San Niccolo to San Miniato

Via di San Niccolò

The Oltrarno's most village-like street, lined with workshops, restorers, and small trattorias.

You're standing on Via di San Niccolò, the main street of the Oltrarno's most village-like quarter. It climbs gently from the Arno toward the old city gate, and for centuries it has been a street of workshops rather than palaces. Look at the ground floors as you pass. A frame maker, a restorer of old furniture, a leather worker, a tiny trattoria setting out its tables.

The street takes its name from Saint Nicholas and from the gate that once closed this end of the city every night. Until the 1800s the district sat outside the pull of the grand center, across the river and below the hill, and it kept its own slower rhythm. The river is behind you now, and the hills rise ahead. Follow the cobbles uphill toward the tall stone tower that looks too high for a gate.

That is Porta San Niccolò, your next stop.

Giardino delle Rose

A terraced rose garden below the panorama, planted by Poggi and full of bronze sculptures.

The Giardino delle Rose sits on the slope just below Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was made by the same hand. Giuseppe Poggi laid it out in 1865, the year Florence became the capital of Italy, on land that had belonged to the Oratorian fathers. Attilio Pucci planted the first rose collection, and the garden opened to the public in 1895 during the May Arts and Flowers Festival. It covers about one hectare in terraces, with more than 350 rose varieties, lemon trees, and small pools.

The Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon left twelve bronze sculptures here, given by his widow, and they are easy to find. Partir is a huge empty frame on one of the terraces, set up so you can look through it at the Duomo. Je me souviens is a bronze man reading on a bench, with room for you to sit beside him. The roses are at their best from April to June, but the view works all year.