_Now_ there is perhaps more crime of a heinous character in Florence,
in proportion to the population, than in any city in the peninsula. I
think that about the first indication that all that glittered in the
mansuetude of _Firenze la Gentile_ was not gold, showed itself on
the occasion of an attempt to naturalise at Florence the traditional
sportiveness of the Roman Carnival. There and then, as all the world
knows, it has been the immemorial habit for the population, high and
low, to pelt the folks in the carriages during their Corso procession
with _bonbons, bouquets_, and the like. Gradually at Rome this
exquisite fooling has degenerated under the influence of modern
notions, till the _bouquets_ having become cabbage stalks, very
effective as offensive missiles, and the _bonbons_ plaster of Paris
pellets, with an accompanying substitution of a spiteful desire to
inflict injury for the old horse-play, it has become necessary to
limit the duration of the Saturnalia to the briefest span, with the
sure prospect of its being very shortly altogether prohibited. But at
Florence on the first occasion, now several years ago, of an attempt
to imitate the Roman practice, the conduct of the populace was such as
to demand imperatively the immediate suppression of it. The carriages
and the occupants of them were attacked by such volleys of stones and
mud, and the animus of the people was so evidently malevolent and
dangerous, that they were at once driven from the scene, and any
repetition of the practice was forbidden.
Pages:
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200