Figure 1.-- Here Italian boys, probably on their way home from school, about 1960 are stopping to feed the pigeons--a presence in all Italian piazzas. Strangly only one boy has his book bag. The school seems to require the boys to wear suit jackets. It is a piazza which was not entirely local as tourist items are on sale, in fac jt koks like a coiner of a fairly large pizza.

The piazzas in Italy play the role of urban parks with out many plants, but usully a fountain or aleast some kind of water source. A piazza is an open square (usually not a geometric square) or public place in a city or town. They developed during the middle ages, somewhat similar to a plaza without the trees and gardens, and commonly more rectangular than square. They appear to have begun in the medieval era as some kind of public marketplace in Italian towns. The word has developed as a cognate with the French and English 'place' and Spanish 'plaza'. The original Greek word was 'plateia', meaning 'broad street' which the Romans seemed to have adopted and led to 'piazza' in modern Italian. There are many world famous Italian piazzas, but surely the most famous was created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in of course Rome. It is 650 feet (198 m) wide and surrounded by fourfold Tuscan colonnades. This is a rare important piazza wihout a fountain. The word began to be more widely used in Italy (16th century), denoting any large open space with buildings around it and began to influence other countries. The English began calling long covered walks or galleries with roofs supported by columns piazzas (17th centuries). The Americans began using piazza for for verandas forming by projecting eaves (19th century). Today in America, plaza has a similar meanuing to piazza, a public square in a city or town or an open area usually located near urban buildings and often featuring walkways, trees and shrubs, places to sit, and sometimes shops. Here in America we also have a Spanish (Mexican) influence. The modern Italian piazza include a few celebrated world famous examples with fountains that are masterworks by he Renasisance greats. The Trivi Fountaion is the most famous, although not in in a grand piaza, but tucked away almost in an ally parking lot. Bernini is one of the most renowned Italian masters and he designed five gorgeous fountains in Rome which are in imortant piazzas, the most celebrated being the Piazza Navona. Most Italian piazzas are, however, nondiscript neigborhood features. We note range of modest open urban places like Corte dei Preti, a little square with a public well in Venice about 1870. It was probably too modest to be called a piazza. We note the term, 'cortenei'. In addition to the functions of a small park, piazzas are also community gathering points, markets, and places to celebrate special days.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 10:16 AM 9/4/2022
Last updated: 10:16 AM 9/4/2022