Lessons of Florence

Florence truly is a quiet town now.  Things are still and people are away.  Or feeling the darkness of winter and keeping indoors  and out of the chill.  Christmas Eve a mist hung over the city so thick I couldn’t see the river when I walked over the Ponte Vecchio to see my friend Alessandro who was playing Babo Natale (Santa Claus) at a Pasticceria (Pastry Shoppe) in via Maggio.  I felt as if I was back in Hollywood on a set with a hidden fog machine somewhere.

Sometimes things are that way in Florence.  Hidden.  Such as gardens.  Did you know there are many large and gorgeous gardens in this city hidden behind the walls of the palazzi.  There was a time when stone was considered a sophisticated concept and nature was considered less so.  However, obviously, mankind still needed that contact so the wealthier Florentines have interior gardens.  Once a year they have a day here where there are some “giardini aperti” (open gardens) and you can walk within the walls and see a greener side of Florence.

It’s the “hidden” aspect and closed doors of the city which strike me so strongly as of late.  I’ve come to a realization which I think is accurate.  Florence will never be my home.  That is not to say that I may not live here for a very long time.  That I don’t have a life here that is complex and satisfying, albeit extraordinarily challenging.  But for me…. for who I am and what I do here… Florence herself will never truly let me in.

This is the understanding I’ve come to with FITC.  We tried for three years to create a relationship with the city.  But it’s not possible here for those who run Florence to ever understand the vision of what we are offering.  Because they can’t see how it serves them directly.  How it either makes them money, advances their career, or gets them elected. 

This may seem as though I am a cynical expatriate, but truly this is not my intention.  Any one of you that have been reading my blog from the beginning know I went through my phases of dissolutionment long ago.  No, this is more a gentle realization of where I am.  And of what is needed to stay here.  Florence hides from those of us that are not Florentine.  And “Florentine” as was described to me recently by a friend that is one, means that your grandparents are buried in the cemeteries here.  Not that you were born here…. but that you were raised out of the stones themselves.

No, it is clear to me that in order for me to stay here… in order for Florence International Theatre Company to thrive and serve…. I and we must be completely independent of Florence herself.  Because, sadly and surprisingly, what else Florence hides from the world through the mist of her fame is that this is a city in 2008-about-to-become-2009 which lacks vision, passion, creativity and innovative thinking.  That all which was born here 500 years ago has faded into history books and frescos which long ago lost their lustre and depend on the kindness of foreign money and concern for history to keep them brightly offered in the light of modern day.

I believe the vision I hold for Florence is good for her…. and those who live here.  And I feel strangely free - and far less angry - in finally understanding that she herself is incapable and unwilling to assist in the creation of something which will serve her.  It is an odd sensation - creating an artistic institution with such strong ties to the community and absolutely no relationship of any real value to the city itself.  But this is Florence.   I don’t love her less for it.

But I certainly don’t love her more.

Notte ragazzi.  Parleremo ancora…. questo era solo un pensiero…..
Bari