The ugly pig, "il Porcellino!"

The first thing I ever wanted to see in Florence was the Porcellino (piglet) statue. My nonna Liliana lived with a count & countess and grew up on Via Lambertesca in a palace that was damaged during WW2. Every day she would walk by the Porcellino statue or "the ugly pig" as she would fondly remember it. She wrote in her diary; "I remember walking by that pig every day to go to work, to see a movie, or go to meet my girlfriends for lunch. That ugly statue was always surrounded by tourists, rubbing its snout. I couldn't stand to see that ugly pig!" 

You see, living with a count and countess, Liliana was exposed to grandeur and luxury on a daily basis and always loved being fancy and enjoyed all the beautiful things in life. Florence was so beautiful to her, I recall many, many times her saying "it's the most beautiful city in the world with the most beautiful people too!" And this pig was an eyesore to her so naturally, she was very opinionated about this pig! Of course, hearing about this ugly pig my entire life I HAD TO GO SEE IT! 

The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca shortly before 1634 but the one you see today is a modern copy, cast in 1998 by the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry and replaced the original in 2008; while Tacca's bronze is currently sheltered in the Museo Stefano Bardini in Palazzo Mozzi. My first visit to Florence was in 2014 and of course, it was the 2nd place on my list of must-sees (the palace on Via Lambertesca was first!). Turns out, the piglet fountain is pretty famous and located at the leather market (Mercato Nuovo) on Via Santa por Maria, which is the main street that leads to the Ponte Vecchio. Originally intended for the Boboli Garden, it was moved to the Mercato Nuovo and faced east but to make more space for market traffic it was later moved to the side facing south, where it still stands.

A major tourist attraction, visitors to Il Porcellino put a coin into the boar's gaping jaws, with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck, and they rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Florence, a tradition that the Scottish literary traveler Tobia Smollett first noted in 1766, which has kept the snout in a state of polished golden sheen while the rest of the boar's body has patinated to a dull brownish-green. 

This has become one of my favorite things to do when I visit Florence as it makes me feel a bit closer to my nonna and I've returned to Florence many times since so the tradition has not failed me! I hope if you visit the Porcellino you think of Liliana saying in her heavy Italian accent "Oh, that ugly pig!" I know I do...