Roberto Cavalli Club, as hundreds of Florentines demonstrate against it, future mayor of Florence signs petition to close down its monumental entrance

Hundreds of residents of the old part of Florence demonstrated on Wednesday, June 17, to close down the monumental entrance to the Cavalli Club in Piazza del Carmine in Florence.

Matteo Renzi, who almost certainly will win the ballot on Sunday to become the new mayor of Florence, attended the demonstration and signed the petition launched by the parents of the Fioretta Mazzei kindergarten against the gigantic glass and steel structure which has taken away the area where the children used to play.

This monumental entrance to the Cavalli Club stands next to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine, one of Florence's most important monuments

Matteo Renzi, candidate mayor, signs the petition and promises not to renew permission for the Roberto Cavalli monumental entrance should he be elected.


Children invent new ways to use the Cavalli platform


Holding hands, hundreds of residents, parents and children dance around the monumental entrance


Joseph Danilo Jacoviello (left), Cavalli Club owner and son-in-law of Roberto Cavalli, observes the demonstration with a worried look


Martino Zingarelli and Angela Esposito, famous Florentine street artists, prepare a painting with the children

Come to the sit-in against the Roberto Cavalli Club in Florence

On June 17, at 7 p.m., the parents of the Fioretta Mazzei kindergarten are organizing a sit-in in front of the Roberto Cavalli Club in Piazza del Carmine in Florence.

The Roberto Cavalli Club, which stands next to one of the most significant monuments of Italian art, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine, has put up a gigantic steel structure, a kind of monument to kitsch design, which takes up the only open space left in the area, blocking out the light from the windows of the kindergarten and taking up the space where children used to play.

A symptomatic episode of how one of the most beautiful cities in the world is being sold out to private interests.

All who appreciate what is left of our city will be most welcome at the sit-in.

To appreciate the picture - cavalli in Italian means "horses

The Cavalli Club's steely idea of Florence

The Cavalli Club takeover in Piazza del Carmine... the huge, fixed steel structure in front, blocking out the light from the windows of the kindergarten (in the background).