Prayer walk in Florence

       I want to share yesterday’s cottagebythesea blog post about my morning walk to some of the churches in Florence. Every morning I start the day with a prayer walk before prayer in a church. This walk took a little longer than the usual hour, but as usual I stopped for a cappucchino along the way. Here are only five churches due to technical difficulty adding pictures to the slideshow.

     Even though I am living in this city for only two weeks, right now it is my home. So I decided to take an early morning walk to survey the exteriors of the major churches that have been a large part of the city’s history and that draw me here. These churches as we know them today were built, often on preexisting foundations, toward the end of the thirteen century to accommodate a rising city population. Although subsidized by city government, many represented a particular religious order.
     I started at Santa Maria dei Fiori, stopping along the way to take pictures of each façade, and to enjoy a couple of cappucchini. Santa Croce was my last stop.
Santa Marie dei Fiori: Cathedral church of Florence
Santissima Annunziata: Servites
San Marco: Domenican
Santa Maria Novella: Domenican
Ognisanti: Umilita
Santa Maria del Carmine: Carmelite
Santo Spirito: Augustinian
Santa Trinita: Vallumbrosan
Santi Apostoli
Badia Fiorentina: Fraternity of Jerusalem
Santa Croce: Franciscan

---