Whose penis is that on parade? : history and tourism : intertextual representations of Florence

There are various complex representations that produce ‘Florence’ and the visitor is unavoidably ensnared in them. This paper explores the interrelationship between the various historical representations of the city – the myth of Renaissance Florence and the recent revisionist constructions of the 15th century – and suggests that a process of intertextuality is at work in the tourist Florence. Further, the paper explores the coincidence of Florence as a specular culture in the 15th century and a tourist display culture in the 21st century and what this coincidence reveals about the role of representation in both past and present