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The Neptune Fountain in Florence is disassembled for restoration
Nine bronze statues, depicting nymphs, fauns and satyrs, were removed with a crane and taken to a workshop in via Livorno, where they will be restored by Ires e Nicola Salvioli Restauri. Work on the fountain began in February 2017, using funds donated by the Salvatore Ferragamo fashion house, which is providing 1.5 million euro throughout the project. The bronze statues will be restored not only on the outside but on the inside as well, which has deteriorated substantially due to water and atmospheric agents.
In 1559, Cosimo I de’ Medici held a competition for the creation of the city’s first public fountain, with Bartolomeo Ammannati and his Neptune design eventually taking the prize, judged the best for its clear exaltation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany’s glorious seafaring achievements. The sculpture was completed in 1565 and inaugurated for the wedding of Francesco I de’ Medici and the Grand Duchess Giovanna d’Austria on December 10 of that year. Close observers might notice that Ammannati used Cosimo I’s features to depict the strapping Neptune rising above the other figures.
http://www.theflorentine.net/news/2018/11/restoration-continues-neptune-fountain/
Fast talkers
Italians are fast talkers. I mean that they speak really fast! It seems to be a good thing for them and their listeners, although it leaves people like me, learning to use the language, out in the cold. I wonder if there is some sort of status accrued by rapid-fire speaking. It is one of the big differences between Americans and Italians. There are many. :-)
If you are old enough, you will remember this hilarious FedEx commercial from the olden days, when a fast talking American (of Italian descent?? that would definitely be an asset in this endeavor of fast talking in English) lit us up with humor.
I tell my Italian friends that in the USA a person who talks rapidly is often a person with mental illness: super rapid talking can be a sign of manic behavior. It buys me maybe 4 or 5 sentences of slower Italian streaming my way, but it doesn’t last long. I am just going to have to train my ears/brain to work faster!!
Then and now
Then: Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1480s (Uffizi)

Today: street art in Florence

U.S. soldiers after 1966 Florence flood
DAA-S-085004-0060
Florence flood of November 4, 1966: US soldiers distribute food to citizens, Piazza della Signoria
Mandatory photo credit:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
WARNING:
Permission must be required for non editorial use. Please contact Alinari Archives
Place of photography: Florence, Piazza della SignoriaCollection:
Dufoto / Alinari Arch
After the November 4, 1966 flood
DAA-S-085004-0050
Florence flood of November 4, 1966: a girl cleans a flooded antique shop
Mandatory photo credit:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
WARNING:
Permission must be required for non editorial use. Please contact Alinari Archives
Photographer:
Image date:
06/11/1966
Place of photography
Florence
Collection:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
TECHNICAL INFO
DAA-S-085004-0051
Florence flood of November 4, 1966: a girl cleans a flooded antique shop
Mandatory photo credit:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
WARNING:
Permission must be required for non editorial use. Please contact Alinari Archives
Photographer:
Image date:
06/11/1966
Place of photography
Florence
Collection:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
TECHNICAL INFO
DAA-S-085004-0047
Florence flood of November 4, 1966: courtyard of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo flooded; the center, the San Giovanni in glory with angels Jerome Ticciati
Mandatory photo credit:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
WARNING:
Permission must be required for non editorial use. Please contact Alinari Archives
Photographer:
Image date:
06/11/1966
Place of photography
Florence, Museum of the Opera del Duomo
Collection:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
TECHNICAL INFO
DAA-S-085004-0041
Florence flood of November 4, 1966: Women with a car in the square of Santa Maria in Campo
Mandatory photo credit:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
WARNING:
Permission must be required for non editorial use. Please contact Alinari Archives
Photographer:
Image date:
06/11/1966
Place of photography
Florence, piazzetta di Santa Maria in Campo
Collection:
Dufoto / Alinari Archives
November 4, 1966: the Florence flood
It takes courage
The text says: you can’t live in a fairytale if you lack the courage to enter the woods. True that.

See the Parthenon come back to life
A perfect day in autumn
My favorite watercolor by Winslow Homer: The New Novel.

Starr Gallery of the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA
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