The English Cemetery: the island of the dead poets
Elizabeth Barrett Browning under the cypresses, on an island in the middle of the ring road. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Piazzale Donatello
An oval traffic island where the ring road parts around a walled mound of cypresses — the cemetery, marooned by Florence's 1860s boulevard. Cross at the lights; the gate is on the side facing the centre. Stand a moment and take in the absurdity: a romantic graveyard in a roundabout.

2. Cimitero degli Inglesi (English Cemetery)
The Protestant 'English' cemetery, opened 1827, where the city's foreign Protestants and Orthodox were buried. A donation at the gate, then the cypress avenue up the mound. The custodian will point you to the famous graves if you ask; the place is run on goodwill.

3. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb
The poet who eloped to Florence and died here in 1861, under a raised marble tomb designed by Frederic Leighton. Robert Browning left her here and never came back. Read a line of *Aurora Leigh* at the stone; this is the reason most people climb the mound.

4. Arthur Hugh Clough & the cypress avenue
The English poet Clough is here too, and Walter Savage Landor, and Hiram Powers the sculptor. Walk the central avenue slowly between the cypresses — it's the quietest green in Florence precisely because it's surrounded by the loudest road. Permission to just sit.

5. Borgo Pinti
Drop south off the roundabout onto Borgo Pinti, a long straight street of palazzo doorways running back toward the centre. Look up: courtyards, a Perugino fresco hidden in the Maddalena dei Pazzi convent partway down. A street to walk, not tick off.

6. Piazza Sant'Ambrogio
Land in the market quarter where the locals are. The walk has gone from the dead poets' island to a square full of the living; have a coffee on it and feel the contrast. The bus into the centre runs from here.

The English Cemetery: the island of the dead poets