Haiku No.6

Look at me always

I’m famous, or perhaps not

forever etched in stone

We started high summer  with a blast with three very hot days in Florence. The heatwave continued right until now, with extreme heat, a full work schedule and no end in sight! So, Haiku are my listicles. A damn deal less lucrative but more fun.

This little face is etched just above people’s heads on the Palazzo Vecchio on the Piazza Signoria (where that famous David copy stands). Allegedly the great artist Michelangelo Buonarrotti himself did this piece of renaissance graffiti. Either the man portrayed annoyed the artist, so that instead of listening, Michelangelo absentmindedly doodled his face into the stone.  Another tale says he was a convict, taken to the gallows.  A third story claims the artist cut this into the stone, knife behind his back, after being challenged to deface the stonework. Who knows? There is not even sufficient evidence Michelangelo had anything to do with it.  But it’s the little details in a square stuffed to the hilt with artwork (and people) that intrigued me. To be honest… I probably wouldn’t have noticed it that easily either were I not sent on a treasure hunt right across Florence. We may not have gotten the treasure, but we did some bloody good exercise and spent two hours looking for itsy-bitsy details with a story!