Animated during the day by the markets and tourists passing through (as well as some art students) Piazza Santo Spirito is above all a meeting place in the evening for Florentines and foreigners, who create an interesting and lively mix, sometimes with some excess too much.The square fills up especially in the early evening, when the artisan shops and artists’ studios of the Oltrarno close and begins the bustle of trattorias, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs in the district. The square alone is overlooked by a dozen different kinds of bars and restaurants, many of which have open-air areas where you can sit and eat or drink something. Piazza Santo Spirito dates back to the second half of the thirteenth century. It was built to accommodate the faithful who gathered to pray with the Augustinian friars who had built a convent with a church dedicated to "Santa Maria d’Ognissanti e allo Santo Spirito", which became more simply the "Church of the Holy Spirit", from which the square then took its name.Piazza Santo Spirito dates back to the second half of the thirteenth century. It was built to accommodate the faithful who gathered to pray with the Augustinian friars who had built a convent with a church dedicated to "Santa Maria d’Ognissanti e allo Santo Spirito", which became more simply the "Church of the Holy Spirit", from which the square then took its name.At the far end of the square, on the opposite side of the Basilica, there is a monument to Cosimo Ridolfi, agronomist and founder of the Accademia dei Georgofili, a historical Florentine institution that promotes the art of Tuscan cultivation or the study of agronomy, economics and agricultural geography.
