San Giovanni dei Fiorentini

San Giovanni dei Fiorentini is a minor basilica and a titular church in the Ponte rione of Rome, Italy. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the protector of Florence, the new church for the Florentine community in Rome was started in the 16th century and completed in early 18th and is the national church of Florence in Rome. The main façade fronts onto the Via Giulia. This straight street was an urban initiative, carried out in 1508 by the architect Donato Bramante at the instigation of Pope Julius II, which cut through the irregular urban fabric to the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the bridge which crosses over the Tiber River to the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica.