Piazza Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani

Piazza Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani with the Fountain of Neptune. (Already posted on Instagram)
Piazza Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani con la fontana del Nettuno. (Già pubblicato su Instagram)

Five Turtles

Turtles in the fountain of Villa Mimbelli, Via San Jacopo in Acquaviva. (Already posted on Instagram)
Tartarughe nella fontana di Villa Mimbelli, via San Jacopo in Acquaviva. (Già pubblicato su Instagram)

Turtles in the Sun

Not sure about what they are doing...
Non sono sicuro di cosa stiano facendo...

Search labels: turtle

Bronze Sea Monster

Detail of one of the fountains with sea monsters by Pietro Tacca, in Piazza Colonnella.

(Already posted on Instagram)

See also: Sea Monsters - Sea Monster
External links: Pietro Tacca (Wikipedia)

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Fountain of the Horses

#Livorno -

Detail of one the fountains in front of the chapel of San Giuseppe, inside the hospital complex of the Spedali Riuniti (United Hospitals).

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Fountain of Neptune

A detail of the Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani. (Already posted on Instagram)

See also: Neptune and the Nereids

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Hygieia

The statue of Hygieia, now at the entrance of the “Parterre”, was once part of a fountain designed in 1838 by the architect Pasquale Poccianti, and formerly located at the intersection of Via Garibaldi with Via Galilei.

See also: Parterre - Bowl of Hygieia - More Hygieia - The Gate of the Parterre
External links: Hygieia (Wikipedia)

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Four Taps

A new drinking fountain with four taps in Piazza del Municipio. The body of the fountain was made from the base of an old lamp post and it is placed just behind the stop of the shuttle buses which carry cruise passengers in town. Now our guests will be able to quench their thirst, but there are still no public bathrooms available for them.

See also: Piazza del Municipio - A New Look - Without Water - Habemus aquam!

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The Fountain

A fountain in the inner court of a building in Via Mameli.

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Turtles

There is a world living on this pile of rocks in a fountain of Milla Mimbelli. We have been here a couple of years ago and practically nothing is changed: the same bunch of abandoned turtles slowly circling around this small basin or trying to secure a place on the rocks.

After a swim they must climb on each other to find a place in the sun.

Sometimes they seem to be looking at you...

I wouldn't have ever dreamed to catch my reflection in the eye of a turtle!

See also: Slow Motion

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Piazza della Stazione

Fountain by the sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, in Piazza della Stazione (Train Station Square).

(Why are we posting about Pisa? Click here for an answer)

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Without Water

Livorno, a city of 160,000, is without running water since yesterday. A control unit at the local utility was allegedly struck by a lightning during a storm last night. They probably have never heard of the interesting contraption invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749. Schools will be closed today and we will be on the dry side at least until the late afternoon.

See also: Dried Up - Third Day without Water - Habemus aquam!

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Sea Monster

In the post Four Horses we were able to ascertain the prowess of the sculptor Pietro Tacca with horses, and we have not yet seen the last of it. He was also quite good at doing monsters of the sea variety, like this one on a fountain in our in Piazza Colonnella, at the west end of Via Grande.

Originally, the fountains (1629) should have been placed on the sides of the Four Moors, but the Grand Duke Ferdinando II liked them so much that kept them in Florence and had them erected by his ancestor's equestrian statue in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata (photo). We only got copies, after three centuries...

See also: Sea Monsters - Four Horses
External links: Pietro Tacca (Wikipedia)

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Mascaron Fountain

This mascaron was once placed above a public fountain on a corner of the “Palazzo Pretorio”, in what is now Piazza Grande. After a make over of the building in the late 19th century, the grotesque relief was moved to a new location, inside a man-made grotto in the Parterre public gardens.

Mascaron fountain, Sandro Pertini park, Parterre, January 2013

Mascaron fountain, Parterre, 1901

(Postcard digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

Search labels: postcard
See also: Parterre - Cages & Palm Trees

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Fontana del Duomo

For a few years, until the destruction of the Cathedral during the WWII air raids, a monumental fountain graced the outside of the apse, in what was the “Largo del Littorio” and now is “Largo Duomo”. It was built in 1929 for the “Istituto Nazionale Immobiliare” on a design by Gino Cipriani and G. Macchia.

(Postcards digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

I am sorry I didn't visit your blogs during our stay in Rome, but my aging laptop sternly refused to go wireless through my new Internet key modem.

Search labels: postcard

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Fonte Guglia?

It is not clear if this truncated stele is part of what was once called “Fonte Guglia” (Spire Fountain), whose collocation was however elsewhere, at the corner of “Via delle Spianate” (now “Corso Mazzini”) with “Borgo dei Cappuccini”. The obelisk has already lost its top some time ago due to stability problems.In a view of Livorno from L'Italie à vol d'Oiseau (A bird's eye view of Italy) by Alfred Guesdon (circa 1850) you can easily spot the pristine obelisk at the right end of the green area. It was probably built in the 1830s with parts from other steles, formerly used to delimitate the area around the old city walls where building was not allowed.A postcard showing “Piazza Mazzini” in 1911, now full of young trees, with the obelisk visible on the right.

(Postcard digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

See also: The Two Towers
Search labels: postcard

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Slow Motion

“You are so slow!” - Turtles abandoned by their previous owners in the basin of the fountain of the park of “Villa Mimbelli”. (Picture taken in October 2011)

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Sad Nereid

A Nereid of the fountain of Neptune. I can't really say what is she thinking, Any idea?

See also: What Statues Think - What Leopold Is Thinking - What Time Is It? - Guerrino of Montenero - Fisherman's Thought - Horseback Thinking - Caged Emperor - Garibaldi's Doubt - A Ticket Too Much

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Modigliani in Paris

In the 15th arrondissement, not far from the Parc André Citroën, rue Modigliani is not an impressive street for Parisian standards.It has a nice fountain called “fontaine des Polypores” (Polypores fountain), also commonly known as Modigliani fountain. It is a 1983 work by the sculptor Jean-Yves Le Chevalier.

Search labels: Modigliani
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

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Theme Day: Fountains

This is one of the two Sea Monsters fountains by Pietro Tacca, the same sculptor of our Four Moors.These are obviously recent copies of the originals, made after the last war. In fact, a legend says that the Grand Duke Ferdinando II liked so much the fountains made for Livorno, that he had them installed in “Piazza Santissima Annunziata”, in Florence.

See also: Sea Monsters - Four Moors

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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