On a fine spring afternoon my lovely young friend, Nadia (who is from Denmark and is my classmate at language school in Florence) and I set off by train. We went to a smaller town called Montecatini Terme and from there we took the funicolare to Montecatini Alto for the better part of the afternoon.

The small village of Montecatini Alto is located 300 meters above sea level, has medieval origins and still shows the layout of the ancient walls that were destroyed in 1554 by the Florentines of Cosimo I de’ Medici who were preparing to conquer the area.

In the upper part of the village, the Fortress and Mastio Tower are features. On the central Piazzetta Giusti are the medieval remains of the Podestà Palace with the picturesque Loggia del Parlascio, originally the site of public assemblies and the market.
Montecatini Alto also enjoys a small square in which there are many restaurants and wine bars offering excellent food and wine.

The following are some of the photos we took on our perfect Italian day!

There are two trains that lead to and from the tiny hilltop village of Montecatini Alto. They even have names: Gigio and Gigia, once simply known as Number 1 and Number 2. These two bright red trains compose the Montecatini Terme Funicular.

This unique and characteristic transportation method hasn’t lost its charm since its inauguration on June 4, 1898, witnessed by Giuseppe Verdi himself. Riding up on either one of the red cars, you experience the wooden benches and/or the space to stand on the car’s exterior balcony. Millions of people have enjoyed the views from these charming cars.

La Torre dell’Orologio in Montecatini Alto

Montecatini Castello, today’s Montecatini Alto, was documented by medieval times. In the settlement there was already a spa, thanks to the salt waters of the city, which later also flowed into the plain below. There is evidence for this in a document from 1340 which refers to the extraction of salt from the water. There is also proof in a letter sent by the well-known Prato merchant Francesco di Marco Datini in which he requests from his doctor the healing water of the Montecatini baths.

Other evidence comes from the famous doctor Ugolino of Montecatini who examined the waters scientifically for the first time. He also tells us that there were three baths in Montecatini; the Bagno Della Regina, the Bagno dei Merli and the Bagno Nuovo. Today the Bagno Nuovo is known as the Tettuccio. I will be posting about this later.

Conditions in the town during medieval times were difficult, the region was plagued by epidemics, paludic diseases (attributed to the influence of marshes, such diseases including malaria) and wars. The battles locally between Florence, Pisa and Lucca, often forced townsfolk to seek refuge to the surrounding hills, because the town was the scene of continuous clashes. We must also remember that Montecatini was mainly constituted of padule (marshes). Livy confirms this when he described how Hannibal of Carthage passed by the padule of Fucecchio in his march to the south.

From the 10th – 13th centuries the area saw many battles. In these muddy waters of the area, many soldiers died at the Battle of Montecatini in 1315. It is thought that Dante Alighieri participated in this battle. In 1328 the Medici came to power and the locks that had been dismantled with the reclamation were restored.

On the side of a building was a gruesome installation of the tools of Christ’s passion. You can tell this is a popular site with the QR codes added to the sign. Wow! What a modern thing on an ancient wall!

Every Italian city pays homage in one way or another to its fallen war heroes.

Here’s darling Nadia, above and following.

A frequent site is a group of older gentlemen having a chat. I asked Nadia if one ever sees this in Denmark and she said, no, it’s never warm enough to sit outside. The day we were in Montecatini Alto was April 18 and it was warm and sunny, about 75 degrees F. Nadia said a day like this in Denmark would be at the height of summer and everyone would go to the beach.

I was able to capture some of the chat.

In a gelato shop we noticed an unusual flavor. The fact that the signage is in Italian and English tells us that lots of foreign visitors come here. And not just Americans, Brits, and Australians. People from many countries visit and if they don’t speak Italian, they usually have some English.

Fun, fun day! Thanks Nadia!

The final edition of this series taking a look at this fine, small Benedictine church hidden in plain sight in Florence.

Above, the high altar. Following are details of this sacred space.

Now we are continuing from the altar to the nave on the left side of the church:

Arrividerci Sant’Ambrogio. Thank you for your wonders!

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!