings in the city, in acid pinks and blues. Drop a coin in the light box for it. You'll likely be alone.

   05

   Santa Felicita

   The little church at the foot of the Vasari Corridor, holding Pontormo's *Deposition* in the Capponi chapel just inside the door — one of the strangest, most luminous paintings in the city, in acid pinks and blues. Drop a coin in the light box for it. You'll likely be alone.

   ◉Street View
6. 06

   6

   Ponte Vecchio approach

   Finish where the lanes spill out toward the river and the old bridge. You don't have to cross it — the point is the approach, the jewellers' shutters, and the Arno glinting between them. Buses and the rest of the centre are a few steps over the water.

   06

   Ponte Vecchio approach

   Finish where the lanes spill out toward the river and the old bridge. You don't have to cross it — the point is the approach, the jewellers' shutters, and the Arno glinting between them. Buses and the rest of the centre are a few steps over the water.

   ◉Street View