Florence: More than the tourist attractions

It's easy to not notice some of the sights and sounds of the great city of Florence since the Renaissance architecture and the famous buildings are the raison d'etre for a visit to the city. However, for those who love Italian culture and want to see the real Italy, the city is full of delights. Yesterday, I put up an image from a society of anonymous poets.

Here are some images that caught my attention in the wonderful Tuscan city

The city has a wonderful sporting tradition. Like in other parts of Italy, most people look like they are in excellent shape. This is an achievment considering how rich and tasty Italian food is. You see young and middle-aged people going on evening runs. It's not so easy to notice the boatmen on the Arno River.

We were forunate enough to stay in a heritage building with an antique and beautiful, if scary, elevator. Our hotel had typical Florentine windows. These windows are specially designed for the Tuscan 4-season climate and remain shut all winter. We were lucky to launch spring in the city and open the windows, almost fully.

The water from this small fountain is potable. Most Italian cities have these old fontanellas, where the water is absolutely clean. Italy is one of the few countries in the world where you can drink straight out of the taps.

After drinking water in different parts of the world, I can certify that the tastiest water I have ever drunk is in Rome. Runners-up include Vienna and yes, New York City. The water in Florence is also quite tasty. Imagine, how much the Italians save by drinking off the taps, without boiling or buying water in bottles.

This would be a pipe-dream in Indian cities, but the reality is that Bombay's water was potable as recently as the late-1960s.

There is art in just about everything in Florence. I have seen innovative ideas when it comes to doorbells, but these were among the most artistic doorknobs that I had ever seen. That was until I started noticing the doorknobs in many of the city's buildings, both old and new.

L'Italia, secondo Pushkin

"Chi conosce la terra dove il cielo

Risplende di ineffabile azurro...?

Italia, Terra Incantata

Contrada di elevate ispirazioni!"



--Alexander Pushkin 

Charles Dickens: A Highly Bigoted and Troubled Man

There was a programme at the 2012 Kala Ghoda Festival that was supported by the British High Commission celebrating the legacy of Charles Dickens on his 200th birth anniversary. Dickens remains a popular writer among the elite of India. Some members of this very elite are self-loathers and hate the idea of India. Such feelings would have delighted Dickens who had a particular hatred, partly powered by the savagery of India's 1857 War of Independence.

There were terrible cases of Indian freedom fighters killing English women and children and surely that would have added fuel to the fire of the hate that Dickens had for India. The following is what Dickens, whose son was an East India Company Officer, had to say about a country, where the elite love him. In a letter to Angela Burdette-Couts, October 4, 1857, Dickens wrote, "The first thing I would do to strike that Oriental race with amazement...should be to proclaim to them, in their language, that I should do utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested." Dickens also called for the "extermination" of the Indian race and applauded the "mutilation" of the wretched Hindoo who were punished by being "blown from...English guns[s]." (I cite "Letters from Charles Dickens to Angela-Burdett-Coutts", Edgar Johnson, Ed.; Jonathan Cape, London, 1953 and "The Speeches of Charles Dickens", K.J. Fielding, Ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960, page 284)



Some may argue that this was just a reaction to the events of the war. But then how we can explain his comments on Irish and Italians? The writer of  A Chistmas Carol and Great Expectations had such pleasant things to say about the Italians such as, "Whereas, as mere animals, they were wretched creatures, very low in the scale and very poorly formed; and as men and women possessing any power of truthful dramatic expression by means of action, they were no better than the chorus at an Italian Opera in England -- and would have been worse if such a thing were possible." (I cite "The Noble Savage", Household Words, June 11, 1853, page 168)

And I have saved the "best" for last. This is what he said about the Irish. "Ten, twenty, thirty—who can count them! Men, women, children, for the most part naked, heaped upon the floor like maggots in a cheese! Ho! In that dark corner yonder! Does anybody lie there? Me Sir, Irish me, a widder, with six children. And yonder? Me Sir, Irish me, with me wife and eight poor babes. And to the left there? Me Sir, Irish me, along with two more Irish boys as is me friends. And to the right there? Me Sir and the Murphy fam'ly, numbering five blessed souls. And what is this, coiling, now, about my foot? Another Irish me, pitifully in want of shaving, whom I have awakened from sleep–and across my other foot lies his wife–and by the shoes of Inspector Field lie their three eldest–and their three youngest are at present squeezed between the open door and the wall. And why is there no one on that little mat before the sullen fire? Because O'Donovan, with wife and daughter, is not come in yet from selling Lucifers! Nor on the bit of sacking in the nearest corner? Bad luck! Because that Irish family is late tonight, a-cadging in the streets!" (I cite "On Duty With Inspector Field", by Charles Dickens, Household Words, Saturday, June 14, 1851, pages. 266, 267)

Yes, Dickens wrote some great works of literature, but surely that doesn't excuse the fact that he was a racist, supported and promoted genocide and was against abolishing the slave trade.