Florence now has three new tramways, the latest of which was opened in 2019. It did once have an old tram system running through its mediaeval centre but this was dismantled during that phase when the authorities believed that petrol buses alone would solve their transport problems.  Like London’s own system running from Wimbledon to Beckenham, Florence has re-embraced this ecologically sound mode of transportation and there are now even two new routes planned, one which will reach the big Coop store at Il Bandino south of the river Arno.

However, having arrived yesterday at the magnificent Santa Maria Novella train station, a masterpiece of modern architecture by Michelucci, I was unable to find the bus that l needed to reach my destination in the city of the lily.

The new tramway had taken over part of the bus route but I was told to proceed past the ghastly three golden arches eating place (near which Shelley had written his Ode to the West Wind…obviously before the arches had appeared) and suddenly came face-to-face with one of the most delightful tabernacles I have ever encountered in this wonderful city, the epicentre of a renaissance which spread throughout the Western world.

The tabernacle of the Fonticine is one of the most beautiful tabernacles in Florence. Framing a large Della Robbia altarpiece it also consists of a basin with fountains and is located in via Nazionale, a few steps from the San Lorenzo market. Created by Girolamo della Robbia in 1522, it is called ‘delle fonticine’  because of the seven cherub heads pouring water, through the spouts on their mouths into the marble basin. I tried a palmful of this water and it was truly angelic in taste.

I eventually reached Piazza dell’Indipendenza, one of Florence’s largest squares where the bus I was looking for soon appeared. I was so glad that the bus route had been altered else I would have never chanced upon ‘le fonticelle’!