The Wolves of Florence

This is the second post about our recent visit to Florence (the first one is here), and thus, part 2 of the series of posts concerning the week long trip around Italy. In this one, we look at the wolves of Florence and some love scenes spotted in the Florentian evening.

In the evening we took a walk and ended up in a piazza filled with iron wolves. This was Piazza Santissima Annunziata, and we had just come across an installation called “Wolves Coming” by a Chinese artist Liu Ruowang. The wolves of Florence are on display also on another piazza, Piazza Pitti, until November this year, thanks to a collaboration of the City of Florence and Galleria Uffizi (read more here).

The wolves are all different and in the middle of them, a samurai-looking figure in a strong and elastic martial arts position is defending against them. He manages not to look scared and give the impression that he is not going to be defeated. The smoothness of the fighter compared with the robustness and exposed teeth of the wolves creates a striking opposition.

All wolves were displaying different varieties of aggression, some a second before attacking, some only cunningly planning on their next move. I never knew a wolf could be depicted as having so many facial expressions! The samurai in the middle oozed strength and elasticity in his martial-arts pose, and left no doubt that he would eventually survive the wolves, if not beat them all.

Perhaps now in the global pandemic more than for a long while, we all feel attacked by a pack of hungry wolves surrounding us from all sides on a daily basis, whether the wolves are our own fears or something external. Often, the hungriest wolves are the people closest to us, and sometimes the angriest wolf looks back at you in the mirror.

As all wolves were different, the self-evident game was to pick one’s favorites and pose with them. In doing this, we had a conversation on what kind of a wolf we would want to ride with: perhaps a one with a more defensive posture, like a faithful dog aggressively preparing to attack someone intruding the home of its owners, or maybe one walking calmly but ready to show its teeth? Interestingly, the most openly aggressive wolves with their teeth on display and ready to jump, were not the most frightening ones. Personally, I would choose as my warrior-companion a wolf with a relaxed but strategic pose (like the one in the picture), one that looks like a chess-player planning on their next move.

Love Scenes among the Wolves of Florence

After exploring the wolves, we sat on the stairs and had a rest. Sitting nearby, there was also a Southern American father with two kids having a picnic. The kids were playing with the statues and a water pump, and the father was observing them on a relaxed manner. He let them do their stuff and wasn’t too concerned of them falling down and hurting themselves -a fussing attitude that can kill all the love of play that children have. The mother, perhaps a Scandinavian, joined them later to enjoy what was left of the contents of the picnic-basket. She was probably coming from work and was tired but happy to have this peaceful moment in the piazza with her family.

An older couple passed by. A man patiently and lovingly guiding his wife, who was proceeding very slowly in a hunched position, using a walker. They walked at the side of the piazza, then turned and went to walk in the arched hallway. The old lady walked like every step was a lot of work for her and with a blank stare in her eyes. The man did not for one second leave the side of her, nor did he look bored or impatient. He was completely present and happy, and everything in him reflected the fact that this was a walk he has taken with his wife every single day for a very, very long time.

Leaving the piazza, we saw the lady sitting outside of a restaurant, comfortably tucked in her wheelchair inside a light blanket, with the man at her side. I couldn’t help a thought cross my mind: If back in Finland, this woman would be at a nursing home inside, completely alone and with the faint hope of seeing sunlight maybe some time next week if a relative has the time to come for a visit and push her to the balcony. So sentimental and probably untrue, I know, but there you go.

The City of Love

Only in Florence have I seen so many couples openly showing their love, hugging and kissing at street corners. Many of these couples also seemed to be very young and wanting to display their newly found boy- or girlfriend. However, there is a deeper love than that of teenagers doing a social display, for example that of those devoted and patient spouses and parents we admired. The family scenes we witnessed at the piazza of the wolves of Florence thus seemed only to be continuing a tradition that has been in place for a long while, that of bringing love outside to the piazzas and living it true in the outside world.

Even if life in a modern society can for a good reason be depicted as being surrounded by hungry wolves that we have to defend against all alone, this is only one aspect of it. We choose which wolves we feed and which not. We choose which wolves we travel with and which we leave behind.

And in the middle of the wolf pack there just might be true scenes of love taking place, just as long as you choose to look the right way.