Peretola is a suburb of Florence, Italy, located on the northern extremity of the Florentine commune. It belongs administratively to Quartiere 5 - Rifredi. It lends its name to the nearby international airport [1] and is claimed as the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci.
The village of Peretola was founded in the Middle Ages. It was greatly developed during the Florentine Renaissance of the 15th century, as it sat in a strategic location between two great communication roads, the via Pistoiese and the via Pratese. For much of its history, the village of Peretola was a dependency of the autonomous commune of Brozzi, until 1928, when the latter's communal status was suppressed and its territories partitioned. Peretola fell into portion assigned to the commune of Florence, and was integrated into the administrative ward of Quartiere 5 (Rifredi).
A house in Peretola (No. 8, on the corner of via Peretola and via del Campagnie) is claimed to be the original home of the Vespucci family, and birthplace of the celebrated navigator Amerigo Vespucci (although Amerigo Vespucci was raised in their urban home in the Ognissanti quarter of the city of Florence proper).
Peretola is also the native village of Tommaso Masini, nicknamed the "Zoroaster of Peretola", [2] a friend and collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci.
Giovanni Boccaccio set the tale of "Chichibio e la gru" ( Decameron , VI, 4) in the village of Peretola.
Niccolò Machiavelli, in his novella, Belfagor arcidiavolo, tells the story of a demon which had been sent from Hell to Florence to investigate the excuses of its incorrigibly corrupt and wicked citizens (the Florentines blame their wives). The demon sets himself up in grand style with a Florentine wife, but quickly finds himself overwhelmed by her demands and flees to Peretola to seek refuge and restore his peace of mind. Machiavelli characterizes Peretola as a small rural paradise, an escape from the morass of Florence, a pleasant haven even for the devil.
The old village of Peretola is composed of narrow streets, typical of a Tuscan country village, dotted with shrines, and a typical rural housing scheme organized around numerous short courtyards. Some of these courtyards date from the 14th century, but most are from 17th and 18th centuries.
Peretola's center is at Piazza Garibaldi, on which sits the old Church of Santa Maria a Peretola, with its 1443 terra-cotta tabernacle by Luca della Robbia and a 1446 baptismal fountain by Francesco di Simone Ferrucci. Nearby is the Oratorio della Santissima Annunziata, built in 1821, a rare example of neoclassical architecture in the region.
Just outside the old village is the 1510 chapel of Santa Maria Vergine della Pietà, with an octagonal-shaped dome, in imitation of the Florence cathedral. Nicknamed la cupolina, the chapel was once in open fields, but now is circulated by vehicular traffic from the via Pratese.
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence for whom "America" is named.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 364,073 inhabitants in 2024, and 990,527 in its metropolitan area.
Domenico di Michelino (1417–1491) was an Italian Renaissance painter who was born and died in Florence. His birth name was Domenico di Francesco. The patronymic "di Michelino" was adopted in honour of his teacher, the cassone painter Michelino di Benedetto, by whom no works have been identified. Giorgio Vasari reports that Domenico was also a pupil of Fra Angelico, whose influence is reflected in many of Domenico's paintings along with that of Filippo Lippi and Pesellino.
Lisa del Giocondo was an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany. Her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Italian Renaissance.
Johannes Stradanus was a Flemish artist active mainly in 16th-century Florence, Italy. He was a wide-ranging talent who worked as an easel and fresco painter, designer of tapestries, draughtsman, designer of prints and pottery decorator. His subject range was varied and included history subjects, mythological scenes, allegories, landscapes, genre scenes, portraits, architectural scenes and animals. After training in his native Flanders, he left his home country and ultimately settled down in Florence, Italy. He became a prominent court artist to the Medici during the second half of the 16th century and worked on the many decorative projects of the court. Stradanus also produced large altarpieces for the most important churches in Florence.
Simonetta Vespucci, nicknamed la bella Simonetta, was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She was known as the greatest beauty of her age in Italy, and was allegedly the model for many paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and other Florentine painters. Some art historians have taken issue with these attributions, which the Victorian critic John Ruskin has been blamed for promulgating.
Francesco Feo was an Italian composer, known chiefly for his operas. He was born and died in Naples, where most of his operas were premièred.
Spilamberto is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Modena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Bologna and about 10 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Modena.
Santissima Annunziata may refer to:
The historic centre of Florence is part of quartiere 1 of the Italian city of Florence. This quarter was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.
Michelangelo Naccherino was an Italian sculptor and architect, active mainly in the Kingdom of Naples, Italy.
The Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry is a renowned bronze foundry based in Florence, Italy. Known for employing the Renaissance-era technique of lost-wax the foundry has been instrumental in the creation of numerous bronze sculptures over the past century.. Among its notable works is the 1988 casting of the 'La Fontana del Porcellino', a replica of Pietro Tacca's famous boar statue, which replaced the antique version in Florence's Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in 1998.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
The Hospital of San Paolo, later known as the Spedale of the Leopoldine, is a former hospital from the 13th century, now museum of modern works, located on Piazza Santa Maria Novella number 10, in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
Giuseppe Ceccherini was an Italian composer and singing teacher. He was born in Florence, the son of Ferdinando Ceccherini (1792–1858), a noted tenor, composer, and the maestro di cappella of Florence's principal cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore.
Annunciazione della Beata Vergine Maria a Via Ardeatina is a 20th-century parochial church and titular church on the southern edge of Rome, dedicated to the Annunciation and located on the ancient Via Ardeatina.
Colle di Compito is a frazione of Capannori in the province of Lucca region of Tuscany in Italy.
The Oratorio della Compagnia dei Bianchi or Compagnia della Santissima Annunziata is a Baroque-style, Roman Catholic oratory (chapel) located on Via Roma #9 in the mountain-top town of Fosdinovo, province of Massa and Carrara in the region Tuscany, Italy. After a fire destroyed the prior oratory, this white marble building was erected in 1648–1653.
Giuseppe Giorgio Gori was an Italian architect.
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