Category: Fleming

I am going forward on the assumption that everyone has received his copy of Living Lanugage.

What we do know is the Florence was settled by Romans in the late Republic but was never as important as nearby Fiesole, much less Lucca or Pisa

Machiavelli had to walk a thin and twisting line, balancing his love of republican liberty with the practical realities of an Italy engulfed in strife between the regional powers and the periodic invasions of Barbarians.

The history of Florence, as rich in deeds of violence as in creative works of imagination, affords serious people much food for thought, not all of it of the pleasant sort that encourages optimism about human nature

Learning how to talk about places in a city and ask directions

New adjectives and some rules on how to use them.

But beyond commercial rivalry and the Guelph/Ghibelline feud, there is the fact that all these little Tuscan cities–especially Siena–were ferociously competitive, both internally and with rival cities.  They competed not just for commercial domination and military might, but also for beauty.