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The Directory › Europe › Italy › Florence
Plate II · iv · c · The City

Florence

One house, across the river, and a colour the rest of Europe has been copying ever since.

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A Florentine street at dusk in the Oltrarno, rusticated stone and deep-set iron-grilled windows
Plate II · iv · c · Oltrarno, at dusk

Cross the river and the queues stop dead. That is not a secret, and it is still true.

A day, properly arranged
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Not a Monday. Not the middle of the day, in any season.

The entries

One entry, visited, and it carries the afternoon on its own.
Notes for Florence

Bardini is an afternoon on its own and should not be bolted to anything famous. He was a dealer arranging rooms to sell from, and the arrangement — not the inventory — is what you have come to look at.

The blue is the thing. It was mixed to make gilt frames and marble sing, it has been borrowed by half the museums in Europe since, and standing in the room explains in ten seconds what no photograph of it has ever managed.

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