Cenacolo del Conservatorio in Fuligno, Florence

Hotel Mario's is situated in a fantastic position for all the visitors would like starting their days walking to everywhere here in the city. Close to the train station of Santa Maria Novella ( less than 2 blocks ), close to the Mercato Centrale of San Lorenzo and also to the topic we are talking today : The Cenacolo of Fuligno.
The ancient convent in Fuligno was founded at the start of the fourteenth century and subsequently renovated in 1430.The convent’s refectory is decorated with fifteenth century frescoes depicting the Last Supper and the Oration of Christ in the Garden, both of which are attributed to Pietro Perugino. This refectory was used as a museum from the nineteenth century.Many works of art damaged in the great flood of 1966 were brought here. It was re-opened in 1990, with the addition of some frescos by Bicci di Lorenzo (1430 circa) which came from other rooms of the convent, as well as a wooden crucifix by Benedetto da Maiano.
Today the Cenacolo, or refectory, is home to other works such as the Assumption of the Virgin by Valerio Marucelli which once stood above the main altar in the church of Sant’Onofrio, the Crucifixion and several fifteenth and sixteenth century Tuscan and Italian paintings of the Perugino school. Hotel Mario's is only 50 metres far from this extraordinary masterpiece and we are glad to welcome you here in our small and typical hotel.


Opening hours
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 9am – 12pm
Closed on New Year’s Day, 1st May and Christmas Day

Entry fee
Free

Disabled access
No

Contact information
via Faenza 42
Florence
Telephone 055 286982
E-mail segreteria@sbas.firenze.it
http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/fuligno

Loggia del Porcellino ( the new market of Florence )

The loggia was built around the middle of the 16th century in the heart of the city, just a few steps from the Ponte Vecchio. Initially it was intended for the sale of silk and luxury goods and then for the famous straw hats, but today mainly leather goods and souvenirs are sold.
In the corner niches statues of famous Florentines were intended to be placed, but only three were made during the 18th century: Michele di Lando, Giovanni Villani, and Bernardo Cennini.
The focal point of the loggia is the Fontana del Porcellino, "fountain of the piglet", actually a copy of a bronze wild boar by Pietro Tacca from the sixteenth century; the original can be found at Palazzo Pitti. Popular tradition has it that rubbing the nose brings fortune, so that the statue has acquired over time a certain shine in that spot. Visitors are encouraged to place a coin in the mouth of the boar after rubbing its nose, and superstion implies that the wish will be granted if the offering tumbles through the grate whence the water flows. The slope of the grate is such that most coins do fall through, and are collected by the city.
Another oddity of the place is the so-called pietra dello scandalo, the "stone of the shame", a round spot marked in bicoloured marble at the centre of the loggia, which is only visible when no sales stalls are there. The design reproduces one of the wheels of a medieval Carroccio, symbol of the Florentine republic, on which the city's standard was hoisted daily. The Carroccio was placed on this spot and, around it, Florentine troops met before every battle.
The spot was later chosen for another purpose, whence its alternative name pietra dell'acculata, "the stone of the bum punishment". During the Renaissance, the punishment of insolvent debtors included being chained to a post on this spot and then paddled repeatedly on the naked buttocks.

Santa Maria Novella: Gothic with Italian Renaissance facade

In front of the railway station and two minutes walking far from Hotel Mario's, we can see the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a beautiful example of Gothic with Italian Renaissance façade.
"...Designed in the 1450's, [the facade of Santa Maria Novella] completed the exterior of a medieval church, and yet it has been rightly described as a 'great Renaissance exponent of classical eurhythmia,' for its dimensions are all bound to each other by the 1:2 ratio of the musical Octave. The marble panels, which produce a mosaiclike effect of discrete color patches on medieval Italian church exteriors... here contribute to a sense of rhythmic, geometric unity..."

— Joan Gadol. Leon Battista Alberti, Universal Man of the Early Renaissance. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969. p112.

"From the trecento campaign, Alberti inherited the sepulchral niches with pointed arches, the lateral portals also enclosed by Gothic frames, and the geometrically patterned green and white marble revetment. It was this biochromatism—Tuscan Romanesque in origin and never out of favor in Florence—that Alberti chose as the departure for the revetment system of this new façade (c. 1456-70). Over it, he superimposed a series of tall and narrow arches to accommodate the vertical accent of the Gothic remnants. The arch and the capitals of the engaged order he shaped in a manner not Gothic but Romanesque-antique, thus making possible the introduction of the authoritative Classical language of the entrance, consisting of fluted pilasters framed by noble columns on tall dadoes—this in homage of the Roman Pantheon, a monument exhaustively studied by 'archaeologist' Alberti."

— Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p293-4.

San Lorenzo Central Market

San Lorenzo Central Market is at about two-three minutes from Mario's Hotel. The building was built some time between 1870 and 1874 by architect Giuseppe Mengoni and it is thought that it was built in part to provide an alternative for those who had shopped in the area around Piazza della Repubblica which at that time in history hosted the City of Florence's major vegetable market. According to history, the area around the Piazza della Repubblica was undergoing a renewal during these years.
It is Europe's largest covered food hall and is a most wonderful stone, iron and glass building. Mengoni is also responsible for Milan's celebrated covered shopping galleries.
It is difficult to appreciate the design of the Mercato though, one can imagine that in its day it probably was quite a site. The building's footprint is quite large and covers at least two blocks. The Mercato offers a huge variety of fresh items: produce of many kinds (from throughout Italy), fresh fruit, flowers, cheese of every imaginable variety, meats (including stewed boar, cow stomach and intestines), fish and seafood, poultry, pastas, dried fruits, porcini, spices, breads, pastries, dry goods, wines and truffles. There are also stands inside where you can have the vendor make you a sandwich and you can sit down at a little table and enjoy the atmosphere.

Wifi connection at Hotel Mario's

Dear Guest, dear visitors,

Hotel Mario's is an hotel with a long history and is situated in the city centre of Florence, near the railway train station and the Duomo, in a very good position, even if you arrive from the airport; there is a shuttle bus every 30 minutes that takes 20 min. to get to Santa Maria Novella railway station; from there only 250 metres to get here.
Despite an ancient building, Hotel Mario's got the most modern technology and one of that is wifi connection for clients staying at our Hotel. We already had this option, but we have improved it with a very fast and safe connection for all the type of computers. From every room you can surf on internet with your personal computer.
Do you need to work? do you need to keep in touch with your friend in facebook? do you need to have information from the train schedule? Would you like to use Skype? At Hotel Mario's, no panic, no way. I know, Hotel Mario's

THE PLACE WHERE TO BE