Unfortunately it was raining and cloudy while we were in Florence. Nevertheless we managed to join in a free walking tour, which took us around the city. We checked out the Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”) which is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops and they were banned at some point because they used to throw all the scraps into the river, polluting it.
We also touched the nose of the Il Porcellino (Italian “piglet”) which is the local Florentine nickname for a bronze boar. Visitors to Il Porcellino put a coin into the gaping boar’s jaws with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck and rub the boar’s snout to ensure a return to Florence, a tradition that has kept the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar’s body has patinated to a dull brownish-green.
We also spent a lot of time eating gelato, trying many, many different flavours.
It has been rather interesting to learn a fair bit about the Medici family which was based in Firenza. They seem to keep on popping up in every facet of information everywhere in Italy(especially in Rome and in the Vatican). The power and money that this family commanded is just astonishing. It would be rather unimaginable if such a powerful family to still existed today. At is also interesting to learn how they died out and how their wealth was contained.
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