Borgo San Frediano: Florence's Left Bank
Why is it significant?
Walk down the middle of Borgo San Frediano and feel the change: the street is long and straight, the houses lower, the shutters greener, a few neighbourhood bakeries and hardware shops still holding their own between the new wine bars.
Key Facts
| Place | Borgo San Frediano: Florence's Left Bank |
|---|---|
| Address | Borgo San Frediano, 50124 Firenze FI, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 43.76990, 11.24260 |
| Part of Walk | Florence Across the Arno: Oltrarno Artisans, Santo Spirito & San Frediano |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk down the middle of Borgo San Frediano and feel the change: the street is long and straight, the houses lower, the shutters greener, a few neighbourhood bakeries and hardware shops still holding their own between the new wine bars. Behind you, on the river side, rises a big pale dome, the church of San Frediano in Cestello, facing the river.
For centuries this was the poorest corner of Florence, a quarter of wool workers, washerwomen, carters and boatmen who unloaded goods arriving on the Arno. The people of San Frediano had a reputation all across the city: quick with a joke, quick with a fist, suspicious of anyone from the other bank, and fiercely loyal to each other.
In 1949 the writer Vasco Pratolini published a novel called The Girls of San Frediano, about a handsome young man of the quarter who juggles several girlfriends at once... until the girls discover each other and decide to teach him a lesson. It was made into a film in 1954, and for many Italians the name San Frediano still sounds like cheek, charm and sharp tongues. The locals, the Sanfredianini, rather enjoy that.
The quarter has suffered, too. In November 1966 the Arno broke over its banks right here, and the water rose above the height of a man in these streets, filling homes and workshops with mud and fuel oil. Volunteers from all over the world, the Angeli del Fango, the Mud Angels, came to dig out churches, archives and libraries.
In recent years international magazines have discovered San Frediano and called it one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world. The old residents shrug. Keep walking to the very end of the Borgo, where the street runs straight into a great stone gate, the way out of Florence towards Pisa and the sea.