Foreigners and Florentines

For those interested in reading a travel book on Florence not sated with endearments, euphemisms, and clichés, and prefer an honest portrayal of the city from the perspective of an outsider, then please pick up a copy of Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of Florence. Though the book was first published in 1956, it still offers relevant information and insight on the city. One notable issue, which temporary residents of the city should consider, is the Florentines’ treatment of tourists. Likely, most of you have had more than one negative experience with the Florentine population, whether in a store, on the streets, when asking for assistance, or in a restaurant—perhaps you were ignored, run over, or treated as a nuisance. You have then experienced firsthand a typical foreigner’s encounter with a Florentine. McCarthy explains that this attitude is not “a sign of indifference, but of a peculiar pride and dignity.” Florentines are proud of their city but they do not exhibit it like a theme park. Their attitude is: “the monuments are there—let the foreigners find them.” McCarthy inform us that “this lack of cooperative spirit, this absence, this preoccupation, comes after a time and if you are not in a hurry, to seem one of the blessings of Florence, to make it, even, a hallowed place.” Instead of taking offence, we foreigners should understand that this strange behavior is a present-day continuation of an attitude that was labeled “Florentine” long before our arrival. Their aloofness should not intimidate us, but encourage us to take the discovery of this city and its inhabitants into our own hands, though we may have to euphemize our own negative experiences on occasion.