Friday Night Florentine Frights
Halloween is just around the corner, so, reader, let's talk about blood and gore.
It was a Friday night and I was standing on haunted ground.
The bodies of the infants that had died shortly after birth were buried on this ground instead of a cemetery because they weren't cleansed of their original sin through the sacrament of baptism.
But of course I'm referring to something that was done back in the Middle Ages. Now, however, a gorgeous little square that is home to a small 11th century church called Santi Apostoli stands over it.
The little gorgeous square's name is Piazza del Limbo, named after the dead children that the Florentines believed were stuck in 'limbo' - you know, stuck in that space between heaven and hell, never finding peace or God's love, but never actually being enough of a sinner to be subjected to eternal torment in hell.
I was standing on what was once burial ground for little infants who would never find peace.
To this day, I cannot tell you, reader, if that knowledge was troubling, traumatizing or straight up terrifying.
When it comes to death and gore, there's one thing you must understand about me. I absolutely hate anything even remotely scary. I have fairy lights strung up in my room more for my terror of the dark than the aesthetic of the lights. I'm on high alert and don't sleep for months if I ever make the mistake of watching a horror movie.
But here's the thing - I'll do all of it anyway. I'll watch a horror movie. I'll go into those haunted houses at amusement parks. If my life was a scary movie, I would be the girl stupid enough to go looking for the killer/ghost with the audience screaming at me not to.
During my time as a resident in Florence, I often wondered how haunted this eternal, ancient city was. Since my arrival and before that too, I had heard so much about the Florentines of the Middle Ages and how they loved shedding blood. Murders, tortures, brutal and medieval death sentences were a part of every-day life in Florence.
It seemed as though almost every street and every piazza was stained with a bloody memory of a time where killing was considered a sport.
Obviously like the self-proclaimed masochist that I am, I was fascinated and wanted to know more.
To my luck, my host school organized an activity for students during the week of Halloween. It was a tour of all the reportedly haunted places in Florence, as well as places with bloody, eerie pasts.
There were a lot of the usual places, like haunted rooms and floors of an old and famous hotel, towers; some that served as fortresses when civil war broke out, and some as torture chambers or prison cells. But there were a few that really stuck out like a sore thumb.
One of these sore thumbs, was Piazza della Signoria. Killing in the Middle Ages was a form of entertainment. It could be an execution or a punishment but for the Florentines it was merely an outing on a lovely Sunday afternoon.
Piazza della Signoria was Florence's entertainment center. Criminals were hung from the windows of Palazzo Vecchio as the crowd cheered and jeered. One was burned at the stake right in the middle of the square.
A couple streets down is the Bargello, a tower that, despite being a museum vaunting masterpieces by Donatello and Michelangelo today, served as a prison and torture chamber for criminals and people who had wronged the state, and the Medici- the ruling family of the time.
Surely you can see why all of these places could hoard a nest of vengeful spirits.
Put together all of the bloodshed, murder and warring families Florence has witnessed, and it is hard to believe the city isn't haunted or cursed, underneath all its beauty and art.
For me though, the frightening Florentine fables of the past only increased my fascination with this city.
Like I said, I'm a self-proclaimed masochist.
P.S: I'm not firmly saying Florence is haunted. I've never had a paranormal experience, although listening to my professors tell us stories and urban legends about certain streets and spots when we went on field trips would probably be good enough to convince me. Still, to me, Florence is nothing but a breathtaking city albeit deeply rooted in unfortunate, bloody history.
And with that being said, here's a list of some of "Florence's ghosts" for you to make up your own mind about this. http://www.theflorentine.net/lifestyle/2013/10/florences-phantoms/
Happy Halloweekend!
It was a Friday night and I was standing on haunted ground.
The bodies of the infants that had died shortly after birth were buried on this ground instead of a cemetery because they weren't cleansed of their original sin through the sacrament of baptism.
But of course I'm referring to something that was done back in the Middle Ages. Now, however, a gorgeous little square that is home to a small 11th century church called Santi Apostoli stands over it.
The little gorgeous square's name is Piazza del Limbo, named after the dead children that the Florentines believed were stuck in 'limbo' - you know, stuck in that space between heaven and hell, never finding peace or God's love, but never actually being enough of a sinner to be subjected to eternal torment in hell.
I was standing on what was once burial ground for little infants who would never find peace.
To this day, I cannot tell you, reader, if that knowledge was troubling, traumatizing or straight up terrifying.
When it comes to death and gore, there's one thing you must understand about me. I absolutely hate anything even remotely scary. I have fairy lights strung up in my room more for my terror of the dark than the aesthetic of the lights. I'm on high alert and don't sleep for months if I ever make the mistake of watching a horror movie.
But here's the thing - I'll do all of it anyway. I'll watch a horror movie. I'll go into those haunted houses at amusement parks. If my life was a scary movie, I would be the girl stupid enough to go looking for the killer/ghost with the audience screaming at me not to.
During my time as a resident in Florence, I often wondered how haunted this eternal, ancient city was. Since my arrival and before that too, I had heard so much about the Florentines of the Middle Ages and how they loved shedding blood. Murders, tortures, brutal and medieval death sentences were a part of every-day life in Florence.
It seemed as though almost every street and every piazza was stained with a bloody memory of a time where killing was considered a sport.
Obviously like the self-proclaimed masochist that I am, I was fascinated and wanted to know more.
To my luck, my host school organized an activity for students during the week of Halloween. It was a tour of all the reportedly haunted places in Florence, as well as places with bloody, eerie pasts.
There were a lot of the usual places, like haunted rooms and floors of an old and famous hotel, towers; some that served as fortresses when civil war broke out, and some as torture chambers or prison cells. But there were a few that really stuck out like a sore thumb.
One of these sore thumbs, was Piazza della Signoria. Killing in the Middle Ages was a form of entertainment. It could be an execution or a punishment but for the Florentines it was merely an outing on a lovely Sunday afternoon.
Piazza della Signoria was Florence's entertainment center. Criminals were hung from the windows of Palazzo Vecchio as the crowd cheered and jeered. One was burned at the stake right in the middle of the square.
A couple streets down is the Bargello, a tower that, despite being a museum vaunting masterpieces by Donatello and Michelangelo today, served as a prison and torture chamber for criminals and people who had wronged the state, and the Medici- the ruling family of the time.
Surely you can see why all of these places could hoard a nest of vengeful spirits.
Put together all of the bloodshed, murder and warring families Florence has witnessed, and it is hard to believe the city isn't haunted or cursed, underneath all its beauty and art.
For me though, the frightening Florentine fables of the past only increased my fascination with this city.
Like I said, I'm a self-proclaimed masochist.
P.S: I'm not firmly saying Florence is haunted. I've never had a paranormal experience, although listening to my professors tell us stories and urban legends about certain streets and spots when we went on field trips would probably be good enough to convince me. Still, to me, Florence is nothing but a breathtaking city albeit deeply rooted in unfortunate, bloody history.
And with that being said, here's a list of some of "Florence's ghosts" for you to make up your own mind about this. http://www.theflorentine.net/lifestyle/2013/10/florences-phantoms/
Happy Halloweekend!
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