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Today we were privileged to have the best kind of guide to the city of Lucca: a local. Or, failing that, try this: Authentic Tuscany (Touring Club Guide). On a cold winter’s day, we managed to see only three of the city’s 100 churches (for which it gained its name “La citta’ delle cento chiese”), consume one long lunch, and make two bar breaks. I came away with the impression that Lucca is a charming city with nice people, good food, and good shopping too. I know I’ll be back as there is a lot more to explore. It’s only 80km from Florence on the A11 highway. Read more…

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Legend has it that the cathedral was built to house a relic that commemorates a miracle that did not happen here. The miracle of the Mass at Bolsena happened, you guessed it… at Bolsena, a town just 23 km away from here. In a church in Bolsena in 1263, a priest who was celebrating mass had doubts in the transubstantiation of christ, Read more…

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Entry gate into spanish chapel, view to altar

Annexed to the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is a large frescoed chapter house that is one of the most impressive surviving testimonies of the 1360s in Florence. Erroneously named the “Spanish Chapel” because of its later use for prayer by Spanish colonists, the structure (built probably in the 1350s) in fact served as the chapter house for the dominican friars of SMN. The chapter house also had an altar and a burial function for its patron Buonamico di Lapo Guidalotti, who paid the painter Andrea di Bonaiuto (Andrea di Firenze) to work on it from 1366-8. Read more…

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A History of the franciscan order and description of the major early renaissance achievements in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence (begun in the 1290s).

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Baptistry defined: locus for baptism. This is usually done inside churches in a baptismal font and does not require a separate building, but Florence (like Pisa) has separated out the parts of its Cathedral complex. We tend to think of the baptistry as a structure that completes the cathedral and the belltower, but actually it was the FIRST structure on this spot!

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