Secret Oltrarno: San Frediano, Santo Spirito, and Florence's Artisan Soul

The Oltrarno is the Florence of the "other side": across the Arno, beyond the museums, beyond the tourist crush between the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio. This is the quarter of artisans (gilders, restorers, watchmakers) and of piazzas where life has not yet migrated onto social media. San Frediano and Santo Spirito are its two neighborhoods.

Santo Spirito, the piazza that feels like home

Piazza Santo Spirito is one of the few Italian squares where people settle on the church steps and stay for hours. The church of Santo Spirito grew from a design by Filippo Brunelleschi (begun in 1444 and continued after his death in 1446), with an austere interior and free entry. Outside: market stalls in the morning, aperitivo in the evening, people talking, children playing. Worth seeing both by day and by night.

The Santo Spirito Cenacolo and the Corbinelli Chapel

Attached to the church, the Refettorio del Cenacolo di Santo Spirito holds a Last Supper by Andrea Orcagna from 1360. Separate entrance, half empty. Inside Santo Spirito itself, the Corbinelli Chapel is a small gem. Five euros, never a queue.

San Frediano and the artisan workshops

The San Frediano district, between Porta San Frediano and Via del Leone, is still the kingdom of the artisans. Workshops of gilders, book restorers, silversmiths, watchmakers. The finest are on Via de' Serragli, Via Toscanella, and Via del Presto di San Martino. An afternoon spent wandering without a shopping list is worth a museum visit.

The Giardino Torrigiani, ten hectares of secret

The Giardino Torrigiani is the largest private garden in any European historic centre: ten hectares behind Via de' Serragli, owned by the same family for 250 years, open only by reservation with a guided visit. One of the most poetic places in Firenze. Bookings run monthly, in small groups.

The English Cemetery (or Cimitero del Pino), a romantic garden

Less famous than its Roman namesake, the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori (Via Senese, just outside Porta Romana) holds the tombs of Frederick Stibbert and of the foreign Florentines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A romantic garden where Firenze breathes at its slowest.

Casa Buonarroti, behind the scenes

Michelangelo bought a house in the Oltrarno before moving to Santa Croce. A few plaques still mark the fact: Via de' Bardi was the street of Florence's wealthy families, and walking it gives you a sense of how the city was organised before it became a museum of itself.

Piazzale Michelangelo (without the crowds)

Everyone goes at sunset, when it is packed. Come at seven in the morning: the same panorama with maybe ten other people, and better light. The climb from Porta San Miniato takes ten minutes on foot. Then on to the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, twelfth-century Romanesque, with its mosaics and the monks chanting vespers.

Fitting it all into one day

Morning: Ponte Vecchio, Santa Felicita, Santo Spirito (church and cenacolo), the workshops of San Frediano, lunch in Piazza del Carmine. Afternoon: the Brancacci Chapel at the Carmine, Via de' Serragli, the Giardino Torrigiani (if you have booked), sunset at San Miniato. Dinner in Santo Spirito.

Is the Oltrarno still artisan?

Yes, in part. Many workshops are closing, but dozens hang on thanks to an association ("Oltrarno Firenze Rinasce") and an international niche clientele. Come on a weekday morning to find the doors open.

See also

If the Oltrarno wins you over, Secret Florence has more cenacoli and little-visited cloisters.