This week i'm uploading a number of photos of these strange little grates that line the sidewalks about a foot and a half off the ground. i've been noticing them since i arrived and i think that they are very representative of the differences that i have seen between florence and the united states. they are beautiful and ornate and in many cases seemingly forgotten. They appear to lead to vents, boiler rooms and other bleek utilitarian spaces and are almost certainly not visible from the interior of the houses. Back home, if these types of vents were even covered it would be merely to prevent passersby from using them as ashtrays or, godforbid, impromtou urinals. Here they are yet another opportunity for decoration. what i like most about them though is that many of them were totally ignored by later painters, taggers or contractors. they have the same weathered look that you can see everywhere in florence of something that was carefully crafted and them ignored for two or four hundred years.
the other photos that i've put up are just pages out of my sketchbook that i liked for one reason or another. there is a range from the first few days here to yesterday.
By the way, it was a long time coming but after 89 minutes of light cold rain, thick cigarette smoke and the italian language stretched to it's most remarkably obscene, a last minute goal took the viola past visiting Lazio. Despite their apparent frustration, the away fans likely owe the fact that they are still breathing to this goal alone.
