![]() ![]() Here also out in the open barbers shaved beards and clipped hair tailors stitched cloth in shaded doorways servants and housewives gathered round the booths of the cooked-food merchants bakers pushed platters of dough into the communal oven and furniture makers and goldsmiths displayed their wares. On open counters in the market, bales of silk and barrels of grain, corn and leather goods were exposed for sale, shielded by awnings from the burning sun. ![]() 4 Here, in the Mercato Vecchio, the Old Market, were the shops of the drapers and the second-hand-clothes dealers, the booths of the fishmongers, the bakers and the fruit and vegetable merchants, the houses of the feather merchants and the stationers, and of the candle-makers where, in rooms smoky with incense to smother the smell of wax, prostitutes entertained their customers. ![]() The busiest parts of the city were the area around the stone bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, which spanned the Arno at its narrowest point and was lined on both sides with butchers’ shops and houses 2 the neighbourhood of the Orsanmichele, the communal granary, where in summer the bankers set up their green cloth-covered tables in the street and the silk merchants had their counting-houses 3 and the Mercato Vecchio, the big square where once the Roman Forum had stood. ![]()
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