Among foreigners there is a general expression of regret that the month of September should have been chosen for the celebration. Unless they proceed to Florence at that time expressly, no foreigners will be present, and September is not a month in which they are disposed to visit that city.
The festival in all probability will be a mere local affair. Various reasons have been given for its celebration in September, but they are all of a local nature and do not affect the foreigner.
For some time past the well-known fountain of Neptune by Ammanati, at the corner of the Municipal Palace of Florence, and standing nearly on the spot where Savonarola was burnt, has been covered up with a wooden erection. It was said that it was to be repaired, and under this belief the Florentines abstained from their usual witticisms on municipal proceedings.
The fountain consists of an octagonal basin rising about three feet six above the pavement, very handsomely moulded, and made of a rich purple and white veined marble. On four of the eight sides are nereids and sea-gods with attendant fauns and tritons, very cleverly sculptured in bronze, although in somewhat extravagant attitudes, but with their shells, dolphins, and other decorations they have a sumptuous effect. How the fauns are mixed up with water-sprites is beyond explanation.
In the centre stands the Biancone, as the Florentines irreverently call the colossal Neptune of Ammanati, a statue eighteen feet high, but a by no means fine work of art. Three tritons blowing through shells group round his limbs. The whole group stands on a car, consisting first of a huge shell of purple marble, beneath which is a plinth decorated with strange fishes and fish-heads, in high relief, of pure white marble. Under this is the body of the car, or rather pedestal on wheels, again of rich purple marble, the whole being drawn by four sea-horses, or if there be such things, four sea-ponies, for in comparison with Neptune they are "shelties." They are in reality, however, as big as real horses, yet far too small for the god.
The fountain was so incrusled with deposits from the water, and with slime and green impurities, that Ammanati's design fared badly.
Now it is seen as he made it; Neptune is whiter than ever and his tritons are pure as the sea-foam. The great car is alternately purple and white, and if ugly it must be forever in design, it is beautiful in material. His two central shelties are white as breaking waves, and the other two on each side of a dark purple, such as the sea sometimes is when heavy clouds press down on it. These prancing coursers drag their heavy car and still heavier sea-god through a miniature ocean of green water bounded by the purple marble shore with its nereids and tritons of bronze. Water has been copiously replaced, and the three tritons which strengthen the legs of Neptune blow streams from their shells, and a jet from the car proclaims its watery nature, whilst the fish-heads puff streams into the green ocean below.
The exquisite Capella della Spina on the Arno at Pisa, the "destruction" of which Mr. Ruskin announced in Fors Clavigera, is in reality being restored. It was in danger of falling into the river, as the bridge near it actually did. This bridge has been replaced by a fine structure imitative of the Ponte alla Trinità, Florence, and is light and elegant. The lovely chapel is in progress of restoration. It is the most precious example of Italian Gothic existing, and rich with the reminiscences of the Pisani. So far as it goes the restoration appears to be very satisfactory.
The south side of the leaning tower of Pisa is also admirably restored. The sea air so fatal to the frescoes of the Campo Santo eats into the marble. Every injured shaft has been admirably replaced, as well as capitals, bases, and entablatures.
A public library has recently been established at Yedo for the use of both natives and foreigners. It is open all the year round, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on national and general holidays. Readers are allowed to make excerpts, but are not allowed to borrow books from the premises without the special permission of the minister of education. The regulations are ten in number, and are almost identical with those which are in force in similar institutions in European countries.
