Florence
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In October 1819, the Shelleys moved into a Pensione in Palazzo Marini. Here, he wrote "Ode to the West Wind" and finished Prometheus Unbound. On November 12 Percy Florence Shelley was born. John Webster has supplied a lovely photo of an incoming fall storm in Florence—taken from Fiesole—which may capture something of the atmosphere of the "Ode":
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| It was not a totally happy time: in April 1819, Shelley came upon a devastating Quarterly Review article by John Taylor Coleridge purporting to review The Revolt of Islam, but actually mounting a personal attack on its author—Coleridge damned Shelley as a plagiarist heretic with an unhealthy interest in incest. The winter cold of Florence resulted in a persistent rheumatic pain in his side which forced him to cancel travel plans to Livorno. Yet the birth of Percy Florence seems to have lifted everyone's spirits: Mary began to recover from the depression she had endured since the death of William in Rome, Claire returned to her singing lessons and a crowded social calendar, and Shelley wandered happily through the Uffizi gallery |
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| The Palazzo Marini faces what is now the Santa Maria Novella railway station, midway between Plaza Adua and Via Nazionale. |
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| It features an interior courtyard and several charming fountains. |
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