Travel Tips

The parents of Gian Gastone de' Medici are an interesting example of marital incompatibility. Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici of Tuscany was an austere and gloomy man. Like some of his Della Rovere ancestors, Cosimo had a inclination towards melancholy and contemporaries claimed that he never laughed. In contrast, Cosimo's wife, Marguérite Louise of France (1645-1721), was beautiful, fun-loving, extremely lively, witty and refined, but also stubborn and selfish.

As a child Gian Gastone was neglected by both his parents, while his elder siblings ignored him, too. For months he could be dreary and listless, alternated by short periods of cheerfulness and ironic witticisms. Contemporaries noted that he often seemed taciturn and sad, weeping alone in his chamber. Some wondered whether he was wholly sane, but Gian Gastone was actually quite smart.

In 1697 Cosimo III wanted Gian Gastone to marry Anna Maria of Saxe-Lauenburg, to the right), a wealthy widow with a daughter. She is described as "appalling and immensely fat" with "ungainly massive limbs". Her main interests were hunting and horses. She had no particular wish to remarry and had no intention of leaving her Bohemian estates. The homosexual Gian Gastone meekly obeyed his fathers wishes, but soon his reaction to married life was one of horror. He took an immediate dislike to Bohemia, to the smell of horses and to possible intercourse with his wife.

For comfort Gian Gastone turned not only to liquor and gambling, but also to his lackey Guiliano Dami, a man of humble birth. He would exert great influence over Gian Gastone for the remainder of his life. After ten months Gian Gastone could bear his wife no longer and hired a residence in Prague.

Back in Prague, Guiliano Dami introduced him to pretty young students, lackeys and footmen. Alcoholism, gambling and sex were doubtful cures for his depression. From time to time Gian Gastone returned to his wife, pressed by his father to beget an heir. In 1704 Gian
Even in Florence Gian Gastone was seldom seen in public during the daylight hours.

In 1713 Gian Gastone's popular elder brother, Ferdinando, died lame and insane as a result of syphilis. When the gloomy Cosimo III died two years later, Gian Gastone succeeded him as Grand Duke of Tuscany. He had little interest in governmental matters, but he chose his ministers well and soon Florence flourished again.

As a result of his curious and unusual lifestyle, Gian Gastone was a prematurely aged, fat drunkard, who looked at the world through a more or less permanent haze of intoxication. Once he went to a reception given by his brother's widow, Violante of Bavaria (1673-1731), and became so drunk that he uttered all kinds of obscenities and was pushed vomiting into his coach, wiping his mouth with his wig.

Guiliano Dami acted as a pimp for Gian Gastone's orgies, seeking out young men and boys. They were called the 'ruspanti', because they were paid a fee from one to five ruspi for their services. In the last years of his life Gian Gastone had around 370 ruspanti, some well born, some women. To endure the dubious embraces of their master they had to be pretty, young, strongly sexed, sufficiently immune to good taste and blessed with a limited sense of smell. .

In 1730 Gian Gastone sprained his ankle and took to his bed and from then on he left it only on some very rare occasions. His bed became the centre of his existence. He lunched in bed around 5 o'clock in the evening and had supper in it around 2 in the morning. The dogs slept with him in bed and it stank of tobacco, drink, vomit and excrement. From time to time his brother's widow organised the cleaning of his bed until she died in 1731. In his later years Gian Gastone became nearly blind and could hardly walk anymore. He let his fingernails, toenails and beard grow. Gradually he became senile. In June 1737 he became seriously ill, suffering from a large stone in the bladder. He died within a month.

A series of attacks on corpses in an Italian mortuary may be the work of long dormant serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, police believe.

They fear the murderer, who last struck in 1985, may have rekindled his campaign, this time against the dead.

Outside the Cappelle del Commiato, a large municipal complex of mortuary chapels set in the hills above Florence, relatives arriving to see their dearly departed have a new reason for despair.

Driven by reports that five corpses had been mutilated in eight days, many visitors were loath to leave their dead relatives alone. Some have mounted all-day vigils beside the coffins.

Although armed police are now stationed outside the complex and at nearby morgues and cemeteries, the bereaved leave their loved ones at dusk with trepidation since the mutilations all appear to have occurred at night.

Most worryingly, the last incident happened after police were posted inside and outside the building.

When the first attack happened, the authorities thought that the disfigured face of the corpse of an elderly woman had been attacked by an animal.

A day later, when the bodies of two other elderly women were found in a similar state, closer inspection revealed that the mutilations had involved the careful removal of skin.

The mutilations are similar to those left on the victims of the Monster of Florence. The serial killer who murdered eight couples in the hills around the city between 1968 and 1985, "signed" a number of his murders by cutting and removing some of the flesh from his victim.

Nino Filasto, a barrister who defended one of the four men later convicted of the killings, the so-called "Drinking Partners", believes that there is a link.

He thinks that the Monster is still at large. "The Monster would like nothing better than to be able to bask again in the limelight," he said.

"The taunting nature of the mutilations is typical of the Monster. It is an exceptionally irrational act, especially in rational place like Florence."

He added: "It is indeed strange that the day before the mutilations began, a newspaper dedicated a page to how an ex-ambassador's life was being ruined after being suspected of commissioning the murders. As if by way of reply, the mutilations began the next day."

Mr Filasto obviously has an interest in suggesting that his client's conviction was ill-founded, but he is not alone is having doubts about the case.

The police had re-opened their inquiry even before the mutilations began, seeking the truth behind suggestions that a satanic sect may have commissioned the killings.

The first guilty verdict in the case was delivered against the late Pietro Pacciani, a Chianti peasant smallholder with a history of sexual violence and murder. He was convicted for seven of the eight double killings.

But he was later acquitted on appeal, and soon afterwards four of his fellow drinking cronies, the so-called Drinking Partners were convicted instead.

Many Florentines believe that the real Monster has never been caught, although Achille Serra, Florence's prefect in charge of security, has scoffed at suggestions that there is a link.

But that provides little comfort for the relatives of the dead. A spokesman for one firm of Florence undertakers, said: "Those who are grieving for their loved ones are very upset. Their sense of horror is real."

For all the gruesome details: http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/monster_florence/1.html