We have heard some rumors that Florence institution Dino Bartolini may possibly be closing. For cooks and Florentines this would be a disaster - Florence without Bartolini is hard to imagine. The effects of the "crisis" (as the Italians I know so readily call it) here in Florence can not be exaggerated - people may want to pretend that not much has changed, but it obviously has, and continues to. Just because the same statues have been in place for 500 years, it doesn't mean other things don't change - today at the top of Via Maggio we saw no less than 5 commercial spaces for rent in the space of 100 meters.
