Piazza della Repubblica > Palazzo Strozzi > Ponte di Santa Trinita > Santa Trinita > Palazzo Rucellai > Santa Maria Novella > Ognissanti.
A short distance from the Baptistery lies the Piazza della Repubblica, a soulless piece of urban planning dating back to the 19th century. Much of the medieval heart of Florence was ripped out in the 19th century when it was decided to demolish the Mercato Vecchio (the Old Market) and some of the surrounding narrow streets and replace them with a large open space more in keeping, it was thought, with the city's newly acquired status as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
The market stood on the site of the old Roman Forum, of which nothing above ground remains.
The Palazzo Strozzi
On the west side of the Piazza, under the arch, a road leads to the nearby Palazzo Strozzi, one of the grandest of Florence's many palaces. The Strozzi family were once one of the richest families in the city and their palace is the perfect embodiment of their wealth. Although the architect is not documented, it is generally assumed that it was Benedetto da Maiano. The date building work commenced is, however, well documented, the first stone being laid on August 6th, 1489, which was deemed (by the astrologers) to be the most propitious moment!
The four sides of the monumental palace are perfectly symmetrical, each consisting of a large portal placed directly beneath the middle window of the nine double arched windows on the first and second floors. The Palazzo Strozzi differs from other Florentine palaces of the 15th century in that all of its three floors (rather than just the ground floor) are built out of large, rough blocks of stone.
One of the most notable features of the palace is the huge projecting stone cornice, which is the work of Simone del Pollaiuolo, also known as Il Cronaca. However, if you stand in the via degli Strozzi and look up at the north side of the building you will see that the cornice suddenly stops half along. This is because the family ran out of money to pay Il Cronaca, who, at this point, simply downed tools and left.
The west flank of the Palazzo Strozzi borders on the via Tornabuoni, Florence's most fashionable street. Lined with ancient palaces, the via Tornabuoni leads south to the Ponte di Santa Trinita, one of the beautiful bridges in the whole of Italy.
Ponte di Santa Trinita
The bridge of the Holy Trinity, which takes its name from a nearby church, was built between 1567 and 1570 by Bartolommeo Ammannati. It spans the river with three elegantly designed arches, whose shape recalls that of Michelangelo's sarcophagi in the New Sacristy See walk three.
The statues of the Four Seasons, which stand at either end of the bridge, were a later addition.
Santa Trinita:
The church is home to the Sassetti Chapel, one of the best preserved of the city's family chapels. It was decorated in the 1480s with frescoes and an altarpiece by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94). The frescoes depict six episodes from the life of St Francis, the name saint of the owner of the chapel, Francesco Sassetti. 
Sassetti was the General Manager of the Medici bank and a personal friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, who was the head of the family at the time the frescoes were painted.
We see portraits of both men in the fresco of The Confirmation of the Rule of St Francis. Sassetti stands on the right between his son and Lorenzo. Ghirlandaio even included portraits of his native city, even though none of the events depicted actually took place in Florence. We can also see both the Loggia dei Lanzi and the Palazzo Signoria in the background of the same fresco.
Palazzo Rucellai
Half way along the via Vigna Nuova stands the Palazzo Rucellai, which was designed, in 1446, for Giovanni Rucellai by Leon Battista Alberti. It was built, however, a decade later by his pupil, Bernardo Rossellino. The Palazzo Rucellai is one of the very few palaces in Florence still occupied by descendants of the original owners. Alberti, often defined as the first example of a uomo universale, made detailed studies of classical architecture, which we see in the design of his buildings. Here, for example, he uses the classical orders in the pilasters which give the building its vertical accent.
He divides the three storeys horizontally by the use of friezes adorned with images of a billowing sail. This was the personal emblem of Giovanni Rucellai and we will see it again on the facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella.
Alberti also designed the loggia which stands opposite the palace, across a small piazza. This would have been used by the Rucellai family to protect them from either sun or rain when watching events in the square.
Santa Maria Novella: (9-17. Fri.&Sun. 13-17. €2.50).
The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, which was begun in 1278, dominates the west of the city to the same extent that the Franciscan church of Santa Croce dominates the east. Both churches actually gave their names to the quarters of the city in which they sit.
Santa Maria Novella is the only major medieval church north of the river to have a marble facade that dates back to the time the church was built. To be more exact, the bottom half of the facade was built in the 14th century, while the top half was added a hundred years later, in the 15th century. (Both the Duomo and Santa Croce have marble facades dating back only to the 19th century, while San Lorenzo's facade is simply bare stone).
The man who designed the top half of the facade was Leon Battista Alberti.It was paid for by a leading local banker, Giovanni Rucellai, whose name we can see, in Latin, at the top of the facade just under the pediment. The frieze, which crowns the lower half of the facade, is decorated with an image of a sail blowing in the wind. This was Rucellai's personal emblem and we will see it again adorning his palace. The family had once been importers of orchil (oricello),an important dye used in the cloth trade, and had been called Oricellari. It is the Latin form of their original name which we see on the facade.
The church is full of wonderful frescoes cycles, but perhaps the most splendid lies in the choir behind the High Altar.
Fresh from his work in the Sassetti Chapel, Ghirlandaio was commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni to decorate a space he had newly acquired. Working on a much larger scale than in the church of Santa Trinita, Ghirlandaio frescoed the east wall with the scenes from the Life of the Virgin and on the west wall scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist, the name saint of the patron.
In the frescoes, Ghirlandaio again made free use of his native city as a backdrop to events and the characters wear Renaissance costume rather than what might have been worn at the time of Christ. In the background to the fresco of 'The Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple', we can see the Loggia di San Paolo in the distance. The real loggia stands directly opposite the church of Santa Maria Novella on the other side of the piazza.
The artist also includes a fine portrait of himself standing on the right, hand on hip and dressed in a red cloak.
Ghirlandaio died just a few years after he had finished the frescoes and is buried in the cemetery which lies on the north side of Santa Maria Novella.
On the south side of the church is the entrance to the museum of Santa Maria Novella, which essentially comprises the Chiostro Verde and the Spanish Chapel.
Museum of Santa Maria Novella
The Chiostro Verde (Green Closter) was painted with frescoes by Paolo Uccello between 1425 and 1446. It is so called because of the green colour (terraverde) that the artist used. The frescoes, sadly, are in a awful state and it is difficult to make out the subject matter. One of the better preserved frescoes, Noah's Flood, is also one of the strangest.
Uccello was fascinated by the discovery of scientific perspective and we see him exploring its full effects in this fresco. It remains one of the most unusual images of the entire Renaissance.
The Spanish Chapel
A door off the cloister leads to a huge room, known for centuries as the Spanish Chapel. It started life, however, as the Chapter House of the monastery. It only became known as the Spanish Chapel in the 16th century when it became the private chapel of the Spanish members of the Medici court, the Duke having taken a Spanish bride.
In 1365, the Chapter House was frescoed by Andrea di Bonaiuto (also known as Andrea di Firenze), a little known local artist, and his team. More than six hundred years later the frescoes remain in excellent condition.
Ognissanti
The church of All Saints was founded by the Umiliati order in the middle of the 13th century. 
It was important for the Umiliati to settle near the river, for they were very important players in the creation of the wool industry, which requires a steady supply of water.
The church is the last resting place of members of the Vespucci family, whose most famous son was the navigator and explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. Born in Florence in 1454, he took part in several voyages to the New World and gave his name to the Americas.
Domenico Ghirlandaio decorated the family chapel at the beginning of the 1470s with images of the Virgin of Mercy and the Lamentation of Christ. He also painted, for the Vespucci, a wonderful fresco of St Jerome, which can be found on the left side of the nave.
However, Ghirlandaio's most beautiful fresco was painted for the monks' refectory. His image of the Last Supper inspired a fellow artist to create one of the masterpieces of art history. For more information on this subject, see my article: Last Suppers in Florence
In 1510, one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance was laid to rest here. His name was Alessandro Mariano di Filipepi, but he is better known as Botticelli.
