Curiosities in Florence

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Firenze CouchSurfer Giampaolo loves the history and offbeat stories of his city, and has composed this list of curiosities that every CouchSurfer should see in Florence.

Historical and Artistic Curiosities

Whoever has been to Florence carries a deep sense of admiration for the exceptional artistic patrimony of this town, bright testimony to its secular creative ferment. But Firenze isn’t just an open air museum, a unique example of the way art and culture, history and tradition can mix together to generate beauty. Firenze is first of all it’s people, their stories and the every day life of who lived it up by working, joking, drinking wine and simply loving it for its veracity, not for its fame. Such people and their stories are still among us. You just have to be a bit curious and willing to know them. You just have to walk through the city, smell it, touch it and feel it.

Be sure: Firenze has many stories to tell, many more than your guide book will ever report. Here are a few. We hope you enjoy them.

1. The open window
If you’re in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, face the Duomo.
You see the elegant building made of bricks on the right? That’s Palazzo Budini-Gattai, once known as Palazzo Grifoni. The last window on the right of the second floor always keeps its shutters half-open on the square, so who’s inside can look over it without being seen. An old Florentine story narrates that once upon a time a beautiful young girl was living there with her beloved husband. He was suddenly called to war and she, desperate for his departure, passed her whole life behind that window, looking over the square, hoping to see him someday reappear. But this never happened. She died in that room and when someone tried to close the window a total chaos happened: books started flying, lights started turning on and off, pictures were falling from walls and all objects started moving around on their own. The relatives got very scared, but as soon as they opened the window again everything calmed down. The window has never been closed since then.

2. Can you count the bees?
In the middle of Piazza Santissima Annunziata stands a bronze equestrian monument of Ferdinand I of Medici, Grandduke of Tuscany, modelled by Giambologna and realized by Pietro Tacca. On the rear side of the pedestal you can read the Grandduke’s motto “MAIESTATE TANTUM” engraved over a swarm of bees surrounding a queen, symbolizing the central position of power in a harmonic and laborious community. There are so many bees that many believe it’s impossible to count them and be completely sure of their number. Think you can do it? Try! But remember: you’re not allowed to point them out!

3. The "Innocenti" Wheel
In Piazza Santissima Annunziata, under the left side of the porch of the “Innocenti Hospital”, a few steps lead to a little barred window. Mothers that couldn’t, or didn’t want to keep their babies, used to leave them inside a wooden wheel that, when turned, led them inside an orphanage. The Innocenti wheel continued turning ‘till 1875.

4. The Grandduke's Horns!
Are you still standing in front of the Innocenti wheel? Look at the bust over it. It represents Francesco I of Lorena (brother of Ferdinand I), Grandduke of Tuscany. On the wall behind it you’ll notice a couple of semi-lunar spots, once used to refreshen the air of one of the orphanage’s rooms. For a funny combination they resemble a couple of horns over Francesco’s I head…Becco! (in the Italian culture, horns on a man's head are a sign that his wife has betrayed him with another!)

5. The Faceless Madonna
If you enter the cloister of Santissima Annunziata, you’ll notice on the right hand side wall a beautiful fresco by Francesco di Cristofano, also known as “ The Franciabigio”, representing the “Marriage of the Vergin Mary”. Franciabigio worked on it with all the passion he had. But when all works ended, the monks who had commissioned them, refused to pay him the agreed amount of money. He got so angry, he took a hammer and damaged the Virgin’s face while shouting “You’re paying me less? I’m giving you less!”.

6. The “Canto dei Bischeri”
When the Florentine people decided to build a bigger Cathedral than the pre-existing one, the Comun offered a conspicuous amount of money to all families whose houses had to be demolished in order to create new spaces. Only the Bischeri family stubbornly continued refusing the Comun’s money, no matter the amount they were offered. The situation didn’t seem to have a solution and all works were suspended. But one night all Florentine’s woke up with dense smokes in the air and high flames rising up to the moon: the Bischeri’s house was on fire!. Since then the expression “bischero!”, in the Florentine dialect, popularly refers to people that don’t act in a very smart or wise way. The “Canto dei Bischeri” indicates the place where the Bischeri family once owned their house.

7. The Fall of the Ball
January 17th 1600 wasn’t a sunny day in Firenze! Actually a terrible thunderstorm blashed the town. Suddendly an enormous lightning ripped the sky in to pieces slamming the big copper ball (made by Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci’s art teacher) on top of Firenze Cathedral's Dome. The ball flew down the Dome and smashed into the ground. It took a couple of years before it was put back to its original position. If you walk long the rear side of the Dome you can still notice a marble circle on the ground that marks the spot where the ball fell.

8. The Bull and the Baker
If you observe the left flank of the Cathedral, you’ll notice the head of a bull tipping from the ledge. It really isn’t a bull but a cow, and the statue is a monument to all animals who contributed, with strain and fatigue, to the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore. But Florentine fantasy created a funny legend. It narrates of a master carpenter, who was working on the construction of the Cathedral, and a baker’s wife. The two had a relation and when the baker found out of it he got terribly angry. He sued them both at the Ecclesiastic Tribunal and the two lovers were convicted and forced to break up their relation. The master carpenter, as a revenge, located the head of a bull on the Cathedral’s flank, across the road from the baker’s house, so the baker would always remember he had a big set of horns!

9. The Premonitory Dream
A local legend narrates of a 15th century Florentine citizen, named Anselmo, who was terrorized by lions. Every time he fell asleep he dreamed of a lion eating him up. His fear was so big he couldn’t even look at a statue of a lion with out feeling dizzy. One day a doctor told him the remedy to win his fears: Anselmo had to put a hand in the mouth of one of the two stone lions of “The Lion’s Door” on the left flank of the Cathedral. It took Anselmo some time to find the courage but finally, a Sunday morning, he walked up to the Lion’s Door and put his trembling hand inside the mouth of a lion. A scorpion, that was hiding in the mouth, stung his hand and Anselmo immediately died for the sudden shock.

10. The “Sasso di Dante”
The “Sasso di Dante”, is a red stone with an inscription on it meaning “Dante’s Stone”. You can find it between Piazza delle Pallottole and Via dello Studio on the right hand side of Santa Maria del Fiore. It remembers the place where Dante, the undisputed father of Italian language, used to sit and observe the preliminary works for the construction of Firenze’s Cathedral.

11. A hand full of…shit!
The 21st of July 1501, Antonio Rinaldeschi, a young and noble Florentine who loved to drink and gamble, lost a big amount of money playing cards. Totally mad and drunk, he picked a handful of horse’s shit from the street and cursing God, threw it towards a street fresco representing the Annunciation (you’ll find it in Piazza del Capitolo, on the right hand side of Santa Maria del Fiore), hitting the Virgin Mary on the face. He was immediately arrested, tried and sentenced to death.

12. Dante and Beatrice’s Church
The small church of Santa Margherita (in Via Santa Margherita), is famous because it’s traditionally considered the place where Dante fell in love with Beatrice Portinari. Every morning, the 9 year old Beatrice would leave her parent’s house in Via del Corso and go there to mass, in company of her nanny Monna Tessa. Dante, a young boy, would always be waiting on the corner of the street to contemplate her as she passed by. His platonic love put in verses, gave her immortality. She is now buried, near Monna Tessa, inside this little church.

13. The Signori 8
One thing you’ll notice while walking along Firenze’s roads, is the big number of stone plates on the walls of buildings. The modern ones have a “historical memory” meaning and often make use of quotes from Dante’s Divine Comedy to indicate buildings and family stories mentioned in his poem. The old ones, instead, were walled in centuries a go to remember all Florentine citizens they were not allowed to disturb public order. The two plates you’ll find in Via Dante and Via dei Magazzini warn children not to play ball near the building, saying if they do 8 policemen (Signori 8) will give them a very severe punishment.

14. Savonarola’s stake
In the centre of Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Neptune fountain, you’ll notice a red coloured round plate in the ground: it’s the point where Girolamo Savonarola and two other monks, Domenico Buonamici and Silvestro Maruffi, the 23rd of May 1498, were first hanged and later burned up on the Pope’s order. Their ashes were thrown in the Arno river.

15. Michelangelo’s Profile
If you’re in Piazza della Signoria you can’t miss this! Walk towards the statue of “Ercole and Caco”, pass it and look very carefully on the wall of Palazzo Vecchio. You’ll notice a men’s face profile sculpt on one of the stones. Guess who made it? Michelangelo! A local legend says he made it to show his detractors his sculpting skills. So what’s so particular about this profile? He made it backwards!

16. Perseo’s double face
Just stand in front of the Perseo statue and admire it. Isn’t it beautiful? Benvenuto Cellini, the greatest Italian jeweller ever, wasn’t only an incredible artist but also a very eccentric character. If you look carefully, you can read his named carved on the band he is wearing over his shoulder. But that’s not all. If you enter the Loggia dei Lanzi and look carefully at the statue’s helm and nape you’ll notice the face of an old man looking very intensely down on you. Guess who that face is? Benvenuto Cellini himself in a self portrait!

17. The Marzocco
While lily has always represented the araldic symbol of Firenze, lions have always represented its “natural” symbol, with its royal meaning of power and reliability.
Piazza della Signoria is full of statues of lions. Just look around: there’re lions everywhere! But the most important one is the one just in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Do you see it? Its right paw holds a white shield with a red lily on it. Florentines call it Marzocco.
The original Marzocco is in the Bargello museum. The one on the square is a recent copy.