Heraldry in Florence, Part Eleven

I’m sure that at one time or another you’ve seen one of those fundraising programs where you can “buy a brick” for some construction or other, and for your donation, they’ll carve your name on the brick before it’s put in place, thus marking you forever after as one of the donors.

Well, it seems that this is an older practice than I had previously realized. Along the front steps leading up to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, I found a number of the steps where not only were the names of the individuals carved into their face, but also the coats of arms of those folks.

Now, how cool is that? It makes me wonder if something like this couldn’t be used nowadays, in these trying economic times. Need more money for that underfunded construction project?  Heraldry to the rescue!