The Streets You Miss

Behind the church, in the old convent rooms on Via della Scala, the Dominicans kept a garden of medicinal plants and distilled what grew there: rose water, sold as a disinfectant in the plague years, is documented in 1381. The apothecary opened to the public in 1612 and it is still open today; by continuity of place and trade it is called the oldest pharmacy in the world.

In front of it stands the church the pharmacy belonged to. Consecrated in 1420, almost two hundred years after it was begun. Leon Battista Alberti finished the marble front in 1470, though the right scroll waited for its marble until 1920.

The square was a race track first. Cosimo I's Palio dei Cocchi ran from 1563 around two obelisks that still stand on it, each resting on bronze tortoises made by Giambologna in 1608. Now it holds a market, cafe tables, a grand hotel, parked vans.

What stays with me: the shop never moved house. Same walls since the friars came in 1221.

If a street has been waiting for you, I go back and write what is there now: a letter from the place you miss, one page, $20 by card. Write to me: [email protected]

Frames: the facade and the square's west side, April 2025; the market, October 2022.