FLORENCE

Florence, Via Calzaiuoli – Start of the race

Via Calzaiuoli
Piazza Duomo
Via dei Servi
Piazza SS. Annunziata
Via Gino Capponi
Via Frà Domenico Buonvicini
Via Masaccio
Via degli Artisti
Piazza Giorgio Vasari
Via Antonio Pacinotti
Viale Volta
Piazza Edison
Via San Domenico

View FLORENCE ROUTE in a larger map

VIA FAENZA IN FLORENCE  (by Wikipedia, free encyclopedia)

It is a street in the historic center of Florence that runs from Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini (in front of the Medici Chapels of San Lorenzo) to Viale Filippo Strozzi, in particular to the Fortezza da Basso. In ancient times the street was about half long, only up to Via Nazionale, and it was called Via di Porta in Faenza because it ended with the homonymous door in the thirteenth-century walls. In turn, the door did not take its name from a road towards the city of Romagna, famous for its pottery, Via Faenza, but from a convent of Vallombrosan nuns followers of the Blessed Umiltà da Faenza (1), the so-called “Women of Faenza”, which would also have given their name to the door opened in the last municipal circle. Their convent, which had been frescoed among others by the 14th-century painter Buonamico Buffalmacco, was located at the end of the road, in the open countryside, and was eventually incorporated into the Fortress of San Giovanni, called da Basso, built in 1533. the San Salvi convent replaced. However, the street has remained characterized by religious presence. In front of Via Bernardo Cennini there is still the church of San Giuliano, already belonging to a homonymous female monastery consecrated in 1585 and suppressed in 1808. Today it has regained its religious function by hosting the Generalate of the Congregation of the Poor Daughters of San Giuseppe Calasanzio. Not far away, the large ex-Educandate of Fuligno, formerly the convent of Sant’Onofrio, occupies a long part of the north side of the street with its two chapels with a typical gabled roof. Founded around 1300, it has undergone numerous modernizations over the centuries. Today the building is known because it houses the Museum of the Cenacolo del Perugino, already in the refectory of the convent. The building called Villa Strozzi was inhabited by the diplomatic secretary Alphonse de Lamartine, who hosted Stendhal in 1828, when the great French novelist was writing Il rosso e nero. The so-called Stendhal Syndrome was named after Stendhal’s visit to Florence. Almost on the corner with Via Nazionale there is a large tabernacle frescoed within a frame of pietra serena, with the Madonna and Child, San Rocco, San Giuseppe, San Filippo Neri, San Carlo Borromeo and San Giovannino painted by Giovanni da San Giovanni towards 1600.

After Via Nazionale you will find another church on the right, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, with an unusual portico on the facade with round arches on massive sculpted capitals, dating back to the XII-XIII centuries and a rare example of medieval atrium that has come down to our times. Already belonging to the Templars and the Knights of Malta, inside it has a fourteenth-century appearance, with a single nave divided into two bays with a cross vault. Almost in front, at number 56, there is the small Cinema Ciak Atelier, now closed, specializing in European cinema and arthouse in first run. The projection room, dating back to the early 1980s, is a pleasant example of measured proportions, with sober but elegant decorations, and a significant testimony of the city’s architecture of the time.

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HOLY HUMILITY(Faenza 1226 – Florence 1310)

His ‘Life’ written by the contemporary monk Biagio (1330 ca.), is contained in the cod. 271 of the Riccardiana Library in Florence; also there is a second ‘Life’ in the code 1563 of the same library. But many other texts of the following centuries, up to the Acts of the Congregation of Rites of 1720, report news concerning her, both as a person, both for the writings, both for the apostolic processes, and for the foundations of monasteries connected to her. Rosanese Negusanti, daughter of the nobles Elimonte and Richelda, was born in Faenza in 1226, the year of the death of the seraphic Francis of Assisi; in 1241 at the age of 15, he lost his father and the following year at 16 he married the patrician Ugonotto dei Caccianemici, they will soon have two children, but their happiness was very short, they died as soon as they were baptized; at the same time her mother Richelda also dies. But the young woman (she was 24 years old) without being disheartened and giving in to discomfort or being distracted with the joys of the world, together with her husband Ugonotto (who died in 1256) decided to retire to religious life, both entering the cloisters of the rectory of s. Perpetua; it was not uncommon in the Middle Ages to witness choices of this kind between two Christian spouses. And on this occasion Rosanese Negusanti changes the name to that of Humility; after being miraculously cured of a serious illness, in 1254 she left the cloister of the parsonage and retired as a cloister in a cell built for her at the Vallombrosan monastery of s. Apollinare, founded between 1012 and 1015 by s. Giovanni Gualberto. Here she lived for twelve years, purifying and elevating her spirit with prayers and fasts, alternating them with advice she gave to those who turned to her for help. His example attracted some young people from Faenza who asked to build other cells close to his and to live under his leadership. And so in 1266 on the advice of Bishop Petrella, Humility agreed to become the spiritual guide of the new nuns, gathered in the old monastery of Malta on the outskirts of Faenza (Ra). Humility was now 40 years old, returns to being a mother full of kindness, wisdom and energy, becoming the guide for new daughters, directing them on the path of holiness; for this reason some of the first nuns enjoy a cult. Fifteen years passed, putting into practice all the virtues of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Vallombrosan Constitutions of s. Giovanni Gualberto. When she was 55 years old, in 1281 mother Humility was called to found a new home for the young Florentines, whose life was shaken by the struggles between White and Black; the church was erected in Florence, in honor of s. Giovanni Evangelista, had as architect Giovanni Pisano and as decorator the famous Buffalmacco; it was consecrated in 1297 by the bishop Francesco Monaldeschi. Despite being very sick and elderly, Sister Humility kept personal contacts with Faenza and Rome to give continuity to the two monasteries, until after six months of suffering, at 84 years of age, she stopped living in Florence on May 22, 1310. After a year on June 6 1311, his body was exhumed and although he was buried in the bare earth, under the church floor, he was uncorrupted; it was covered with precious clothing and since then it has had an uninterrupted cult. His body was later moved to the monastery of San Salvi (1534) and finally in the 1800s, to that of the Holy Spirit of Varlungo near Florence, where it is still preserved. The spirituality of s. Humility can be seen from the Sermons received, they are a lively expression of profound humility and fervent love for God and neighbor. Its cult is very ancient, perhaps even dating back to the solemn “elevation” of the relics of 1311, in which a proper Mass was granted; in 1317 the bishops gathered in Avignon granted particular indulgences. On January 27, 1720 the Congregation of Rites with Pope Benedict XIII confirmed the ancient worship, having Mass celebrated on May 22. In 1942 she was declared co-patron of Faenza; altars were dedicated to her in the two monasteries founded by her of the Vallombrosana Congregation, as well as in the Cathedral of Faenza.