Dear Mayor Renzi,
My name is Terry Cook and I live in Australia, but I am originally from England. I am 71 years old. I have visited Florence many times and I love the city. I sing its praises to all here in Australia and do everything I can to promote it. Is there some way I can participate more fully? Perhaps there is a Friends of Florence society or something like that. Florence has given me so much and I thought I could do something to repay it. I will be in your fair city again soon. Could you please get back to me on this?
With my kindest regards, Terry Cook
Dear Terry,
Please excuse the time that has lapsed since you wrote this letter, but I gather that you come regularly to Florence and, since you touch on a subject that I think others might benefit from knowing about, I am answering you now.
As you know, Florence has long been a city ‘adopted’ by people from all over the world; we have historic communities living in Florence—the English-speaking community is clearly the most relevant to this newspaper! These Florentines have contributed to the life of our city in so many ways. One aspect of the English-speaking community that I admire is its desire to contribute in concrete ways—its penchant for service to the community. A great example of this is the many foreign students in our city who regularly work with the Fondazione Angeli del Bello to help clean the city.
But the Angeli del Bello are not only twenty somethings; people from all walks of life have found great satisfaction in working to keep our city looking as good as it can. So, I would like to direct you to the website of the Angeli del Bello, www.angelidelbello.org, to suggest that you have a look and see if one of the many clean-up activities they carry out might be of interest to you.
Thank you so much for your letter.
Best wishes, Matteo
Those interested in writing to the mayor can send messages and comments via email to redazione@theflorentine.net, stating ‘Write to the Mayor’in the subject line of the email. Emails must clearly state the author’s first name, surname, city and country of birth, and the city and country of residence.
