The second cloisters, into which it is not easy to get, have a gaunt John the Baptist in terra-cotta by Michelozzo.
On leaving the church, our natural destination is the Spedale, on the left, but one should pause a moment in the doorway of the courtyard (if the beggars who are always there do not make it too difficult) to look down the Via de' Servi running straight away to the cathedral, which, with its great red warm dome, closes the street.

The statue in the middle of the piazza is that of the Grand Duke Ferdinand by Giovanni da Bologna, cast from metal taken from the Italians' ancient enemies the Turks, while the fountains are by Tacca, Giovanni's pupil, who made the bronze boar at the Mercato Nuovo.

"The Synthetical Guide Book," from which I have already quoted, warns its readers not to overlook "the puzzling bees" at the back of Ferdinand's statue.

"Try to count them," it adds.

(I accepted the challenge and found one hundred and one.) The bees have reference to Ferdinand's emblem--a swarm of these insects, with the words "Majestate tantum".