I simply love my neighbourhood San Lorenzo! Though it’s right downtown, only some few minutes away from the Cathedral of Florence, it seems that many people don’t have an idea about how much there is to discover here.
The Medici settled down in San Lorenzo in the 15th century, but did you know that the writer Carlo Collodi, Monna Lisa, and artists like Michelangelo, Raphael, Benvenuto Cellini and Bartolomeo Ammannati also lived here for a while.
The Market
Most locals and visitors know the San Lorenzo area for its outdoor flea market and the indoor food market “Mercato Centrale”. Not everyone knows that the Florentine food market was located in what is today Piazza della Repubblica until the second half of the 1800′
With the unification of Italy in the 1860’s and Florence becoming the provisional capital of Italy in 1865 there was a need to upgrade the poor but yet vibrant city center. The food market in what is today Piazza della Repubblica was destroyed together with the Jewish ghetto and several new food markets were planned, but eventually only two were carried out, the Sant’Ambrogio market and the San Lorenzo market.
The San Lorenzo market was designed by Giuseppe Mengoni (the architect behind the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan) and opened in 1874. Recently refurbished, the Mercato Centrale as it’s called nowadays, is definitely a busy and cosmopolitan spot in town and worth a try.
Today you can still buy vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, fresh pasta and bread on the ground floor, while the dynamic top floor is housing an incredible variety of restaurants and a cooking school. You find both typical Florentine food such as tripes and the famous “bistecca fiorentina” (Florentine t-bone steak), Italian food like pizza, pasta, gelato and international flavours.
The Medici’s first residence
The Medici built the first family palace in San Lorenzo in the 1430’s but Cosimo the Elder rejected the first project by Filippo Brunelleschi because it turned out to be a little bit too fancy. The Medici instead opted for a less stylish alternative by Michelozzo who designed an incredible “palazzo” for the leading family in town.
The palace was sold to the Riccardi family in the 17th century and goes under the name the Medici-Riccardi Palace. Part of the palace is now a museum. It’s perhaps not the most famous museum in a town like Florence but give it a try.
One of the most exciting experiences in Florence is to visit the so-called Medici Chapel inside the palace. The chapel is one of the hidden gems of Florence that you should not miss. Benozzo Gozzoli painted in the mid 15th century the outstanding fresco cycle depicting the” Adoration of the Re Magi” in which he included many of the most important characters of the period, such as the Medici members.
In 1490 Lorenzo the Magnificent decided to sponsor a 15 year old Michelangelo and the talented artist went to stay with the Medici family. That means that when you visit the Medici-Riccardi Palace you are literally walking in Michelangelo’s footsteps!
Pinocchio
“The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi is without any doubt one of the most famous and translated Italian books.
The author, Carlo Lorenzino (1826-1890), was born in Via Taddea 21 in San Lorenzo. He was a writer and a journalist and wrote the story about Pinocchio in 1883.
Originally it was published in a journal for children but the fairy tale was immediately such a success that it became a book with a different end and Carlo Lorenzini took the nickname Collodi that is a small village in Tuscany where his mother was born.
The Walt Disney movie from 1940, a real blockbuster, made Pinocchio world famous.
The most mysterious smile in the history is Florentine
Did you know that Mona Lisa was from Florence?
Lisa Gherardini was born in Florence in 1479. In 1495 she became the third wife of the 15 year older cloth dealer Francesco Giocondo (therefore the name “La Gioconda” in Italian) and the couple settled down in Via della Stufa in San Lorenzo. Mona or Monna in Italian is by the way an abbreviation of the word Madonna which simply means lady.
In 1503 Leonardo da Vinci started to paint the portrait of Monna Lisa. When Leonardo da Vinci moved to France he had his unfinished painting with him and when the genius died in 1519 the portrait probably immediately ended up in the hands of the king Francis I and later on exposed in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
The mysterious smile of “la Gioconda” has always thrilled art historians and art lovers. But if the portrait is one of the most popular artworks in the world and has inspired artists such as Fernando Botero and Andy Warhol, it is thanks to Vincenzo Peruggia who stole the painting in 1911 and it only reappeared two years later in Florence.
After the death of her husband Monna Lisa entered what was once the prestigious convent of Sant’Orsola next to Via della Stufa. It’s believed that she got buried there in 1542. The giant premises of the former convent are right now undergoing a huge transformation and will soon become a modern culture center.