3-003-672 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Celebration at Florence of the First Italian National Festival, 1861. Scene on the '..."Piazza della Independenza"...Music, light, a scene made gay with abundant tricolor banners, and draperies, a concourse of people met to enjoy themselves, a lovely starlight night, and a delicious, soft air - these simple elements make "festa" enough for this simple, easily-pleased people. The man with the itinerant stall in the front of our Engraving, be it observed, is selling lemonade, and nothing stronger, though no license would be needed for him to sell wine or spirits. But he would find no purchasers. The utter absence of any approach towards intoxication not only ensures perfect order, courtesy, and gentle bearing, but disposes the people to find enjoyment in the simplest pleasures. And so till long past midnight...the multitude remained, delighting in the beautiful, soft yellow light produced by all those thousand of lamps...raising a perpetual mighty hum from the unceasing, simultaneous chattering of at least two-thirds of the assembled thousands...And so in tranquil guise the orderly Florentines celebrated the first anniversary commemoration of the results of their orderly revolution'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.