As I have been sharing with you in parts 1 and 2, this small Benedictine church remains a gem, hidden plain site in Florence, filled with artistic treasures still in situ.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the church for me is this special chapel on the left of the presbytery built around a 15th century tabernacle by Mino da Fiesole (who is buried in this church). Cosimo Rosselli painted the fresco cycle around 1486 which illustrates the miracle of the blood-filled chalice.

This fresco cycle was restored in 2017.

Rosselli 1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large frescoes on the side walls.

Though generally regarded as a lesser talent in comparison to Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, who were all also active at the Sistine Chapel, Rosselli was still able to win large and important commission throughout his career, a testament to his high level of activity and ability in his native Florence. Important local commissions include a fresco in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata and another in this chapel in Sant’Ambrogio. Rosselli also spent some time in Lucca, where he painted several altar-pieces for various churches.

On the wall behind the altar and on either side of Mino da Fiesole’s tabernacle, include frescoes of saints and Church Fathers, framed in niche-like compartments.

Before looking up closely at the beautiful fresco, let me remind you that the church is named for Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, who stopped at this site in 393. A chapel for a convent of Benedictine nuns had been built here as early as the 7th century, and the location of the church itself has been dated to the 11th century. This location was outside the first city walls of Florence, until the erection of the Arnolfo circle of walls dating to 1284-1310.

In 1230 a miracle allegedly occurred in the church, and the consequence of that miracle is the subject of Rosselli’s fresco.

Here’s what happened: in the year 1230 Frate Uguccione failed to dry the chalice after mass and the following day found that the wine had turned to blood. Sant’Ambrogio thus became a pilgrimage site; the miraculous liquid was placed in an ampulla and housed in a marble tabernacle created by famed Florentine sculptor, Mino da Fiesole, who just happens to be buried in this church.

Rosselli chose to present the presentation of the chalice as a procession set in the piazza that is still at the front of the church (see next photo and video), showing the bishop carrying the Miraculous Tabernacle in a solemn procession, accompanied by priests, confraternity members, and a teeming crowd of citizens and women dressed in late 15th-century Florentine costume.

Below, some scholars have noted that Rosselli includes portrait-like figures that may be identified as contemporary humanists (e.g. Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Agnolo Poliziano) embedded in the crowd, linking the miracle of the blood to the intellectual circle of late Quattrocento Florence.

The fresco is notable for its lively street life details: banners, torches, and the varied physiognomies of the crowd give th impression of a real civic festa, not just a generic religious parade. Subsequent inventories of the church through the following centuries always pick out this fresco for its “procession in the piazza” as the most admired part of Rosselli’s fresco.

Looking straight ahead at the altar wall of the chapel, as the bottom you see the chalice holding the miraculous blood, housed in the elaborate marble tabernacle created by Mino de Fiesole (who again, is buried within the church). The chapel enveloping Mino da Fiesole’s sculpted tabernacle with painted scenes that been hagiography, processional ritual, and contemporary Florentine life.

Rosselli’s style here is more polished and narrative-driven than in some of his Sistine Chapel work: he uses bright, clear colors, rhythmic figure groups, and a relatively simple perspectival scheme, concentrating on storytelling than virtuosic foreshortening. The artist combined a doctrinally charged subject with vivid civic spectacle and a sophisticated sense of portraiture.

Rosselli’s fresco here is one of his most ambitious narratives ensembles, designed to illustrate both the miraculous translation of wine into blood and its cult within the city.

If you spend any time in Florence, somebody is going to point out a wine window to you. They are plentiful and they dot the city center and the area around Santo Spirito.

In late spring Florence hosted an interesting exhibition devoted to the buchette del vino, and I’m including some photos I took of that exhibition. They had a rare wooden door that housed a wine window. Most buchette are housed within the plaster/stone walls of the city and usually trimmed in pietra serena stone, the lovely blue/grey stone that is used for architectural trim throughout Florence. You can see what I mean in the top photo here.

Right on the famous Piazza Pitti, the Russian writer found lodgings where he could write.

Translated the plaque reads: In these surroundings between 1868 and 1869 wrote his novel The Idiot.

Continuing my visit to this small, modest, ancient but very fine church, let’s look at some of the artwork housed within, including:

I love how statues of holy figures in Italian churches are often adorned with rosaries and other objet.

More will follow. It may be a modest church, by Italian standards, but it is filled with wondrous artworks!

I don’t know if basketball is the right name. Please correct me if you know better.

I love all of the activity that goes on this famous and important river!

On a recent Friday evening in Florence my friends and I set out for the Palazzo Antinori, a Renaissance palace in the center of the city. The august group, The Friends of Florence, which raises money to restore precious objets in Florence, was promoting a fund-raising auction of fine wines with the Pandolfini auction house and was honored by the Antinori family hosting a reception.

But long before reaching the palace, the natural lights of this Friday night sky were magnificent!

Often my phone can’t capture natural phenomena well, but this evening was an exception. These photos are close to the original!

And as the sun went further down, the sky became more splendid!

Wow!

Double wow!

So we reached the beautiful palace and were welcomed by the patriarch of the Antinori clan in this short address. You are looking at and listening to the man who currently embodies a wine producing family concern that evolved over centuries. Bask in this moment of Florentine history with me!

We were guests of the Antinori family for a few hours on a beautiful evening in their incredible home, on the piano nobile.

Lively conversation abounded.

I loved the simplicity and elegance of a still-life tableaux. The clear class vases, filled with water, reminded me of hundreds of paintings I’ve experienced of such loveliness.

Back outside, we wandered through this magical city, which is as impressive at night as it is during the daytime. The electric lights do not photograph well, but you get the vibe.

From every angle, the duomo complex astounds me.

And, because it was before Easter, we happened upon a procession pouring out of the Duomo, about which I have already posted on March 29, 2026 if you’d like to read more about it.

Another magical evening a Firenze. Buona notte a tutti!

Like turtles, Florentines come out to bask in the sun after the winter.

But of all the places to sun, why one earth would someone go to the trouble of sunbathing in THIS particular spot??

I love love love lilacs and I rarely see them here in Florence! But I spotted these today and I was so happy!

If only I could have gotten close enough to inhale their gorgeous scent!