Dysartian
Firenze - Mario was a Survivor Under Hitler and Mussolini
Mags and I had stopped to look at some old cameras and photos in a shop window near il Duomo and Mario, the shopkeeper, who is in his mid-eighties, came out to talk to us in good English. Mario was friendly and talkative, but was not trying to sell us anything from his shop. He just seemed to love people (and talking). His camera shop and opticians (a family shop established in 1926) is near the Piazza del Duomo and he told us that he had been born near there, had been baptised in il Battistero (the baptistery) and had never left the most historic area in Florence. He told us that his late wife had come from the London area and that she had walked into his shop one day to get some photos developed and he'd fallen in love with her immediately. He had photos of his beloved wife all over the shop and he said that the last words she had said to him on her deathbed over twenty years ago were, "thank you for an amazing marriage." Mario was in Florence during WWII and showed us a cherished book with photos of both Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini lording-it over his beloved city. As a teenager, Mario had been crossing one of the bridges to visit his aunt on the south side of the River Arno when the retreating Nazis blew it up and he has a hole in his leg as a souvenir of that incident. The only bridge that Hitler spared was the Ponte Vecchio, but Mario said that the Nazis had blown up historic buildings at either end of the bridge, to block its use by the allies. When the infamous floods of 1966 devastated the lower-lying areas of Florence, the flood waters had reached the lower part of the barometer that still hung on his shop wall. Indeed he had photos of the damage to the shop front, displayed in his shop windows. Mario is a real character and seems typical of the friendly Fiorentini and as a Scot I say, Mario, “Lang may your lum reek” (long may your chimney smoke). If you have never visited our favourite city, Florence, then I suggest that you do so at least once, but I warn you that if you do so, you will probably return again and again?
Firenze - Mario was a Survivor Under Hitler and Mussolini
Mags and I had stopped to look at some old cameras and photos in a shop window near il Duomo and Mario, the shopkeeper, who is in his mid-eighties, came out to talk to us in good English. Mario was friendly and talkative, but was not trying to sell us anything from his shop. He just seemed to love people (and talking). His camera shop and opticians (a family shop established in 1926) is near the Piazza del Duomo and he told us that he had been born near there, had been baptised in il Battistero (the baptistery) and had never left the most historic area in Florence. He told us that his late wife had come from the London area and that she had walked into his shop one day to get some photos developed and he'd fallen in love with her immediately. He had photos of his beloved wife all over the shop and he said that the last words she had said to him on her deathbed over twenty years ago were, "thank you for an amazing marriage." Mario was in Florence during WWII and showed us a cherished book with photos of both Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini lording-it over his beloved city. As a teenager, Mario had been crossing one of the bridges to visit his aunt on the south side of the River Arno when the retreating Nazis blew it up and he has a hole in his leg as a souvenir of that incident. The only bridge that Hitler spared was the Ponte Vecchio, but Mario said that the Nazis had blown up historic buildings at either end of the bridge, to block its use by the allies. When the infamous floods of 1966 devastated the lower-lying areas of Florence, the flood waters had reached the lower part of the barometer that still hung on his shop wall. Indeed he had photos of the damage to the shop front, displayed in his shop windows. Mario is a real character and seems typical of the friendly Fiorentini and as a Scot I say, Mario, “Lang may your lum reek” (long may your chimney smoke). If you have never visited our favourite city, Florence, then I suggest that you do so at least once, but I warn you that if you do so, you will probably return again and again?