This Place Is Often The Scene Of Curious Adventures.
Cicisbeism is
universal at Florence, tho' far from being always criminal, as is generally
supposed by foreigners.
I find the Florentine women very graceful and many
very handsome; but in point of beauty the female peasantry far exceed the
noblesse and burghers. All of them however dress with taste. The
handsomest woman in Florence is the wife of an apothecary who lives in the
Piazza del Duomo and she has a host of admirers.
On the promenade lungo l'Arno near the Cascino is a fountain with a
statue of Pegasus, with an inscription in Italian verse purporting that
Pegasus having stopped there one day to refresh himself at this fountain,
found the place so pleasant that he remained there ever since. This is a
poetic nation par excellence. Affiches are announced in sonnets and
other metres; and tho' in other countries the votaries of the Muses are but
too apt to neglect the ordinary and vulgar concerns of life, yet here it by
no means diminishes industry, and the nine Ladies are on the best possible
terms with Mr Mercury.
I shall not attempt a description of the various palazzi and churches of
Florence, tho' I have visited, thanks to the zeal and importunity of my
cicerone, nearly all, except to remark that no one church in Florence,
the Cathedral and Baptistery on the Piazza del Duomo excepted, has its
facade finished, and they will remain probably for ever unfinished, as the
completion of them would cost very large sums of money, and the restored
Government, however anxious to resuscitate the ancient faith, are not
inclined to make large disbursements from their own resources for that
purpose. I wish however they would finish the facade of two of these
churches, viz., that of Santa Maria Novella and that of Santa Croce.
Santa Maria Novella stands in the Piazza of that name which is very
large. It is a beautiful edifice, and can boast in the interior of it
several columns and pilasters of jaune antique and of white marble. But
they have a most barbarous custom in Florence of covering these columns
with red cloth on jours de Fete, which spoils the elegant simplicity of
the columns and makes the church itself resemble a theatre des
Marionnettes. But the Italians are dreadfully fond of gaudy colours. In
the church of Santa Croce what most engaged my attention was the monument
erected to Vittorio Alfieri, sculptured by Canova. It is a most beautiful
piece of sculpture. A figure of Italy crowned with turrets seems fully
sensible of the great loss she has sustained in one who was so ardent a
patriot, as well as an excellent tragic poet. This monument was erected at
the expence of the Countess of Albany (Queen of England, had legitimacy
always prevailed, or been as much in fashion as it now is) as a mark of
esteem and affection towards one who was so tenderly attached to her, and
of whom in his writings Alfieri speaks with the endearing and affectionate
appellation of mia Donna.
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