They say every paradise has a pit beneath it. Florence, for me, has always shimmered like a painted heaven — that impossible marriage between reason and rapture. As a child, I was bewitched by her domes and frescoes, the polished glow of Botticelli’s Venus, and the ghostly gaze of Savonarola who once tried to burn … Continue reading The Devil in the Duomo: Reflections on the Monster of Florence