Leghorn “la Cara”

Many Italian cities have a qualifying adjective dear to their citizen, that at the first blush seems to be a complete misnomer, but that time and study show to be pre-eminently apt and true. Florence is “la bella”, but this you never comprehend until you come to look down upon the city from the heights of San Miniato or Fiesole.
Lucca is “l'industriosa”, but even after a week's sojourn you rub your eyes and ask if this is not Sleepy Hollow.
Genoa is “la superba”, but her glory is at first sight dimmed by obstrusiveness and omnipresence of the commercial element.And Leghorn is “la cara”. Surely no attribute could be glaringly incorrect. And yet let the traveller cease awhile from travelling and take his rest by the Liburnian shore, let him dip in the tonic waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and walk by its shores in the cool spring days and warm winter afternoons, drinking in the health-giving breezes and feasting on the glories of the Gorgonian Archipelago, let him mingle freely with the cheery, courteous, contented Livornesi, who dearly love to bid a stranger welcome, and he will see that Time has well named Leghorn “la cara”, and that she is dear indeed.

(Montgomery Carmichael, “In Tuscany”
John Murray, London 1901)

Montgomery Carmichael was the British vice consul and then consul for the area of Tuscany (except Florence), Umbria, the Marche and San Marino from 1890 to 1922. After retiring, he lived in Livorno until his death in 1936.
The first photo portrays the monument to Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Piazza della Repubblica.
The second image is a portrait of the consul found in a copy of a now defunct publication: “La Canaviglia” (from the name of the bastion of the Fortezza Vecchia), a precious source for many of these posts.

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