How does the piazza provide a lens towards Italian culture?

Piazzas are very common in Italy. Especially in bigger cities like Florence, Venice, and Rome. After visiting all of these cities I have started to develop a greater understanding of Italian culture and life by walking through these piazzas and seeing everything that is inside them. This includes people meeting to go to lunch, famous sculptures, and even fountains.

One thing I have noticed is people always meet in piazzas. I believe the main reason for this is because Italian houses are so small and compact that it makes it hard to have enough room to have friends or family over. This is contradictory to the Americans, who like to invite people over to their spacious houses and show off what they have. This could be different things like a new pool or deck, or maybe even just a nice furniture set with a big flat screen TV. Because Italians can't do this, they show off by the clothes and the accessories that they wear. From Armani suits to Rolex watches, Italians can quickly gather information from each other on how successful they are by what they are wearing.  

When walking through a piazza you can see many different things. Sometimes you may be in an empty square in the middle of a small neighborhood. All of the shutters are closed and you could virtually hear a pin drop. These are my favorite because it allows you to take in all the beauty around you in the architecture of the building, or the clothes being hung to dry outside windows. I feel this shows the tranquility of Italian culture, of how laid back their lives can be, finding the beauty in the smallest things. Barzini says something similar when he says, “Dull and insignificant moments in life must be made decorous and agreeable with suitable decorations and rituals. Ugly things must be hidden, unpleasant and tragic facts swept under the carpet whenever possible.” I see this the most in empty piazzas. There is not one thing happening in them, yet everything is elegant and all the ugliness seems to be vacant, as if swept under the carpet.

Most piazzas aren’t empty however, a lot of them are full of hundreds of people. They could be crowding around a famous fountain, or maybe a famous church that is nearby. Stalls are all around with vendors trying to sell various little trinkets. In the corner a trio of men will be playing a classic rock song like “Hotel California”.  People will group together to listen and then donate coins into the empty guitar case. It is in these types of piazzas that you can really see different cultures come together. I say different cultures because a lot of times it is tourists that are gathered around the fountains and sculptures. The simplest things like children kicking a ball or a small trio of men playing music just seems so much more beautiful when in these piazzas. I like when Barzini says, “Once foreigners begin to understand that things are not always exactly what they look like, that reality does not have to be dull and ugly, they are no longer the same.” I have come to feel a similar experience when walking through different piazzas. You really do realize that the littlest things in life are beautiful in their own way. I believe I will take that with me wherever I go in Italy. I have the Italian piazzas to thank for that.

One last thing I like about Piazzas is how much history you are standing in. Each piazza has its own history. Simon Schama describes this well in Smiles when he says, “But the Fountain of the our Rivers does, after all, stand in a circus, for the Piazza Navona preserves in its oval shape the stadium of the Agonale Circus, where, during the reign of the emperor Domitian, games were regularly held. From the late fifteenth century, the piazza was the site of a thriving Wednesday market, where hawkers sold all kinds of food, wine, household wares, and tools. And as was often the case with such places, it rapidly developed into a kind of street fair, too, with jugglers and quacks jostling for space amidst the throng.” This just shows how much history you can find in just one piazza. I find it very interesting to hear about the history of the piazza and then seeing how it has transformed over the years.

One thing I do know is that I will miss the piazzas when I return home. There really is nothing like it.