Mysteries of Florence
CALCIO STORICO = HISTORIC FOOTBALL: Ritual, Rivalry and What Else?
Florence's famous football in Renaissance guise...
NO! They are not "doing it for the tourists"!
PUNKED BY A MIME ARTIST OUTSIDE THE UFFIZI GALLERY
Don't mess with Florentine Street Performers.
They are smarter and tougher than you!
GROCERY SHOPPING (AND MORE) IN PANDEMIC FLORENCE
Italians normally hate waiting in line, but there was nothing normal about the COVID lockdown.
Supermarket queues (socially distanced, of course) coiled for block after block around every neighborhood.
From my kitchen window, I could see the local COOP, barely a hundred yards away.
But going there was another story...
PLAGUE ART MINIMALISM AT FLORENCE'S SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA
Florence was coming back to life after an excruciating COVID lockdown and I was leaving my adopted hometown, more or less forever.
Could things get any weirder?
THE APOCALYPSE COMES TO CAMPO DI MARTE: Florentine Street Art in the Time of COVID
Nothing was normal during the Pandemic.
Every horseman heralded the End of Days and rainbows took on a desperate life of their own.
Especially in the realm of children's art, which is often the most revealing of all.
DWARF ENVY: Rampaging Garden Gnomes in Florence’s Oltrarno District
In Italy, vendetta is both a fine art and comic relief.
ANNO FASCISTA = FASCIST YEAR: Florence’s Mussolini-era sewer caps
Benito Mussolini had a rare knack for signs and symbols. Throughout Italy, they still follow us wherever we go.
What about Florence's ubiquitous "Anno Fascista = Fascist Year" sewer caps?
Thereby hangs many a tale...