Feeling Fantastic in Florence

The S. Lorenzo market was closed today due to a strike. Apparently the recent tax hike for the use of public property didn't go down well with the folks who work the open air markets in town.

They're offended -- robbed, they say, by the city in an underhanded scheme to extort money out of honest laborers already suffering through the economic crisis.

Give me a break.

A 170% raise in taxes sure does seem like a lot. That's the number being bandied around. It seemed not even the press would print hard numbers, but I managed to find one that did (in Italian).

From the article, I gather that the most a single merchant (in an indoor space at the S. Lorenzo or S. Ambrosio market) would pay with the new regime is a whopping 500 euro a month.

A 150 euro a month increase for something you're already getting for a song is something to complain about?

I wonder if these merchants have bothered to look at what their brick and mortar counterparts are paying in this town. Even a single professional pays that much for a little office.

I don't get what all the fuss is about.