The piglet

“Having drunk the Piglet water” is a saying used in Florence and has a specific meaning: Florentine be in effect, the real ones, generational, outspoken. The pig is a fountain located at nologies of the New Market on the south side.

A brief history of this statue / fountain.

The original is a marble statue donated to Cosimo I in 1560 by Pope Pius IV and located at the Uffizi. Cosimo II decided to make a copy to adorn Palazzo Pitti and appointed Pietro Tacca in 1612 to implement it. In 1620 the wax model was ready, but it was time only in 1633. The result obtained by the notch was really great, worthy of Giambologna student. The statue did not arrive at Pitti, but in 1640 Ferdinand II made her turn into a fountain to be placed on the Mercato Nuovo, had both the beautification task but also practical to quench the cloth merchants who were working under the loggia.

It was after you place it in front of the apothecary Boar who assumed in the name of pig while representing a boar. Was packed a base, also in bronze, with a pool for collecting water that flowed from his mouth. The basis is a marsh with characteristic animals that inhabit it. The statue was then recast due to wear to be replaced, the original is kept in the Bardini Museum since 2004.

You may have noticed that the nose of the pig is shiny like it was time the day before? This is due to three legends that are expressed with the same ritual. The first says that if you rub the nose of the pig and then positions a coin in his mouth and let them fall tucks inside the grille will grant you your wish. A second version has it that the same ritual will bring good luck and the third legend, always a coin in the grate, sooner or later you will return to Florence. The latter of the three is the one I prefer, much more romantic. One trick to be taken to obtain an entry in the grille is to exploit the physical, in fact it weighs more money easier it is to do downtown. Whereas the coins collected are donated to the Madonna del Grappa recommend using two-euro coins. 🙂

It must be said that the Florentine pig is very known in the world so much that there are countless copies around. They can count at least 6 copies, from Grosseto up to Sydney. Also it immortalized in two Harry Potter films, The Chamber of Secrets (entrance hall of Hogwarts School) and in the second part of The Deathly Hallows (the room of Requirement). Finally even Hans Christian Andersen has dedicated a fairy tale titled ” The Metal Pig ”. This the beginning of the story … “The Metal Pig – Hans Christian Andersen – In the city of Florence, not far from Piazza of the Grand Duke, is a cross which I believe is called the Red Porto; here, in front of a kind of vegetable stand, is a bronze pig, beautifully crafted, fresh and clear water flows from the mouth of that animal, who because of age is all dark green only snout shines, as if it were polished, and this It is due to the many hundreds of children and poor people who hold on you to bring your mouth to that of the animal and drinking. it’s like a little picture to see that beautiful bronze pig embraced by a pretty boy half-naked, which combines fresh little mouth to his snout. Anyone, when he arrives in Florence, you can find that place; just ask that the Metal pig in the first beggar he meets, and will find it for sure.
It was a late winter evening, the mountains were covered in snow … “

Jacopo Cioni