The Neptune Fountain, Florence

Neptune was one of the most important Roman gods, second in importance only to Jupiter.  Like the Greek Poseidon, Neptune ruled over the seas.  Italy is surrounded by seas, so his domain was considerable.  A symbol of strength, power, and authority, he is often portrayed larger than life, holding a trident and surrounded by sea creatures.  

Neptune - bringing fresh water to the Florentines of the Medici era

But Neptune was also the god of springs and rivers, fresh water that was key to Roman and later civilizations.  So, it is no surprise that many cities in Italy have Neptune Fountains.  From Messina and Naples in the south to Rome, Bologna, Florence, and Trieste in the north, Italians have a long history with Neptune.

One famous Neptune Fountain, la Fontana del Nettuno, is in Florence.  Situated in the Piazza della Signoria, right next to the Palazzo Vecchio, Neptune dominates the piazza. 

 The sculpture, by Bartolomeo Ammannati, was completed in 1565 to celebrate two events – a new aqueduct bringing fresh water to the city and the marriage of Francesco de’ Medici, son of Cosimo I, to the Duchess Joanna of Austria.  

The massive white marble sculpture presents the powerful bearded Neptune atop a chariot pulled by four horses.  Two of the horses are the same white marble as the statue and two are of darker mischio marble.  Look closely at Neptune’s face – he just might bear a striking resemblance to Cosimo I.  Ammannati’s Neptune does not carry a trident, which is unusual. Did he originally have one that has been lost over the centuries? Some say no, some say yes. Today he carries a sort of blunt club in his right (trident) hand. 

Florence’s Neptune sits atop an octagonal fountain basin, surrounded by bronze statues of sea gods, tritons (half man – half fish sons of Neptune), water nymphs, satyrs, and fauns.  These sculptures are by Ammannati and as well as Florentine artists Rossi and Giambologna.

Today the fountain is appreciated by Florentines and visitors alike.  But that was not always the case. Early on, locals derided the sculputure and gave it a less than appreciative nick name - Il Biancone – the big white one. In the 1500’s they used the basin to clean clothes and inkpots, staining the marble. 

Vandalism and thefts began early on, causing damage to both Neptune himself and the surrounding figures. Someone even once stole one of the satyrs.   Most recently, just this year, a women climbed up onto the horses in an attempt to touch Neptune’s… well, let’s just say his naughty bits, on a pre-wedding dare.  In the process she damaged the horse’s hooves and a part of the basin doing €5000 of damage.  Seriously, who does this??  

A major restauration in 2018 has Neptune looking fresh and impressive and surrounded by sprays of water.  As good as he looks, the basin’s bronzes along with the little details and minor figures carved and sculpted into the basin are just as wonderful to explore.  With the crowds thinning a bit now in early November, it is a perfect time to stand in front of the fountain and appreciate all of its details.

A Mini-Museum in Lucca

Lucca is not a big museum town.  There are several – Palazzo Mansi, The Paolo Cresci Emigration Museum, Villa Guinigi, the Barsanti and Matteucci, the Duomo Museum.  Most are small and many short-term visitors to Lucca are unaware that some of these even exist. Instead, they spend most of their time on the city walls, in the Medieval streets and squares, and visiting the many churches of Lucca.  Unlike nearby Florence, the museums are not what draw most people to Lucca. There is one newer and very small addition to Lucca’s collection of museums.  It is so small that it is more of a mini-museum.  But it is fascinating!  

It is located underneath Lucca’s historic walls at the Sotterraneo del Baluardo Santa Croce, the under-the-wall passage located where Via delle Conce meets Via San Tommaso in the northwest corner of the city. The passage way itself is fascinating and makes a perfect backdrop to the exhibit.

The content of the mini-museum, which tells the story of Lucca’s walls from the Medieval Period until the Renaissance and beyond, unfolds in a series of displays that line the passageway.  On the left wall is the Italian version, on the right is the story in English. 

It is a unique display, one that begins in the very low light of the darkened passageway and ends in daylight outside the confines of the city walls.  In between, photos and written histories tell the story of the walls from the 1400’s on, the important historical figures, and some of Lucca’s cultural related to the walls and their construction and function.  

Maria Luisa of Bourbon

No history of Lucca’s walls would be complete without acknowledging the role of Maria Luisa of Bourbon, the Duchess of Lucca between 1805 and 1814. It is thanks to her that the walls became a city park, one that is still enjoyed today.

There is also a bit of 19th and 20th century history in the exhibit. Did you know that there was once a threat to knock down portions of the wall to better connect it with the growth of suburbs? Fortunately objections came from all over Italy, including from famous poets and composers (including Puccini) and the plan to disrupt the walls was abandoned.

Later there came a period when the top of the walls became just a city street - filled with cars.  Many of Lucca’s youth learned to drive atop the circle of the walls. And many cars were parked there.  Hard to imagine today that up until the 1980’s the walls were filled with car traffic !

At the midway point of the sotterraneo passage, an interesting video projected on the stone walls tells the story the wall played in protecting Lucca, the times when it closed the city entirely overnight, and how dignitaries, residents and tradespeople entered the walls through Porta San Donato and Porta San Pietro.  The video plays first in Italian and then is repeated in English. It is a great addition to the exhibit.

It does not take long to visit this small space.  It provides a wonderful diversion to anyone using the passage as a way to exit the historic center on their way to the greater part of the city outside of the walls.  But it is also a good destination on its own. I am so glad that a friend pointed me to this fascinating bit of Lucca’s history.

The Medici Chapels

The Medici crest in the Cappella di Principi

It is impossible to think of Florence without thinking of the Medici family.  From Cosimo the Elder in the early 1400’s, to Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of the Florentine Republic and key figure during the Renaissance period, to the Grand Dukes from Cosimo I to the last Medici ruler Gian Gastone, the Medici family had an enormous impact over the centuries of their  rule.  Bankers, Rulers, Tyrants, Popes, Assassins, Queens, and patrons of the arts, their influence is impossible to overstate.  The family crest, a gold shield with five red palle (balls) and one blue palle with three fleur-de-lis, can be seen on buildings throughout Florence. 

Following the death of the last ruler, Gian Gastone, in 1737, his sister Anna Maria Luisa transferred the family’s art and treasures to the city of Florence with the caveat that the collection always remains in Florence.  And so it has, filling the Uffizi Gallery as well as many other museums and palazzi.

Anna Maria Luisa, the last heir of the ruling Medici family

It is no surprise that such an important family would have a dedicated mausoleum.  The Medici Chapel, an addition to the church of San Lorenzo, is where the Medicis were laid to rest.  It is a spectacular place to visit, especially the Cappella di Principi (Prince’s Chapel), an octagonal room filled with decoration in marble, granite, mosaics, and semi-precious stones. 

High up on the walls are the cenotaphs, each one dedicated to a Medici luminary (Cosimo I, Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, Ferdinando II, and Cosimo III).  They are composed of sculpted “caskets”, each topped with a crown.  Above each is an arch designed for a statue, though only two were completed –those of Cosimo 1 and Ferdinando 1.  The others stand empty.   No physical remains are present in the Cappella di Principi, the bodies were interred in the crypt. 

Around the perimeter are the coat of arms of various Tuscan cities which were under Medici control.  They are stunning - crafted from mother of pearl, quartz, alabaster, lapis lazuli and other stones. 

Behind the altar are rooms containing the Treasure of San Lorenzo.  This is a vast collection of reliquaries and other artifacts including an intact processional banner, beautifully embroidered, that belonged to the Medici Pope Leo X. 

On the same level is the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy) designed by Michelangelo in 1520.  The actual tombs of brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano di Medici are here, under the altar. Two monuments to them are adorned with sculptures representing Day and Night (Guiliano’s monument) and Dawn and Dusk (Lorenzo’s).  Small and intimate, the sacristy is beautiful in its simplicity, especially placed so near to the ornate Cappella di Principi.

Almost hidden beside the altar is a simple staircase leading down to what was a storeroom.  That is where wall drawings made by Michelangelo can be found.  No entrance to that space is possible though – it requires a separate ticket for which there is a two month wait.   I’ll save that for a future visit.

The crypt contains the actual tombs of the Medici

Blessing The New Wine

Even Lady and the Tramp had a fiasco on their dinner table

It is easy to recognize the classic bottle of a Chianti wine – a fiasco (flask) with a rounded base wrapped in straw.  After all, is there an Italian restaurant in the US that doesn’t have a fiasco on the table, usually topped with a candle and covered in dripping wax?  A fiasco even made an appearance in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp!

Chianti wine is produced in an area of Tuscany that stretches roughly from Florence south to Siena, a specially designated region since the time when the Medici family ruled Florence.  Historically, the classic straw wrapped bottles were made in the city of Florence, creating a special relationship in which the Florentine bottles were sent to the wineries outside of the city where the new Chianti was bottled, and then the filled bottles were sent back to merchants in Florence.  Of course, this transport began long before there were trucks to move the bottles back and forth, so how did the wine bottles return to Florence after they were filled? 

The Carro Matto arrives to Florence’s Duomo

In centuries past, the new wine was brought from the countryside on an ox cart.  Once in Florence, the wine was blessed by the church and the first bottles presented to city leaders.  Then It was time to celebrate.

Today, the tradition of blessing the new Chianti is celebrated on the last Saturday in September when the Carro Matto (crazy cart) procession takes place.  Once pulled by oxen, this year it was a tractor that pulled the cart which was piled high with over 1000 bottles of wine in the classic fiaschi. 

The procession began in front of the Duomo and moved down Via Calzaiuoli.  Along the way it made a brief stop at the small Church of San Carlo dei Lombardi, very near the part of the city where a traditional maker of the flasks (a fiascaio) would have had his workshop.  The procession ended in Piazza Signoria where a fiasco was presented to city leaders.  In the 1400 and 1500’s the first bottle might have gone to a Medici – today it was given to the elected mayor. 

Accompanying the Carro Matto were people dressed in historic costumes, helmeted guards, musicians, and the Bandierai degli Uffizi (traditional flag bearers) who delighted the crowd with their flag-throwing.  Women carried individual fiaschi to be presented to the dignitaries. 

Crowds watched as the cart made its way along the route, looking as if the bottles could topple at any minute.  A crazy cart indeed.   Fortunately, the bottles remained in place, the wine was blessed, and the celebrations continued.  Time to toast the new wine with a glass of Chianti!    

Hard to believe this doesn’t topple over!

A Festival of Ephemeral Art

Teams of volunteers, often groups of young people, arrived early in the morning to work on creating the “carpet” along Lucca’s walls.

The word ephemeral comes from Greek and describes an object that isn’t meant to last, something that sticks around for just a day. Ephemeral art must be enjoyed as it is created because tomorrow it will be gone.  The largest display of ephemeral art is one I wrote about earlier this summer – the Infiorata in Spello. In that case the creations, made entirely of botanicals, were for the feast of Corpus Domini and included primarily religious themes. Lasting even less than a day, the work was trampled by a procession to the church after just a few hours.

Lucca hosted a festival of Ephemeral Art, The Festival of Arte Effimere Guinness Edition 2026, this past weekend.  Lasting for just one day, it was an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the longest “carpet” of flowers.  The previous record was held by the city of Huamantla in Mexico and stretched for 3,939.5 meters. Lucca had the perfect spot for this challenge, as the historic walls around the old city stretch for just over 4200 meters.  They also had the perfect organizer, The Association of Sawdust Carpets (Associazione Tappeti di Segatura) from Camaiore.  Game on!

Starting at 6 am on Saturday, teams spread out all along the wall with two main objects. The first was to create a series of works of art using flowers as the main material but also incorporating leaves, sand, sawdust, wood shavings, even fruit and vegetables. 

The second objective was to link all the works with a continuous ribbon of tinted sand, creating the required length needed to achieve the Guinness World Record.   

The art works were specific to the Province of Lucca, reflecting local traditions, history, and events.  The artists used templates on the ground and then slowly, bit by bit, filled them in to become some of the regions most famous things : The Devil’s Bridge, Lucca’s Summer Music Festival, the Roman ruins of Massaciuccoli, the Camelia Festival, the Enolia Wine event, Bike Races, Lucca Comics and Games, the composer Puccini.  In all, 15 separate works of ephemeral art were created.

Throughout the day people walked along the walls to see the works as they took shape.  They were all quite careful not to step on the art or the ribbons of sand that connected them.  And most importantly, it was a day of sunshine and no wind.

The efforts continued until about 6 pm and then began the wait for results.  At 7pm, an official measurement was performed by a local notary and – drum roll – it measured 4,233 meters. A Guinness Record.  As for how long the record will stand, that is anyone’s guess because other cities were competing too. 

In any case, the hard work was appreciated by all who marveled at the creations.  It was a different kind of art in a city well-known for hosting unique art events.  But by the next day it began to disappear.

Even little tomatoes had a role in creating the ephemeral art (photo from internet)