The Palazzo Masetti overlooks the Ponte Santa Trinità bridge, the most graceful of all Arno bridges.

Some of the original masonry was recovered from the river after 1944, and the quarries of the Boboli Gardens were reopened to enable the bridge to be rebuilt in the original material and to the original design commissioned by Cosimo I from Ammannati in 1567. They say, it was Michelangelo who helped Ammannati with the bridge’s design.

The statues of the Four Seasons, carved by Pietro Francavilla for the wedding of Cosimo II in 1593, were also dredged from the river bed and restored to their original position.

A left turn into the elegant shopping street of Via de’ Tornabuoni leads to Piazza Santa Trinità.

On the right, the battlemented and formidable Palazzo Spini-Feroni is one of the city’s few remaining 13th-century palaces. It was once the home of the couturier Salvatore Ferragamo, and his boutique (usually full of Japanese tourists and the Florentine great and good) is now on the ground floor. Above the shop, the small but excellent Museo Ferragamo (Piazza Santa Trinita 5/R; tel: 055-356 2846; Mon-Fri 11 am – 7 pm, by appointment) is a testament to the life and work of one of modern Florence’s best-known figures. Some of the most spectacular shoes in the world are on display, as well as memories of his trade and travels.

 

Opposite the palazzo stands the plain but noble Baroque facade of Santa Trinità church.