In the absence of loggias, an important element of transition
between private domestic life and the urban spaces (streets,
piazzas) consisted of the street benches set along the street at
the base of the houses. The citizens loved to stop "and chat
and gossip about this or that person who passed along the
street" (B. Varchi). The street benches were ever-present
and built of masonry faced with stone in the finer palaces and of
simple masonry or covered with boards in the ordinary houses,
often in relationship to the shop entrance.
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