In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city . gle wall, or fadingMadonna and Child in ashrine in a wall niche; andeverywhere the set-in carvedstemmi of guild andnoble families. All thesearchitectural relics tell theirbits of story. And if theobservant wanderer be in-terested enough, and in-formed somewhat, he canmake of all these bits amosaic background of theFlorentine life of yesterday,against the dull glow ofwhose ancient but enduringpigments the garish colorsof the life-picture of to-day will both contrast andharmonize. An element in the street pictures of Florence, and
In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city . gle wall, or fadingMadonna and Child in ashrine in a wall niche; andeverywhere the set-in carvedstemmi of guild andnoble families. All thesearchitectural relics tell theirbits of story. And if theobservant wanderer be in-terested enough, and in-formed somewhat, he canmake of all these bits amosaic background of theFlorentine life of yesterday,against the dull glow ofwhose ancient but enduringpigments the garish colorsof the life-picture of to-day will both contrast andharmonize. An element in the street pictures of Florence, andone quite lacking in the other larger cities of Italy,is the bounding of almost every perspective by thebackground of green hill-side; the silvery sheen ofbreeze-swept olive orchard, the distant white spots,black-girdled, of villas set in cypress gardens. Flor-ence is not a village inclosed in a field or garden,but neither is it a great city that shuts out all theworld of Nature. Its hills lift above it on everyside, except down Arno, with their slopes starting. A torch socket onace wall. a pal- 238 The Streets swiftly up from almost every point of its streets all end in winding ways among these this puts into the street pictures of Florence some-thing which lends them a beauty and a character thatis their most unforgettable part. And it is a part which has a significance that mustnot be overlooked in any attempt to picture oldFlorence. For these hills and gardens and villas and nearby villages had their important place in thelife of the Florence of the Medici. How many of ?these hill-slopes, and how much of this verdure, does ione see in the paintings and frescoes of the Floren- ?tine masters? How often is Fiesole on her hill thevillage in the background? And how many of thesevery villas and gardens were the favorite homes ofthe merchant nobles and the haunts of the artistsand poets, whose names are the chapter titles in the -story of old Florence? Florent
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidinoutofflore, bookyear1910
