[Sept. 2021] On the first day in Florence, Italy, we stayed in our hotel in the afternoon until it became dark.
That was because there was a terrible storm in the afternoon.
It was unbelievable that the sun was shining a while ago, and it suddenly became cloudy and a lot of rain began to fall.
Lightning was also tremendous momentum.
I wonder how long it lasted, but after a while, the peaceful scenery returned again.
From our room with a good view, the Ponte Vecchio was beautifully seen against the backdrop of the sunset.
Then, after dark, we went outside, and seeing the name of the street beside the hotel, my husband said, “Oh, this street.”
It’s called Via dei Georgofili.
Apparently this street is famous as the place where the Mafia blew up.
A little further, there was a plate explaining about it.
In early 1993, after the arrest of the Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra’s boss Salvatore Riina, the mafia terrorized to prevent members of the already arrested mafia members from turning into informants.
The terrorism activities were intensified, and the explosion on this street in May in the same year was part of that.
This terrorist attack on Via dei Georgofili killed a family of four and a student and 33 people were injured.
This street is right next to the famous Uffizi Gallery, and it is said that the purpose was to blow up the museum.
Around this time, the Mafia and the authorities were in a state of war.
It is said that the anger of the people was boiling after two prosecutors who took a hard-line stance toward the Mafia and had a great deal of support from the people were killed by the order of Riina in 1992.
This man, Riina was so small that he was called “Toto ‘u Curtu (short Salvatore)”, but he seems to have had a power that any of the Mafia bosses had never had before.
He was the one who broke the Mafia’s unwritten rule that women, children and the general public would not be killed.
According to his biography, he suspected and killed even his close subordinates, which reminded me of the dictator Stalin.
After all, this Riina died in prison in 2017.
On the Via dei Georgofili, there was a sculpture called “Tree of Peace” in memory of the people who died in the terrorism.
This was installed this year.
Well, after we moved away from here, we came out on a street where young people were queuing up.
Apparently, it was a queue to buy a panini with ham in between.
I’m sure it’s outstandingly delicious.
It will be nice if we could stay in Florence for about a month like in Edinburgh, then I would like to try these shops as well.
Going further, we saw the nostalgic church of Santa Croce lit up.
We didn’t enter this church on this trip, but in the past I almost always stopped by and shopped at the Leather School that was located further back inside this church in a former monastery site.
The church of Santa Croce is located in the east of the centre of the old town, and further east from here was an unknown world for me, so we avoided walking there at night and returned to the centre.
Then we had a cocktail on the roof terrace of our hotel and the first day in Florence was over.
