2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
And to think that you had a good start, Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence.
You got off to a good start with the application, for months, of the Unesco regulation to defend the historic center of the city from the sloppiness imposed by kebab shops, pizzerias, low-grade chinoiseries, internet points and various junk.
Of course, these might seem somewhat restrictive measures, such as that of obliging supermarkets and food shops in the center of Florence to sell at least the 70%, which later became 50% of local products, that is, with a short supply chain, but the basic idea was not strange: to save the small historic center of Florence, among other things Unesco heritage, from the junk army.
And just a few days ago, when a legislative decree was approved, you thundered like this, as if to announce your personal victory:
“The mayors will finally be able to enhance the historic shops of the old cities and at the same time ban commercial activities that are not compatible with the protection of our cultural heritage. Let's take back our historic centers. Because this is a rule that we have been waiting for for years, significant for Florence, fundamental for all of Italy!"
Long live Italy, long live the Republic, we just needed it.
Too bad you then fell on a banana peel.
A banana peel that is rounded in the shape of a meatball McDonald's.
A bad mess, let's face it.
Because it now seems certain, even if the conditional is still there, that you and your peers have granted McDonald's the necessary authorizations to open a new, large store of their own in the center of Florence, in Piazza Duomo.
And even if now you disagree and say no to the fast food giant, you have managed to piss everyone off: Florentines, tourists, Turin, Calabria, office workers and workers. They also founded the Facebook group entitled "NO to McDonald's in Piazza Duomo", which was overwhelmed by avalanches of likes within three seconds flat, a success that NO Tav would have dreamed of.
And the collection of signatures on Change.org has also started, as if that were not enough.
So, either here we are all idiots, or someone, there in your place, is completely lacking that great virtue called consistency, because someone, at the time, while you were thundering at Chinese people and kebabs with sword in hand, will also have believed you and will have well applauded.
Moreover, the justifications on the basis of which the Municipality would have blunted weapons against the opening of the American giant, which has already made it known that it wants to adapt its store to the needs that the historic center of Florence requires, sound like a hold for a ride. providing regular table service, appropriate furnishings, the disappearance of the giant potato chips and McChicken inside the room and so on.
In short, Mc Donald's actually seems to have enjoyed a favorable treatment compared to other less powerful and influential exercises: why not kebabs and McDonald's yes?
Maybe you don't remember that even Slow Food, a bulwark more and more before you of local food and the gastronomic wonders of the beautiful country, was born (also) as a reaction to the opening of the first McDonald's in Rome in 1986? Rome, eh, at least ten times the size of Florence. In proportion now what should Carlin Petrini found, the interstellar coven of the Tuscan finocchiona?
In short, first do the Alberto da Giussano del lampredotto and then, quatto quatto, you place one of those shops that make all the cities of the world similar in Piazza Duomo, no less.
As Andy Warhol said: "The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's". Dear Nardella, you are a true artist, a modern artist. You fool us who didn't understand it.