These large and beautiful green cloisters are now deserted.

Through certain windows on the left one may see chemists at work compounding drugs and perfumes after old Dominican recipes, to be sold at the Farmacia in the Via della Scala close by.

The great refectory has been turned into a gymnasium.
The two obelisks, supported by tortoises and surmounted by beautiful lilies, in the Piazza of S.Maria Novella were used as boundaries in the chariot races held here under Cosimo I, and in the collection of old Florentine prints on the top floor of Michelangelo's house you may see representations of these races.

The charming loggia opposite S.Maria Novella, with della Robbia decorations, is the Loggia di S.Paolo, a school designed, it is thought, by Brunelleschi, and here, at the right hand end, we see S.Dominic himself in a friendly embrace with S.Francis, a very beautiful group by either Luca or Andrea della Robbia.
In the loggia cabmen now wrangle all day and all night.

From it S.Maria Novella is seen under the best conditions, always cheerful and serene; while far behind the church is the huge Apennine where most of the weather of Florence seems to be manufactured.