Oh Florence. With all of the weekends that I've been here lately, I've gotten to know it a lot better. What streets are less busy... where to go for a good panini... making sure to look for an on-coming 70mph bus before stepping into the street... the usual. Of course I can't help making comparisons to Seattle. Why aren't there as many trees here? How come the coffee they give me is so small? Will people ever stop giving me weird looks when I go out in shorts to go for a run?? It's surprising how lonely a city can be sometimes when all of your friends are gone. ...But like a good teapot, some cities just take a while to warm up to you. If I want tea, I have to be willing to wait. (:
The agenda for this past week was 1. Piazza della Signoria 2. Palazzo Davanzati 3. Orsanmichele 4. Palazzo dell'Arte della Lana and 5. Dante's Neighborhood.
Of course, my best friend being so enamored with Dante and his Divine Comedy, I was most excited to see what the fuss was all about. According to the Introduction of Longfellow's translation of Dante's Inferno, Dante was born in either May or June of 1265 to a Florentine moneylender. Although being promised to Gemma Donati from a young age, Dante holds a passionate affection throughout his life for a woman by the name of Beatrice Portinari, who appears in a number of his writings while Gemma does not. In his lifetime, Dante is believed to have been trained in knightly warfare as well as having studied theology at both the church of Santa Maria Novella and the church of Santa Croce. He also enrolled in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali (Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries) and was appointed as one of the Florentine priors. In 1302, Dante was accused of bribery and corruption by a Black sympathizing majority and was sent to spend two years in exile (Dante's allegiances remained with the Whites), later becoming a life-long exile. It is in this period of time that he wrote his most influential works.
(Statue of Dante)While on the tour, we also learned that the Torre della Castagna (or Chestnut Tower) in Dante's Neighborhood was the primary meeting place of the Priors. The name comes from the manner in which they'd vote through putting boiled chestnuts inside a bag (one for each vote count) and tally them at the end. The church in this area as well, Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, was Beatrice's parish church. Here it is suggested that Dante married Gemma Donati.
On this day, I also learned that the Palazzo della Signoria was built to house the government of priors (which political structure was called 'the Signoria'). This building also houses a bell named the "Vacca" (due to its mooing sound) which would be used to call upon the people of Florence to the square in case of an attack (much like the minutemen of the American colonial period). We also had the chance to see the Palazzo Davanzati; a palace owned by the wealthy Davizzi family whom was in the wool business. Large wooden bars across the façade were used to dry skins or to hang banners on feast days.
(Wooden Bars)Bibliography
Henry Wadsworth, Longfellow, Dante Alighieri, and Peter Bondanella. Barnes & Noble Classics: The Inferno. Spark Educational Publishing, 2003.
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