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You can see so much in books and on the internet. Look up the Brancacci Chapel in Florence's church of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_del_Carmine_di_Firenze" target="_blank">Santa Maria del Carmine</a> and you'll think: that seems an interesting place. I've been reading about the place for a few weeks because I have a professional interest in it (the book for 2013 in case you're interested).  I thought I had a reasonable idea of what to expect.

Then I drag myself through the chilly Florence rain and find something quite unlike anything the books or web prepares you to see. The church itself is a touch overblown and uninteresting. The chapel is to one side to the right with a rope to keep people back. I asked a priest how to get in and he just waved a hand and said, 'Fuori.'

<!--more-->So I went outside, found the entrance, discovered you were supposed to book, smiled at the lady behind the counter, paid my four euros and got in straight away. And it's amazing. A kind of miniature Sistine Chapel, full of colour and life and extraordinary paintings, all crammed into little more than a large alcove.

Quite amazing. Michelangelo used to come here and was keen on copying Masaccio's expulsion of Adam and Eve. He got into an argument one time (Italian artists seemed to do this a lot) and a stroppy sculptor punched him so hard on the nose it turned into the broken, bashed up proboscis you see in the all the sculptured images of him. That odd aside apart, it's an extraordinarily peaceful and beautiful spot in a back street of Oltrarno. As compelling as any of the bigger sights across the river in my book.