Florence Oltrarno Self-Guided Audio Walk: Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Santo Spirito and San Frediano

Your Experience

The Oltrarno, beyond the Arno, is Florence's other half: the rulers' palace near the river, then the quarter of friars, painters and wine sellers out to the old gate.

Start on the Ponte Santa Trinita, rebuilt after 1944, and walk to the Ponte Vecchio, where the Vasari Corridor goes around a medieval tower and across Santa Felicita's front. See Palazzo Pitti, begun by a merchant and bought by the Medici, and Via Maggio, where a grand duke remodeled a house for the Venetian he married in secret.

Find wine windows in palace walls, stand before Santo Spirito's plain front and the Carmine, where Masaccio painted and a butcher's son became the painter Filippo Lippi, and end at Porta San Frediano and its original doors.

Eleven stops, about 1.9 km and an hour, flat with no steps, at your own pace, in English. Entry to Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli garden, the Vasari Corridor and the Brancacci Chapel is not included.