Porte Sante Cemetery

On the climb towards the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, you pass beside the Porte Sante Cemetery, a monumental burial ground created in the second half of the 19th century in an exceptional setting. It extends both in front of and behind the basilica. The list of people buried here is remarkable: Carlo Lorenzini, better known as Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio; Lorenzo Bertelli, known as Vamba, who wrote another classic of children’s literature, Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca; writers Vasco Pratolini and Giovanni Papini; artists Ottone Rosai, Libero Andreotti and Pietro Annigoni; and distinguished Florentines such as Giovanni Spadolini and Mario Cecchi Gori. The father of Italian cooking, Pellegrino Artusi, fashion designer Enrico Coveri, actor Paolo Poli and film director Franco Zeffirelli are also buried here. Many tombs were designed or decorated by important artists, including Galileo Chini, Libero Andreotti, Enrico Dante Fantappié and Giovanni Paciarelli. Over the years, the cemetery has become a true open-air museum. Its architecture and decoration offer a repertoire of styles, from Byzantine revival to the neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance of Florentine tradition, and from Neoclassicism to Art Nouveau. The section below the façade of San Miniato has the broadest views, while the oldest part, with 19th-century graves, is behind the basilica.