Free audio walk in Florence
The foundlings and their care
- 7 stops
- Free
Starts at Piazza della Santissima Annunziata
About this walk
A short walk past the places where Florence cared for its foundlings, its sick, and its dead, from the foundling wheel to the hospital that is still open today.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
The Square and the Caring
A short walk through the story of who looked after this city's children, its sick, and its dead.
- 2Stop 2
The babies above the arches
The silk guild paid for the first building in the world designed to care for abandoned children.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
The cylinder in the wall
A niche with a rotating cylinder, where you could leave a child without being seen.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
The Half Coins
Six hundred years of record-keeping, with the tokens parents left behind and the numbers that go with them.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
Open for seven hundred years
A hospital running without a break since 1288, founded by the father of Beatrice.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
The Men in Black
A brotherhood that has carried the sick since the thirteenth century, once with black hoods over their faces.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
Three Days Under the Arches
Beneath these arches, abandoned children were shown for three days, in the hope that someone would recognise them.
Read the story
Ready when you are
Walk The foundlings and their care with ROODS.
7 stops through Florence. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
