Wedding in Florence!

Aug 22, 2024

Florence has always been more than just a beautiful city to me; it’s the very place of my family’s history. Back in 1966, my father, Egidio Marchese, a young civil lawyer who had recently graduated from the University of Florence worked at a law office on Via Cavour. That same year, my mother, Irene Jagusiak, travelled from Canada to Italy to study Italian history abroad in Florence for one year as part of the MA program at Middlebury College in Vermont. They were destined to meet!

Irene stayed at a pensione called Pensione Becattini, located at the corner of Via Alfonso La Marmora and Viale Giacomo Matteotti. She shared a spacious room overlooking the busy street with a fellow Canadian, Olga. The pensione was run by a woman named Signora Becattini, who took it upon herself to look after the girls. Every morning, she served them a hearty breakfast of bread, pastries, jam, fresh fruit, and juice, and always accompanied by a generous helping of good old-fashioned advice. Her only rule was simple: no boys allowed in the pensione.

One day, Olga, who had met some local students at the University of Florence, introduced Irene to a young civil lawyer, who had recently graduated and was working at a law office around the corner from the pensione on Via Cavour. From that day on, the lawyer, would take a detour on his way to work just to pass by the pensione. Each morning, under the watchful eye of Signora Becattini, he would pause, glancing up at Irene’s open window before continuing on his way. This daily ritual played out for weeks, until one morning, Signora Becattini could no longer contain herself. As the man approached the pensione, she looked up at Irene’s window and called out, “Irene! The lawyer is here. He’s waiting for you!” That lawyer, of course, was my father.

Eleven months later, Irene and Egidio were married at Palazzo Vecchio, and celebrated their reception on the rooftop patio of my father’s family home in Florence.

They would then travel back to Canada, where my father studied for his MA and PhD at the University of Toronto. He then went on to teach Italian literature at the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto. My mother began teaching French and Italian languages at high school with the Toronto District School Board. My mother's roommate in Florence and Maid of Honour, Olga Zorzi Pugliese, later became the Chair of the Italian Studies department at the University of Toronto.

Throughout my teenage years, we travelled from Canada to Italy many times, spending entire summers in Florence visiting relatives and going to the sea. The inspiration for my artwork comes from these memories of the daily rhythm of my life in Florence during this time. I’ve travelled to Italy many times as an adult and I always return to Canada with beautiful memories.

Many of the artworks in my 2023 exhibition were accompanied by commentaries written by my father. Unfortunately, my father passed away suddenly in the spring of 2023, and therefore that exhibition was dedicated to him.