After a three-year restoration, Masaccio's Trinity is back on view in Santa Maria Novella. It's reason enough to look again at one of Florence's most loved churches and the lively piazza around it, so here's what to see inside and how to make the visit your own.
Most people meet Santa Maria Novella in a hurry, suitcase in hand, crossing the square on the way out of the station without looking up. Right now that's a particular shame. After a three-year restoration completed earlier this year, Masaccio's Trinity is back on view inside the basilica; the Opera di Santa Maria Novella calls it "one of the most significant masterpieces of the early Renaissance". It's a good moment to slow down and let the church, and the piazza in front of it, become part of your Florence rather than a place you pass through.
More than a museum
Dominican friars began the basilica in the thirteenth century, and over time it drew the names that shaped Italian art: Giotto, Brunelleschi, Ghirlandaio, Masaccio. What sets it apart from a gallery is that much of this work was made for these walls, to be seen exactly where it still stands. The Opera that looks after the church described the Trinity's restoration as "the return to the community of a heritage of extraordinary cultural, spiritual, and artistic value", and that word, community, matters: Santa Maria Novella is still a working church, a house of prayer as much as a place of art. Come at a quiet hour and you feel both at once.
How to see it well
A little planning turns a quick look into a real visit.
Step inside, slowly. Start with the freshly restored Trinity in the left aisle, the fresco whose painted architecture seems to open a chapel in a flat wall. Then find Giotto's Crucifix floating in the nave, Brunelleschi's wooden Crucifix in the Gondi Chapel, and Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle wrapping the chapel behind the high altar. Leave time for the museum side, where the Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel are quietly among the finest rooms in the city.
Then give the square its time. The piazza is one of the few places in the centre with room to breathe: benches, open sky, the church's marble front catching the late light. The surrounding quarter trades in contrasts, from noble palaces to the centuries-old Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica founded by the same Dominican friars. It's a neighbourhood you can live in, not just look at.
And plan it right. A single ticket covers the basilica and the museum, with its cloisters, the Spanish Chapel and the refectory. Hours shift through the week and the church closes around services, so it's worth checking before you go: opening times and tickets.
If you'd rather wake up a few streets from all this, the Acacia® crew knows the neighbourhood well, and we're happy to help you find the right home and the right hour to go. Tell us how you want to see Florence, and we'll help you do it slowly. sad