Tuscan Traveler

Not only is 2011 the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy – it is also the 150th birthday of the Garibaldi Biscuit.

Giuseppe Garibaldi probably never ate a Garibaldi Biscuit (although there is one dubious story about dry bread smeared with a mixture of berries and horse blood consumed by his starving troops as they conquered the Kingdom of Two Sicilies to unify Italy).

It was after Garibaldi won worldwide fame as a military strategist that an understated British biscuit (redundant, I know) was given his name. This dry, barely sweet Victorian relic was wildly popular in 1861 when biscuit king John Carr invented it and it still has a faithful following today.

Garibaldi Biscuits aka Squashed Fly Biscuits

Despite the name, Italians are not among the aficionados who break off strip after strip of the parching crackers layered with the thinnest smear of crushed currants. Like Marmite, Garibaldi Biscuits are solely a English delicacy today. Maybe that has to do with the sobriquets – fly sandwiches, fly cemeteries, dead fly biscuits or squashed fly biscuits – the tasty treat has earned because of the appearance of the semi-dried currants.

Garibaldi made a celebrated visit to Tynemouth, England in 1854, but it wasn’t until his great victories in 1860, that he was deserving of an honorary cookie.

Garibaldi Biscuits by Artist Ralph Steadman

John Carr was one of the great biscuit-making Carr’s of Scotland (of water-biscuit fame), but he abandoned the family business to work for the Peek Frean in Bermondsey. John Carr’s first biscuit, the Pearl – a crumbly plain thing, probably similar to a tea biscuit, launched in 1860 – did not survive. (Neither did Peek Frean – the brand is owned by United Biscuit in the U.K. and Kraft Foods in the U.S.)

History does not relate how Carr came up with his magic formula: the dry, not too sweet dough, the shiny glazed top, the squashed currants and the clever device of leaving strips of five biscuits joined together, like perforated cardboard. A single Garibaldi section has only about 35 to 40 calories, but for fans it is hard to eat just one.

Did anyone send aging Garibaldi a tin of biscuits?

In the U.S., the Sunshine Biscuit Company made a popular version of the Garibaldi Bisquit, bigger, if not better, with raisins, which it called “Golden Fruit”. Sunshine was bought out by the Keebler Company, which tried chocolate filling, of course, but, like Golden Fruit, that didn’t last. Today, Garibaldi Biscuits are marketed only in the U.K. as Crawfords Garibaldi Biscuits distributed by United Biscuits. Some British supermarket chains, such as Waitrose, also have their own branded Garibaldi Biscuit.

If you are in Florence, you may find Crawfords Garibaldi Biscuits at the Old England Store, Via de’ Vecchietti, 28r, for two euro per packet.

Giuseppe Garibaldi resigned his commission of leader of the army of Unification (I Mille) on September 18, 1860 and retired to his home on the island of Caprera off the coast of Sardinia. He was 53  years old and recovering from a battle wound.

1860 Garibaldi fights for Italy's unity

In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, Garibaldi was approached by a representative of the United States Government, reportedly on behalf of President Abraham Lincoln. The Union Army was in disarray and Lincoln was unhappy with those in command. He needed a proven military leader.

As Herbert Mitgang wrote in his fascinating and very detailed article in American Heritage Magazine (October 1975):

“The offer came at a moment in Garibaldi’s life when he lived in semi-exile—too little of a politician to scheme for personal advancement, too much of a national idol to be put behind bars on the Italian mainland. The hero of the movement for a unified Italy, he had led a spectacularly successful revolt against a reactionary regime in Sicily and in Naples—the so-called Two Sicilies—in 1860, but now he was in temporary retirement.

On lonely Caprera, a wild, rocky island covered with juniper and myrtle and stunted olive trees, below La Maddalena off the northeastern corner of Sardinia, Garibaldi tended his vines and figs, built stone walls to fence in his goats, and looked out to the sea, dreaming. The conqueror of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in gray trousers and slouch hat, his red shirt and poncho flapping in the wind, refused all titles and honors for himself and sought only lenience for his followers. “How men are treated like oranges—squeezed dry and then cast aside!” he said.

He had wanted to march on Rome, against the “myrmidons of Napoleon in,” supposedly there to protect the pope, and defeat the Bourbon troops. But Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia and now of Sicily and Naples as well, decided that French help was needed to complete unification of Italy and called off Garibaldi’s advance. Going back to Caprera, Garibaldi leaned against the steamer rail and said to his legion of Red Shirts: “Addio—a Roma!”

Abraham Lincoln’s Offer

1866 Garibaldi leads Italy against Austria

Through the letter, dated July 17, 1861,  from Secretary of State William H. Seward to H.S. Sanford, the U.S. Minister in Brussels, Garibaldi was offered a Major General’s commission in the U.S. Army.

On September 18, 1861, Sanford sent the following reply to Seward:

“He [Garibaldi] said that the only way in which he could render service, as he ardently desired to do, to the cause of the United States, was as Commander-in-chief of its forces, that he would only go as such, and with the additional contingent power – to be governed by events – of declaring the abolition of slavery; that he would be of little use without the first, and without the second it would appear like a civil war in which the world at large could have little interest or sympathy.”

In other words, according to Italian historian Petacco, “Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln’s offer but on one condition: that the war’s objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis.”

Although President Lincoln did not have Garibaldi leading his troops, he did have Union soldiers trained by Garibaldi. The “Garibaldi Guard” was the nickname given to the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment that fought in the American Civil War. Many of the regiment’s members were Italian Americans who had served under Garibaldi in Italy.

Lincoln reviews the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment- the Garibaldi Guard

Garibaldi never joined the Union Army, but he kept track of the American Civil War’s progress. In August 6, 1863, still unhappy with the political outcome of Italy’s Unification, he wrote directly to President Lincoln.

In the midst of your titanic struggle, permit me, as another among the free children of Columbus, to send you a word of greeting and admiration for the great work you have begun. Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure, You are a true heir of the teaching given us by Christ and by John Brown. If an entire race of human beings, subjugated into slavery by human egoism, has been restored to human dignity, to civilization and human love, this is by your doing and at the price of the most noble lives in America.

It is America, the same country which taught liberty to our forefathers, which now opens another solemn epoch of human progress. And while your tremendous courage astonishes the world, we are sadly reminded how this old Europe, which also can boast a great cause of liberty to fight for, has not found the mind or heart to equal you.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, Scritti politici e militari, ed. Domenico Ciàmpoli, Rome 1907

If Abraham Lincoln had been able to obtain the services of the brilliant Giuseppe Garibaldi, the American Civil War may have ended in short order. As it was, for his military expeditions in South America and Europe (Italy, Austria and France), Garibaldi is known as the “Hero of Two Worlds”.

For those visiting or living in Florence, only a short time is left to experience one of the most unique and wonderful exhibits for those interested in either the art of wax modeling or the science of medical-surgical pathology practiced in the 1800s.

The free exhibit, called Oltre il Corpo, L’uomo (Besides the Body, the Man), will end February 12, 2011.

Oltre il Corpo, L'Uomo - Besides the Body, the Man

Fans of the anatomical wax collection of the La Specola Museum, who want to take the experience up a notch must go immediately to the newly constructed entrance (one of the few successful modern pieces of architecture in Florence) of the Careggi Hospital and then, find the permanent Center of Knowledge and Art (Osservatorio dei Saperi e delle Arte) exhibit space (to the left of the main entrance hall).

Illustration published in 1843 of a surgical blepharoplasty

Whereas the anatomical wax models at Museo La Specola show the body in its perfect and healthy state, the creations at the Pathology Museum, from which curator Elisabetta Susani selected prime examples for Oltre il Corpo, L’uomo, are sometimes shocking representations of diseases that were treated in the 1800s. One of the most interesting is a the wax model side by side with the skeleton of a child with an incurable case of hydrocephalus.

1842 wax model of a woman with ectropion of the eyelids

Look more closely and you find that the disease and the treatment are surprisingly modern. An example of this is a patient with ectropion (congenital or cancerous turning out of both upper and lower eyelids) who was treated with a surgical technique similar to one found today. The exhibit shows both the wax model of the diseased state and the surgical intervention, as well as the published illustration of the procedure.

If you are 3,000 miles away from Florence, you can see a video tour of the exhibit.

The Pathology Museum of Florence

The Pathology Museum was created in 1824 at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, built in 1288 by the father of Dante’s muse Beatrice. It wasn’t until 1742 when there was a move to create a medical academy to formalize the sharing of information among doctors and scientists.

It took another eighty years to establish the Florentine Medical-Physical Society. One of the first acts of the Society was to set up a Pathological Museum. It was not a museum for the public, but rather a repository for information about the pathology and medical-surgical treatment of diseases.

Regulations for conducting autopsies in the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova were established. Each autopsy was to be presided over by the director of the Pathological Museum. The deceased patient’s clinical history was put on file. The diagnosis made by the patient’s doctor was to be compared with the results of the autopsy. The organs, removed by surgical procedures were consigned to the Museum. In cases where patients were cured, their doctors were required to send the Museum a report on their post-operative care.

Skeleton of child with hydrocephalus

Due to the difficulty of ensuring correct conservation of the pathological materials, it was decided to have some duplicates fabricated in wax. The Museum’s model-makers studied the techniques practiced in the other wax-modeling laboratory in Florence, La Specola.

Surprisingly realistic models were fabricated, providing a fascinating glimpse of the major pathologies in the 19th century. The collection of anatomical wax figures includes numerous wax reproductions, mainly the work of Giuseppe Ricci, Luigi Calamai and Egisto Tortori.

1865 wax model of woman with tubercular scrofula

A remarkable example of symbiosis between science and art, the wax models were important, above all, for their value in teaching, allowing professors to illustrate the most important diseases to future physicians without having to depend the dissection of cadavers or the preservation of diseased organs.

The Museum attracted illustrious researchers in European medicine and resulted in the creation of one of the first Departments of Pathology in Europe, sited at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.

The Institute of Pathological Anatomy and the Museum were moved to Careggi Hospital in 1959. At present, the Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, instituted in 2000, manages the Museum’s collections.

Osservatorio dei Saperi e delle Arti (OSA)

Address: Largo Brambilla 3, New Entrance of  Careggi Hospital

Take the #14 ATAF city bus to the stop half a block within sight of the Careggi Hospital entrance.

Open: Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 1pm (Free)

Ends: February 12, 2011

Italy will spend 2011 celebrating the 150th anniversary of its unification – known as the Risorgimento (Resurgence). From a land of city-states, many under foreign domination, Italy became a country in 1861.

Most historians agree that the unification of Italy started in 1815 with the end of Napoleonic rule, but it took a tortuous path through the insurrections of the 1820s and 1830s and the abortive revolutions of 1848-1849. The War of 1859 created the Kingdom of Sardinia that encompassed most of northwestern and central Italy, including Tuscany. But the move to unify the peninsula stalled there. The rich north had had nothing to gain and little interest to take on the burden of the poor south or to confront the pope in the Papal States.

Garibaldi and his army of Red Shirts

Giuseppe Garibaldi was the true hero who kick-started the final unification of Italy. In early 1860, he gathered about a thousand of volunteers (I Mille) in Genoa for an expedition by sea to Sicily.

Progress of unification by December 1959

The Kingdom of Two Sicilies (yellow on map), which ruled over not only the island, but most of the southern third of the mainland, had long been a corrupt government, oppressing a restive underclass. Although the Garibaldi Red Shirts were less skilled and ill equipped, they had tremendous success, gathering thousands of volunteers as they moved through the countryside. They occupied Sicily within two months. Garibaldi claimed Sicily in the name of Victor Emanuel II, King of Piedmont, Sardinia and Savoy. He then crossed to the mainland and marched his troops to Naples.

After Garibaldi’s success made full unification of Italy a real possibility, Piedmontese troops, under the command of Victor Emanuel II, used the riots and uprisings in the Papal States (red on map) as a reason to move south under the pretext of maintaining order. In 1860, two thirds of the Papal States joined the Kingdom of Sardinia and Rome was left alone. The Piedmontese army bypassed Rome and the remaining Papal States and marched south to Naples to help Garibaldi’s troops defeat the remaining armies of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

1861 Orange & Pink Unified - Red Papal State - Green Austrian Venetia

On September 18, 1860, Garibaldi gave up command of his army and all lands to the south, including Sicily and Naples, to Victor Emanuel II, signifying the unity and formation of the Kingdom of Italy, which was formalized by the new parliament on March 17, 1861. Victor Emanuel II was crowned the first King of Italy.

Although a Kingdom of Italy had been formed, it did not include all of Italy. The missing parts were Rome and Venetia. Venetia was annexed in 1866. Rome and the remaining Papal States became part of the union in 1870.

Throughout the year Tuscan Traveler will highlight events and stories relating to the unification of Italy.

Auguri di Buon Anno!!

Tuscan Traveler is looking forward to another year in Florence and Tuscany, writing about the less traveled paths, the hidden courtyards, as well as the objects or places seen every day, but for which the stories have been lost.

Florence Duomo seen from Via dello Studio

In 2011, Florentine food will be a focus and so will Tuscany for tots (or just for those very young at heart). Italian politics is too difficult for Tuscan Traveler to translate, but 2011 promises to be a year of great change (hopefully), therefore the best alternative web sites for current events will be brought to focus (of course, most likely under the theme Burnt To a Crisp).

2011 is the Year to Visit Tuscany with Friend In Florence

Tuscan Traveler and Friend In Florence expect to welcome friends back to Florence and Tuscany, as well as meet visitors new to the history, art, food and wine of this fascinating city and a diverse region of beaches and mountains, vineyards and olive groves, hill towns, markets, and so, so much more.

Tuscany in the summer in a Sunflower Year

Friend in Florence offers you a virtual friend, who has both the experience of a native Florentine and the imagination and curiosity of a visitor, who after 12 years still looks at Florence and Tuscany with the eyes of a foreigner. Offering custom walking tours of Florence and chauffeured expeditions throughout Tuscany, Friend In Florence provides minute by minute information and experiences to create memories that will last for years.

For those who want to explore on their own, Friend in Florence offers self-guided itineraries of Florence and/or Tuscany with information about special events, introductions to friends of Tuscan Traveler and Friend in Florence, directions to workshops of craftsmen and small select wineries, and reservations at the best Florentine restaurants or countryside trattorias.

Montefioralle - one of the small hill towns of Tuscany

In the New Year, experience the Joy of a Florentine Kitchen!

Tuscan Traveler will post descriptions of the best places to eat in Florence and Tuscany, but if you have a desire to experience the joy and simplicity of cooking the Florentine way, ask Friend in Florence to arrange a class in your apartment kitchen in Florence or at your villa in Tuscany. If you don’t want to cook, but also want the comfort and privacy of eating at your home away from home, request a catered lunch or dinner from Friend in Florence.

Tuscan vegetables with zucchini flowers cooked up by a Florentine chef

TuscanTraveler.com (email: tuscantrav@gmail.com)

FriendInFlorence.com (email: friendinflorence@gmail.com)

Emily Dickinson’s 180th birthday was celebrated in Florence by a fine series of lectures, musical events, and, of course, poetry readings – Emily Dickinson: “Ho sentito la vita con entrambe le mani” (Emily Dickinson: “I felt my life with both of my hands”).

Emily Dickinson - "I felt my life with both of my hands"

The program – the brainchild of Domenico De Martino of Accademia della Crusca and poet Elisa Biagini– used, among other venues, the Casa Guidi, home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her husband Robert Browning, and their son Pen.

The connection between Barrett Browning, a homebound consumptive, and Dickinson, a sickly agoraphobic, proves that even in the mid-1800s, the world of ideas and poetry was a small place.

Corner of the study in Barrett Browning's apartment - Casa Guidi

Dickinson did not publish much before her death in 1886, so it is unclear if Barrett Browning ever knew of her existence. Dickinson, however, had three portraits (postcard drawing, photograph or daguerreotype) of Barrett Browning – one of which was framed and hung on the wall of her bedroom-sanctuary.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her son Pen

Dickinson also reportedly wore her hair looped over her ears and knotted in back “because it was the way Elizabeth Barrett Browning did” (quote attributed to Dickinson’s sister Lavinia). There are few pictures of Dickenson. In the one or two widely known, she was certainly less flamboyant in her coiffure than Barrett Browning.

Dining Room in Casa Guidi

Dickinson also borrowed from Barrett Browning in the poems Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord and The Soul selects her own Society. In the year following Barrett Browning’s death (1861), Dickinson wrote a poem about her:

I think I was enchanted

When first a sombre Girl –

I read that Foreign Lady –

The Dark — felt beautiful –

And whether it was noon at night –

Or only Heaven — at Noon –

For very Lunacy of Light

I had not power to tell –

…

Poem 593 (1862)

Etching of Barrett Browning's tomb from 1861 Harper's Magazine

A picture of Barrett Browning’s tomb in the English Cemetery of Florence – perhaps a postcard or cut from Harper’s Magazine -was among Dickinson’s possessions.

I try to imagine afternoon tea shared these Victorian women of prodigious talent– Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning – a true meeting of the minds.

At the Uffizi Gallery’s free exhibition space, Sala delle Reali Poste, an exciting exhibit has just opened. Called Autoritratte: ‘Artiste di capriccioso e destrissimo ingegno’’  (Women Artists Self-Portraits: “Women artists of wit and great ingenuity”), offers a rare opportunity to view eighty of the museum’s historic collection of self-portraits that range from the 16th century to the late 1800s. The quotation in the title is from Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, in which he mentions only one woman, the 16th century sculptor Properzia de’Rossi, whom he praises for her inventiveness and technical skill in being able to carve the entire passion of Christ on a peach stone.

1790 "mirror" self-portrait by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-LeBrun

Many of the portraits on display at the Sala delle Reali Poste are from the Uffizi’s storerooms and have never been hung in the museum.

Starting with the “self in the mirror” style of portrait that women painted to dispel the notion that their paintings were “from the brush of a man and of high merit, rather than from that of a woman” (Giuseppe Pelli Bencivenni), the exhibit moves in chronological order to encompass self-portraits executed in a variety of media.

British artist Lynne Curran's tapestry portrait in a box (2010)

Curator of the exhibition, Giovanna Giusti, director of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art at the Uffizi, has been preparing the show for the last three years. An interview with her in The Florentine sheds light on her choices and motivations.

Late 19th century Florentine ceramic of British painter Angelica Kauffman

Jane Fortune, author of Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence, tells us, “The Vasari Corridor … has a collection that includes 1,630 self portraits, yet only 400 are exhibited. The collection was started in the seventeenth century by Cardinal Leopoldo, and only 10 of the displayed works were created after 1900. Self portraiture, one of the most easily accessible themes for female painters, was a well-respected genre in Florence and many women have been honored by the coveted invitation to paint their own image for the Medici collection. However, only 6.5 percent of the works on display are by women, a statistic that translates into 27 exhibited works by 21 women.”

1968 serigraph by Nikki de Saint Phalle - Why Don't You Love Me?

Giovanna Giusti made a special request of modern female artists to donate self-portraits to the exhibition, resulting in twenty self-portraits by women to be included forever in the Uffizi’s (Vasari Corridor) collection; including those by Vanessa Beecroft, Lynne Curran, Elisa Montessori, Patti Smith, and Tinca Stegovec. We can only hope that some of these will be hung in the Vasari Corridor after this exhibit

Elisa Montessori (Genova) with her self-portrait photo collage (1977)

At the opening, both Italian artist, Elisa Montessori and Tinca Stegovec, a Slovenian graphic artist, were present and mingled with the over-flow crowd.

Curator Giovanna Giusti with Tinca Stegovec by two of the artist's self-portraits

Autoritratte: Artiste ‘di capriccioso e destrissimo ingegno’

Reali Poste, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

December 15, 2010 to January 30, 2011

Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm; closed December 25 and January 1.

Free entrance.

Workshops for children on Mondays.

Self-portrait of Vanessa Beecroft and her adopted babies (2006)

I’m embarrassed to say that I have misrepresented an historical fact to friends and family when I pointed out the aqueduct near Lucca and exclaimed, “Isn’t it amazing that those Romans could build something so wonderful, which could last 2,000 years.” It was only a ten-fold mistake, but I should have known better than to guess.

Lucca's aqueduct designed by Nottolini in 1823

It was in the early 1700s that the Lucchesi realized it was necessary to build a large aqueduct to supply the city with water of good quality, replacing water from oft-contaminated wells. From that time, not being ancient Roman hydrologists who had solved the problem hundreds of times throughout Europe, Tuscan mathematicians and hydraulic engineers engaged in lengthy discussions, elaborating various projects that did not lead to concrete results for almost 150 years.

The aqueduct was built only in the following century when Luccese architect Lorenzo Nottolini took into consideration several earlier hypotheses and came up with the best solution. Work began in 1823 and, following several interruptions, the project was completed in 1851. The water was drawn from several springs on the northern slope of Mount Pisano, passed through several layers of stones and gravel to become pure and clear. A large part of its conveyance works, built between 1825 and 1840, are still visible today in the parkland of the Monumental Aqueduct of Guamo.

Temple-cistern at the beginning of Nottolini Aqueduct at Guamo, Capannori

Built in an elegant neoclassical style, the little temple-cistern of Guamo collected water from the springs. Inside, it has a basin divided into two parts. Water was channeled inside the conduit that passed over a row of more than 400 arches in brick and masonry for a length of about 3,250 meters, the series of which is today interrupted by the A11 motorway, the road I travel, pointing out the fascinating structure.

Aqueducts - Not just for Romans

The water arrived at another temple-cistern – San Concordio – a circular-plan building in the neoclassical style. The water poured from the conduit into a large marble basin; from here it fell into two tunnels containing very large smelted iron tubes, which conveyed the water about 2,000 meters underground into the city and a large fountain in the square beside the cathedral. By making the tubes moveable, Nottolini provided for the effects of the metal lengthening and shortening due to heat and cold, so as to avoid the ruptures that had occurred in other aqueducts. The hydraulic system of the aqueduct was completed by a system of fountains that furnished the urban center.

Other Aqueducts in the Lucca Region

Older aqueducts can be found both north and south of Lucca. They are not Roman either, but they pre-date the Nottolini aqueduct.

Aqueduct crosses the moat into Barga's historic center

Barga

Built in the 15th century, the aqueduct of Barga is of stone construction (differing from those made of terracotta bricks) that assured water to the fountains in the historical center. Today, a spectacular series of arches can be found in the Parco Fratelli Kennedy (Kennedy Brothers Park), also the site of the medieval moat of the village of Barga.

Medici Aqueduct of Asciano

The project for an aqueduct capable of supplying the city of Pisa with the water of the Pisan Mountains near Lucca was ordered by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, but credit must go to his son, Ferdinando I, however, for the construction of the long aqueduct, which reach the walls of Pisa from Bottino di San Rocco in the Fonti Valley.

Grand Duke Ferdinand I visiting the work-in-progress

Begun in 1592, designed by architect Raffaello di Zanobi di Pagno, who was succeeded by Andrea Sandrini from Siena, it had more than 900 arches and wound along a course of six kilometers. In the 1597 treatise, Dei Bagni di Pisa, famous physician Girolamo Mercuriale considered the aqueduct of Asciano to be among “the almost divine works of Ferdinando I”. The engraver Jacques Callot depicted the Visita di Ferdinando I ad Asciano in an engraving created in the 1620s, documenting the Grand Duke’s direct interest in the works.

The Medici Aqueduct in the countryside north of Pisa

Today, portions of the Medicean aqueduct still stand in the countryside between Asciano and Pisa, providing a picturesque route for walks and cycling.

I don’t know why, but when I truly get burnt to a crisp by the often not-so-sunny life in Tuscany, I think of taxi cabs. I’ve done it before and I will do it again.

Maybe it helps me realize this too will pass.

Right now, we are waiting for the P.M. to ride off into history despite the propping up Hillary Clinton was forced by Wikileaks to do this last week.

So I cheer myself up by the realization that the taxi situation in Florence has, hopefully forever, been changed for the better by a new cooperative of all-female taxi drivers – inTaxiFirenze.

inTaxiFirenze - Florence's new Women-owned Taxi Service

As most visitors to Florence know taxi rides are quite expensive. However, they are also one of the only ways to get home if you’re out past bus hours and far away. Going in groups is one way to cut the cost, but night time rates include an extra fee.

Also, in most instances you can’t just flag down a cab; you must call by phone for one or go to a taxi stand (in front of the train station, in Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza San Marco, Porta Romana, behind the Duomo, etc.).

Two months ago, I had to call for cabs for ten clients in the rain. To call, you give the address where you need to be picked up to a phone operator and wait for the dispatcher to give the name of the taxi which is coming to pick you up (e.g., “Parigi 23”). The dispatcher will also tell you how long before the taxi arrives, which usually is within three to five minutes. To get three cabs, I had to call three times.  On the second call the dispatcher, who had caller i.d., argued with me about whether this was the first cab or an extra. On the third call the operator refused to answer.

Taxi Stand behind the Duomo

Supposedly, women traveling alone in a taxi are entitled to a 10% discount between the hours of 9pm to 2am. There is also a discount of 15% for hospital destinations between the visiting hours of 1pm-3pm and 7-9pm. These discounts will not be applied unless you insist on them.

But back to the good news. There are nine women who have formed an all-female taxi service in Florence that operates from 5am to 11pm daily. All of the drivers in this new taxi cooperative speak English. Word is that they are becoming quite popular and are getting a lot of negative pressure from the good-ol’-boy network in the taxi union. More information about this service (in Italian) can be found at: www.inTaxiFirenze.it, Their telephone number is longer and not as easy to remember as those for regular cabs, but  in a cell phone’s memory it is just a click away:  055 200 1326.

Frequent Rider Card for inTaxi Service

InTaxiFirenze also offers a frequent-rider program. After ten rides you get a discount of 5 euro off the fare for the next trip. “Service with a smile” has never been a thought that entered my head when I entered a Florentine taxi until I met the ladies at inTaxi.

One of the joys of living in Italy is not only the chance to visit places where Renaissance artists, poets, dukes and popes wandered the same hallways and alleys, but to visit locations where no less dramatic, but much more recent history took place.

To Americans under 60 years of age World War II in Europe is often a vague set of facts found in a history book – a short chapter or two. Italy, like Normandy, provides a full semester’s course on the sociological background, politics, alliances, military strategies, and both tragic and victorious outcomes, especially from 1942 to 1945 – the Italian Campaign.

American Sicily-Rome WW II Cemetery at Anzio/Nettuno

TuscanTraveler.com has a special interest in the American Cemeteries, located at Anzio/Nettuno and Florence. So it is a pleasure to find that Anne Saunders, an American researcher, has compiled a guide to almost every location in Italy where one can undertake a full study of the history of World War II and the Italian Campaign.

Front Cover

A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy describes and provides directions to over one hundred World War II museums, monuments, cemeteries and battlefields. The tours, with complete directions, travel times, maps and other helpful hints, focus on a particular city or region, following the Allied and German armies as they battled from southern to northern Italy.

American soldiers in battle outside of Lucca (November 1944)

It might be more accurate to call this book “A Short History and Travel Guide of the Italian Campaign” because in this small volume (100 pages) Anne provides concise descriptions of the years leading up to Italy’s alliance with Germany, the Allied landing in Africa and Sicily, and the subsequent important battles and strategic decisions that led to the German surrender. Sections recounting the history lead into to description of the pertinent museums, cemeteries (American, Commonwealth, German, Polish, French and others), memorials and monuments.

Gothic Line near Lucca

I learned that the Gothic Line was built by forced labor and that I want to go immediately to see the dramatic mountainside German Military Cemetery at Traversa where more than 30,000 German soldiers are buried. My only quibble with Anne’s book is that she fails to describe the beautiful flower gardens in which the Commonwealth soldiers are buried – not on the outside of the plots, but actually around each tombstone, as if they lie in an English country garden forever.

Commonwealth Beach Head Cemetery in Anzio

Anne, a true researcher, provides an exhaustive bibliography and even a list of films about the Italian Campaign.  She also provides hotel and transportation suggestions. Archival WWII photos illustrate the guidebook. For more information regarding the Italian campaign, read about WWII Italy and/or visit Anne’s complete and informative online page of news and links.

Anne Saunders has a BA from Wellesley College, MA from Columbia University, and PhD from the University of South Carolina. She taught for over twenty years at the College of Charleston, where she is now a research associate. A lifelong fan of Italy, she spent four summers there doing research for the guidebook. I would like to know more about how she got the inspiration to undertake the years of travel and study that resulted in this informative and very helpful guide.

Connect to Anne’s Amazon Author Page. To view the book’s table of contents and selected pages, click on its Amazon web page. Visit where to buy for a list of stores and web vendors in the USA, Canada, the UK, Italy, and elsewhere.