This year the Spring holidays of Easter, the April 25th Day of Liberation and the May 1, Day of the Worker, arrived within a 10 day period creating a vacation bonanza for Italians. Add to the regular big crowds of Spring tourists from around the world and a recipe for major chaos and people traffic has been created.
Escaping the center of Florence and avoiding all major tourists attractions can be a solution, considering there are many lesser known but equally wonderful things to do in the surrounding hilltop towns.
Fiesole is a quick city bus ride (ATAF bus #7) three miles to the Northeast of Florence. The town of Fiesole offers unparalleled views of Florence as well as Etruscan walls, Roman baths, and a spectacular Roman theater which hosts wonderful summer operas and concerts.
The exhibit, Marcello Guasti, Giovanni Michelucci, and The History of the Monument of the Three Military Police (Il Monumento ai Tre Carabinieri: La Genesi Del Monumento: Slancio Verso L”Infinito) coupled with a visit to the Park of Remembrance is well worth your time.
The Monument was designed by Marcello Guasti to commemorate the three military police who were killed in Fiesole by the Nazis on August 12, 1944. The day before Florence had been liberated the three young military police could not get to Florence from Fiesole as the roads were blocked, so they hid and when the Germans had found the barracks empty they threatened to kill ten civilians that were taken as hostages. The three soldiers turned themselves in to save the civilians. The city of Fiesole decided to commission a monument in their honor to be placed in the Park of Remembrance in 1964.
First going to the exhibit to see the evolution of the monument (explanations in both Italian and English) and then going to the Park, all within walking distance of each other is a moving and meaningful experience.
The abstract monument is not typical of war memorials. It is called “Slancio Verso L’Infinito”/”Lunging Towards Infinity” There can be many interpretations, as there are when one views art. The artist utilizes three pincer like tentacles from which a flame/fire emerges out of the middle. (The flame is the logo of the carabinieri.) The three are launched into infinity traveling over the valley of Florence.
The exhibit is in the Sala Costantini, Via Portigiani 9, Museo Civico Archeologico, Fiesole https://guastifiesole.it/
Make a day of your visit and enjoy the delicious restaurants in Fiesole or on the road back to Florence. A favorite of mine is: Le Lune ristorante and vivaio (Le Lune restaurant and nursery) Via San Domenico, 36
Here is a photo just across the road form Le Lune restaurant and nursery in San Domenico on the road to Fiesole:
Enjoy the countryside, smell the flowers and leave the crowds behind.
fondlyfromflorence&beyond 