Looking Back on Florence: How a Knock on the Door Can Change Everything

September 2023. My good friend and travel companion and I had a two-week trip to Florence planned for months. We researched the Santa Spirito area where we planned to stay, the Pitti Palace for special exhibits, concerts going on, maybe a side trip or two.

We never dreamed our plans might take an unexpected detour, but for me, that has always been the real adventure of travel. Off the beaten path is often the opportunity for learning what one would never learn from a tour book.

Our VRBO was set in what was part of a noble family’s Palazzo Tre – 7 Via Maggio.

Just inside the living room door, a painting of the Ricasoli family famous for their perfection of Chianti – told the story a family who helped make the wine an indispensable part of Italian life.

Within a day, we’d learned the location of the neighborhood grocery store, the best place to hang our clothesline for maximum sunlight, and how to work the oven, washing machine, and lights

As was our nightly custom, we’d watch the crowd that gathered on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, grab a pizza on the way home, then stay up as late as we could before falling asleep.

But this night we didn’t go home after our pizza.

We noticed the light was on in the ground floor below, and it seemed the occupant kept late hours, just like we did. Why not check out this fellow night owl?

I knocked on the door and within seconds, a bright-eyed, cheerful-looking fellow dressed in jeans and a t-shirt who spoke English with an accent introduced himself as Wilson, our Pallazzo neighbor. He invited us into his studio, which doubled as his loft bedroom, and a small space crammed with easels, sketches, paintings, complete, half-done, and a table that contained jars of water where he kept brushes. When I asked for his sketch pad, he gave it to me. It’s a treasure I love.

Here lived Wilson–the artist genius who became a teacher, tour guide, and friend until the day we left. The night that began with a knock on the door turned into a night that lasted till 2:00 AM, and his invitation for us to learn as much about art as we could absorb

Not for money. Not for a business deal. Not because he was lonely. Wilson wanted to share his love of art and Florence with two women who found the true soul of Florence in an artist.

For almost every day thereafter, Cheryll and I appeared at his studio for Art 101. He took us the steps of the Uffizi and asked us to draw a statue. Impossible! He took us to his studio and asked us to draw a jar. Are you kidding? He taught us how to use yolk for oils. Fascinating.

Last year I commissioned two paintings: a landscape of Tuscany and a clown.

When he asked how I wanted him to paint the clown. I told him please no monkeys or a circus clown. Use your imagination. Surprise! The Clown from Hell!

I don’t know what the inspiration for Wilson’s dark, scary creature was. But the landscape is in the living room not a bedroom. Someday I may find a true crime story where he’ll he the star.