View of the Arno River, Florence. Florence, view of the Arno river and the Apennine mountains. Loy would have seen this view when walking from the Ponte Vecchio to her temporary 1914 residence at #27 Via dei Bardi (the famous bridge at her back). This street runs parallel to the river and just above its walls. Loy moved temporarily to a [...]

#125  Via dei Tritone, Rome. On this busy street in Rome, near the Piazza Barberini, the dark building in the center is the former site of the Galleria Futurista di Giuseppe Sprovieiri, which opened on December 6, 1913. Sprovieri held the First Free Futurist International Exhibition in February and March of 1914. Loy showed four paintings that included 3 [...]

Walking from Saltino to Vallombrosa. The first section of "Three Italian Pictures" is entitled "July in Vallombrosa," which she drafted in July-August of 1914 while on vacation with Mable Dodge, Frances Stevens, and Carl Van Vechten. F.T. Marinetti would visit her that summer. Vallombrosa is in the Reggellow municipality, 30 kilometers from Florence in the Appennines, and [...]

Firenze is Florence Some think it is a woman with flowers in her hair But NO   it is a city with stones on the streets  (Loy, “Giovanni Franchi”) Florence, #54 (middle, tan) and #52 (yellow) Costa San Giorgio The second section of "Three Italian Pictures" is named for the hilly Florence street where Loy lived after [...]

Café Giubbe Rosse, Florence, Italy. The Café Giubbe Rosse was a gathering place for the Futurists and still operates from its location in the Piazza della Repubblica (the former Piazza Viottorio Emmanuelle) and around the block from the Duomo, where Loy's early poem "The Prototype" locates a critique of religious piety that disregards poverty. In the same Piazza, [...]