III.xvii. Two Cities

"Today the two cities seem to stand in contrast to each another. Florence has become a bustling and vital modern city. Whilst it may no longer nurture Michelangelos and Botticellis, there are native Florentine painters of international renown. Its ancient craft of leatherwork plays a distinctive role in contemporary fashion, and Florentines have effectively revived the old skills with stuffs and dyes and organized their distribution on a scale which dwarfs the network of the once ubiquitous Medici banks. Venice instead is apparently a city belonging only to her past, an empty shell of former glories. Its native population diminishes constantly, deserting the island for the industrial wasteland that threatens to destroy what is left of millennial grandeur. Its last remaining industry makes baubles for the tourists who come in droves to stay on a statistical average of eighteen hours, to mill about and to gawk at the remaining relics of the Seremissima’s magnificence."
- Peter Lauritzen

In a two day bout of cheap, extremely artistically obsessed travel, Alex and I toured both Venice and Florence. As a brother, Alex is enormously generous to me and is one of the very few people who will put up with my insistence on visiting obscure masterpieces of every sort. He is as indefatigable as I am, really, and our two day extravaganza, to be followed shortly by a four day visit to Rome, was as unforgettable as it was packed.