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Livorno
The First Italian Cosmopolitan City
A compact history of livorno starts in 1103 when Matilda of Tuscany Sold
the small fishing village to the Church of Pisa.
Livorno was a small fortified castle in the control of the Republic of
Pisa: main function was to guard the coast against Saracen incursions and landing by the
hated Genovesi.
After the collapse of Pisa, Livorno was bought by Florence in 1421 and
from that date begins the history of Livorno as port and as a city.
Wool, textiles, grains, coral, timber, minerals, fish were the main items
arriving and leaving Tuscany from Livorno.
Throughout its history the Florentine Signoria tried to grant neutrality
of Livorno: a port available at all times to all nations at war upon the condition that no
hostility inside the Harbour was tolerated. The French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the
British and the Americans enjoyed the neutrality of Livorno for their fleets in the
Mediterranean sea and that neutrality saved many lives on more than one occasion.
It is easy to infer that the social profile of the Livorno population was
from the very beginning of brilliant certainly very intelligent, possibly slightly wicked
refugees or persecuted subjects. The kind of people able to "carry through"
initiatives and enterprises in the tough world of intercontinental trading and shipping.
Daring to the limit of acceptable risk (sometimes beyond) and capable of
"cutting" every soft corner in their path. Friends to friends, foes to foes.
Livorno is today a blend of Tuscan mocking irony, of Yankee efficiency, of
Jewish pragmatism, with a flair of grandeur Granducale, and a sting of anarchism.
Definitely worth a visit: not a dull city at all!
Livorno introduction: excerpts from an article written by Lorenzo Mateoli
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