Having left the hotel very early in the morning and realised that outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria dei Fiori the queue was already huge, we decided to head towards the church of the Holy Annunciation founded by the Servite order in 1250 and later rebuilt between 1444 and 1481.
Its façade and atrium were undergoing restoration work but we were allowed access to the church, whose interior looked rather dark in spite of its heavy gilded wall and ceiling decoration. In one of its corners one could see a beautiful tempitto where the venerate image of the Virgin is kept.
Popular piety seems to be associated to the difficulty a certain friar had in painting the face of the Virgin, which is believed to have been finished by angelic hands.
Popular piety seems to be associated to the difficulty a certain friar had in painting the face of the Virgin, which is believed to have been finished by angelic hands.
A mass would soon be carried out so we decided to leave. As we were walking out I risked looking through some of the restoration fences and managed to get some images of the frescoes painted on its atrium, which is apparently one of the major reasons that attracts visitors to the church.
Despite the limitations I quite enjoyed the visit and hope to have the possibility of looking at the church's façade and frescoed atrium some time in the future.
(To be continued)
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