San Domenico

This country church on the road to Fiesole was where the future master Fra' Angelic first put on monk's robes and picked up paintbrushes

Halfway between Fiesole and Florence's outskirts, this crossroads hamlet grew around two religious buildings: the Badia and the 15th-century church and convent of San Domenico.

Soon after the convent opened, one Giovanni da Fiesole came knocking on the door wanting to put on the Dominican habit, take his vows, and start painting altarpieces.

He moved along with many other friars to San Marco in Florence a little later, and we now know him as the late Gothic/early Renaissance master Fra' Angelico (Beato Angelico to Italians, since he has been beatified—for the miracle of his art and mothing more).

The Beato Angelico did leave his old convent a few works, such as a beautiful Crucifixion (1430) and a detached Madonna and Child in the Chapter House. (Ring at no. 4, to the right of the church, between 9am and noon, the earlier the better.)

Inside the church are pietra serena–accented chapels.

Verrocchio's student Lorenzo di Credi painted the Baptism of Christ in the second chapel on the right.

In the first chapel on the left is a rich Madonna and Saints by Fra' Angelico, recently restored to its fully ripe colors and modeling. (There's a light switch on the right.) Lorenzo di Credi filled in the background landscape in 1501.

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