From Trash to Treasures

Trash disposal in ancient cities may have been an afterthought - at least until the plagues.  Modern Florentines, however, have developed a trash system that makes my kids WANT to take out the trash.  In the U.S., we haul our gigantic cans to the curb on a weekly basis, stuffed to the brim with discarded has-beens.  Trash can size seems to be the measure of conspicuous consumption as neighbors try to keep up with the Joneses.

In Florence, there is no weekly garbage pick up.  Florentines seem to favor personal responsibility and make you take your garbage to local collection bins.  Every few blocks, there are garbage dumpsters or diminutive trash compactors.  Households (and businesses) are expected to carry their bags of trash to these collection points.  The trash compactors call to my children like bugzappers to flying pests.  They just want to push down on the foot pedals that open the mouth of the beast.  Small garbage trucks then come around and empty the bins at the central collection points.  Florentines have smaller garbage bags and generally create less trash per capita (having to carry your own trash down the street definitely incentivizes efficiency).  One also sees very little litter - again the personal responsibility thing (pick up after yourself dip-shit).

Another thing that Florentines seem to have mastered is recycling.  Along with the centralized collection points for garbage are recycling bins.  These gigantic containers scream out for the assemblage of things such as tetra paks.  If you don't know what a tetra pak is, look it up and know that they are next to impossible to recycle in the U.S. at this point.  Ah the Italians, always so very ahead of the Americans.

As much as Florentines seem to have figured out how to keep problems associated with trash and blight at bay, they also understand the importance of preserving historical treasures.  Today the kids and I explored the Museo Galileo.  As you might suspect, the Museo Galileo is dedicated to the mathematical and astronomical achievements of Galileo Galilei.  Galileo was responsible for advances in physics as well.  However, he is most famous for his refining of the telescope and related celestial observations.  The museum held a number of maps and globes - and it was very interesting to see how the perception of earth and space morphed over time.  One of the centerpieces of the museum is a gigantic armillary sphere (a representation of the earth and the celestial bodies that orbited around it).

Galileo was ultimately tried for crimes against the church and imprisoned for his beliefs that the earth was not the center of the universe.  While many of Galileo's original works have been lost, the Museo Galileo holds two original telescopes created and used by the genius (from around 1610).

Whether an item is deemed trash or treasure is often determined by the person who currently has possession of the item.  Many of Galileo's works were deemed trash and destroyed by the Church after he questioned the long held beliefs that were the basis of many scriptures.  The irony of it may be that Galileo's inner-most thoughts and beliefs were preserved through a series of letters with one of his illegitimate daughters who lived her life as a nun.  One of the most interesting artifacts at the museum is the bones of Galileo's middle finger.  Many suggest that the middle finger is either pointing to the sky that he loved and studies so ferociously or being flipped to the Church in eternal defiance.