Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Every visitor to Florence wants to know how the natives tolerate the heat, the noise and the traffic. Florence in many ways appears to be drab and dull to foreigners with many banks, insurance companies, loan companies and gift shops selling things like place mats. It does not seem to be thrilling and exciting. There have been too many copies of the famous artworks floating around the world and many people associate the architecture with a schoolroom. The city is like an academic study to them and because of this it is a hard city for foreigners to understand.

"'Nobody comes here any more', says the old Berenson, wryly, in his villa at Settignano, and the echoing sculpture gallery of the Bargello bears him out; almost nobody comes here. The big vaulted main hall seems full of marble wraiths: San Giorgio...