SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, Cloisters

After having walked around the church's exterior, follow the sidewalk that goes along the higher rear portion of the church next to the bell tower, and you'll reach the entrance where your tour begins. The new itinerary doesn't take you immediately into the church: first you cross the convent halls, some of which were previously closed and have since been restored and opened for viewing.

First you pass through the Cloister of the Dead with its shady and irregular form. Like other Florentine churches, Santa Maria Novella was long used as a burial site. Below the arches and along the walls, you can still see tombstones from different ages and remains of frescoes dating back to the 14th century, as well as beautiful cypresses growing up high in the cloisters.

Your perception of light changes entirely when you reach the Green Cloister, which got its name from the background color of Paolo Uccello's frescoes that decorate the interior, which would be very beautiful if they weren't so poorly conserved! The cloister is on the left side of the church and was built in the middle of the 14th century. As you can see, the colonnades are made up of robust octagonal pillars....