Borgo San Frediano is an interesting quarter sitting astride the old road for Pisa, but closed off from the city by its large 14th century gate.

It is one of the most attractive quarters that you can find in Oltrarno, the area of Florence on the other side of the Arno River, and it still retains the atmosphere of a small village where life has remained uncomplicated and little changed.
The 20th century novelist, Vasco Pratolini, fell under its spell and his descriptions of life in San Frediano, as in "Il Quartiere" and even more so in "Ragazze di San Frediano" have by now become classics of modern Italian literature.