written by Emily Gibson
This blog feature is an exclusive bonus installment to our Spring issue of Blending Magazine. After you finish reading, be sure to explore the rest of the magazine online—just follow this link to download the full Spring 2025 edition:
https://jschoolfua.com/images/BM/BM_151.pdf
An Unexpected Encounter
How did I end up here, and what do I do now that I am? Surely, this is not that enchanted city where nearly 11 million visit annually, I reasoned. Where are the crowds or the music often needed to drown out the noise of the through traffic? “Michelangelo!” called a woman’s voice. I turned to see what art she could be referring to and was met by a young child with blonde hair and blue eyes running joyfully toward a playset. In a place where tourists spend an average of three billion dollars every year, an experience here, inconspicuous within the Florentine jungle, cost me only time.
“It’s hallowed ground,” said former Stanford professor and self-made historian Albert Gidari. “You may not know the history in detail or who died and what they did, but you just know, and that feeling conveys the place, so if you want someplace to just reflect for a few minutes on what life was like and why it was important, that’s what spirit is within that park.”
A Quiet Corner of Buried Defiance
Piazza Massimo D’Azeglio is a quaint 165-year-old square nestled in the corner of Florence’s city center between Campo Di Marte station and Sant’Ambrogio and, at first glance, a seemingly unusual site for a place where mass tourism has taken a toll. The neighborhood is still inhabited by residents where children play, dogs run, friends converse, and the elderly rest, but when I looked around at the beautiful, historical buildings, some embodying the prestigious liberty style, it was hard for me to imagine war was once present for which cause many lives ended there.
I shifted my gaze to the heart of the square where water spurted from the beak of a bronze crane — a symbol of good luck — and I wondered whether luck was enough for those brave men and women who once held anti-fascist meetings right here under the nose of the proponents themselves. I tried to imagine myself where I was, only at a time when deafening uncertainty filled the air.
“Anyone hiding material of any kind useful to the German Armed Forces or the German Nation is liable to be sentenced to death,” stated the Commander General (qtd. in Supporting Radio CORA: ‘resistant’ Arcetri in the memoirs of Michele Della Corte, 17).
Echoes of Joy Amid Whispers of Loss – WW2
Initially, I did not perceive the tangible references to a WW2 history still pulsing beneath the surface, but when I saw the children chasing one another up and down the paved piazza, I could not help but reflect on the childish games I once played, such as hide and seek, wherein I knew too well the feeling of rushed adrenaline coupled with fear when my hiding places were eventually found out. In the end, though, it was just a game, and my enemies were still my friends.
Hence, I struggled to picture the square before the 1940s, when there were large iron gates filling the space where the sidewalks now reside, making the park an impossible hideout for 80 years. When the square finally experienced newfound freedom, it came at the expense of Florence’s citizens. The gates were donated and melted to make the weapons forging the real gates around the freedoms of the people as uniformed soldiers of the Nazi Regime filled the city, stripping away what I have often taken for granted: safety, basic rights, and life itself. Many, I learned, would surrender to their cause, but others would stand in opposition, risking it all for hope.
A Final Transmission of Hope
A wise man once proved there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for a friend. Thus, what Resistance leaders Enrico Bocci, Italo Piccagli, and Luigi Morandi, among others, did on behalf of their friends and beloved city was nothing short of great love. On the fateful day of June 7, 1944, Nazi soldiers raided the top floor of Piazza D’Azeglio 12 — the final hiding place of Radio CORA. Therein, resistance men and women endangered their lives to transmit secret messages and hope to the Italian population. The three partisans were captured, tortured, and killed.
I walked to the northeastern side of Piazza D’Azeglio to see for myself what remained of those heroes, and I was met by their bronze memorial. I paused for a moment of silence and reflection.
An Invitation
My money is useless in D’Azeglio because the peace, joy, and freedom the square offers came at an invaluable investment I may never fully understand. Its rich history whispers through the grounds and nearby corners, where the Jewish synagogue still miraculously illuminates the skyline. Nonetheless, individuals visit D’Azeglio for various reasons, such as convenience and fond pastimes like Florentines Tobias Zerella, Anne Whittaker, and Tommaso Tempesti. Others like Gidari, who dedicated years to uncovering the stories of the resistance movement, visit because the historical site still speaks to them today. In any case, D’Azeglio serves as an invitation to enjoy the present and an opportunity to reflect on the past. Amid all Florence has to offer, I have discovered that if one has the time, Piazza D’Azeglio, the heartbeat of Florence’s underground past, offers an experience that mere money cannot afford.
“If you’re there for a week or more and want to breathe in Florence, it’s just such a pleasure to go and sit on a bench for an hour or two with a coffee… and watch the real people that live there enjoying their city, and just imagine what the city was like,” said Gidari.