Florence & the best of Tuscany Guide
West of the centre
Despite the urban improvement schemes of the nineteenth century and the bombings and shellings of World War II, several of the streets immediately to the west of Piazza della Signoria retain their medieval character. An amble through streets such as Via Porta Rossa, Via delle Terme and Borgo Santi Apostoli will give you some idea of the feel of Florence in the Middle Ages, when every big house was an urban fortress. Best of these medieval redoubts is the Palazzo Davanzati, whose interior looks little different from the way it did six hundred years ago. Nearby, the fine church of Santa Trìnita is home to an outstanding fresco cycle by Domenico Ghirlandaio, while beyond the glitzy Via de' Tornabuoni– Florence's prime shopping street – you'll find the marvellous Alberti-designed San Sepolcro chapel and a museum devoted to the work of Marino Marini. The most significant sight in this quarter of the city is the profusely frescoed Santa Maria Novella, where you can see masterpieces by Paolo Uccello, Giotto, Filippino Lippi, Masaccio and another superb cycle by Ghirlandaio. A few minutes' walk away, there's yet more Ghirlandaio, and work by Botticelli, in the church of Ognissanti. And if all this art is beginning to take its toll, you could take a break in the tree-lined avenues of the Cascine park, right on the western edge of the city centre.