The cow on the Cathedral.

Everyone understands that the legends are often more interesting than the truth, and that is why we remain in the memory of the reader, but it is said, although shown as a legend, can be a real story.

One of these legends protagonist wants a cow’s head positioned along the left side of the Cathedral of Florence. Skirting the Cathedral on the left, more or less at number 5, look up under the drum of the Dome and under the eaves jut’ll notice a small head cow. I understand that it is not easy to locate, but with a little care you can not see it.

The story has it that one of the three gifts present in Florence as thanks to the work of animals in buildings. The other two are the donkey of Palazzo Pitti and the plaque of the Horse in the Lungarno Anna Maria Luisa de ‘Medici. The cows were fundamental in the transportation of material adapted to the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore, and this statue omaggerebbe own their effort.

Here the official story would end and begin the legend.

I mentioned that the story you can mix it with the legend and this could be the case. A statue could be oriented in many ways, upward, downward, left to right, this seems instead look at a well-determined point, down, a precise workshop. It is said that in that shop there was a bakery (some say it was a tailor) with an attractive wife and provocative, perhaps lascivious costume, which had turned the heads to a master builder who worked at the Duomo. The court of the foreman was tight and romantic until they overcame resistance and obtained the woman’s favors.

Baker discovered the betrayal wanted to take revenge and not only such show in the neighborhood in a scene more than plausible, but denounced the lovers to the Ecclesiastical Court. The sentence, it is rumored, it was exemplary for the foreman (perhaps a very hefty fine) and of course the affair broke. The foreman would in turn retaliate and fiorentinaccio studied a subtle revenge and mocking. Upon placing the head of the cow he studied well the final placement of the bovine eye and pointed it at the baker’s shop in eternal memory of his status as a cuckold. As we know you pay a fine and then you forget, but a lasting memory is a far more unwelcome revenge. Citing a mythical films shot in Florence it is likely that the baker had always croissants “hot hot, just made right now!”