traveldk.com

Masolino started the Brancacci Chapel’s frescoes of St Peter’s life in 1424. Another of his works, Adam and Eve , is rather sweet compared to the powerful Expulsion from the Garden by his successor, Masaccio. Filippino Lippi completed the cycle in 1485.

The best sections of this former hospital, which ran from the 9th century to the 1990s, are mentioned on page 28. The Renaissance frescoes in the Sala del Pellegrino depict scenes of hospital life not too different from today – a monkish surgeon doctoring an injured leg, another taking a urine sample, a third nodding off as his patient describes symptoms. Several spaces in the building host changing exhibitions.

Among the masterpieces here are Masaccio’s Trinità (1428; painting’s first use of perspective), Giotto’s Crucifix , Filippino Lippi’s Cappella Strozzi frescoes (1486) and Ghirlandaio’s decorous sanctuary frescoes (1485). The cloisters’ greenish Noah frescoes (1446) are warped perspectives by Paolo Uccello.

Buontalenti provided the façade, while Ghirlandaio frescoed the Cappella Sasetti with the Life of St Francis set in 15th-century Florence.

The Michelozzo-designed entry cloister was frescoed by Mannerists Andrea del Sarto, Rosso and Pontormo. The Baroque, octagonal tribune is decorated with Perugino’s Madonna and Saints and Bronzino’s Resurrection . Sculptures by Giambologna festoon his tomb in the back chapel.

Brunelleschi’s influential masterpiece of Renaissance design. The building’s proportions are picked out in clean lines of pietra serena stone against white plaster. Seek out altarpieces by Filippino Lippi (Madonna and Child with Saints , 1466) and Verrocchio (a minimalist St Monica and Augustinian Nuns ).

The nuns of St Catharine run this simple but comfortable inn. Many rooms have great views across a narrow valley to the striped Duomo. There are plans to put phones in all rooms and A/C in a few in 2002, so prices may alter. There’s a TV lounge and pay phones in the common rooms.

French-style Romanesque abbey church in a beautiful countryside setting.

This isolated Cistercian abbey was founded by Charlemagne, but the building dates from 1118. Inside, several column capitals are beautifully carved in alabaster. White-robed monks sing a Gregorian chant five times daily; ask them for a peek at the sacristy’s earthy frescoes.

Gorgeous French-style Romanesque Cistercian abbey in the countryside (see Sant’Antimo) .