As you’re walking around the city, check out these three under-the-radar spots to see public art in Florence and Rome.
Le Cure Street Art
En route to the open-air market at Piazza Le Cure, spending a few moments in the underpass reveals a rotating menu of Florence’s best street art, an all-around antidote to the city center. There’s usually a whole new network of paintings here each time you visit. For twenty years, this place has been maintained by the “angel of the underpass,” a Sicilian man who goes by the name of Totò Dinamite.
Michelangelo's Graffiti
Next to the David, a brick features a crude face carved around 1499, when Michelangelo had returned to Florence to carve the aforementioned statue. Legends abound about this thing -- that he was characaturing a guy who wouldn’t shut up, and did so with his back to the wall -- and though we have no idea if Michelangelo even did it, it’s an odd little thing to see.
Street Art in Ostiense
In recent years, Ostiense has taken on a lot more color. Thanks to artists like the Bolognese artist Blu, with his “thousand faces” adorning a former air force building-turned squat, the neighborhood has not only taken on a personality, but a pathway that uses aesthetics to transform the blight. Opposite Blu’s “Mille Volte”, you’ll see “Hunting Pollution” by Milanese artist Federico “Hyena Cruz” Massa, with teal waves surrounding an endangered heron with a fish in its beak. As you're walking around, see which murals catch your eye.
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