Top of the World
The Piazza is dominated by two elements: the first is the monument to the Unification of Italy and the Heroes of the Risorgimento; the second is the Palazzo Medici del Vascello, with the adjacent Comentina Tower. The monument to the Unification of Italy was erected in 1898 for the 50th anniversary of the Statuto Albertino by Leonetto Ottolenghi, a wealthy Jewish merchant of the city, to whom a plaque on one of the buildings in the square is also dedicated. The Palazzo Medici del Vascello, on the other hand, is the result of numerous renovations and rebuilding of the area where it stands. In fact, like the Comentine Tower, there were numerous medieval buildings in the area now occupied by the Palace, and it was not until 1900 that the present neo-Gothic palace was built. The Cometini, or Comentina, Tower is the city's second civic tower, 38.5 meters high, and with a Ghibelline terrace, adorned with swallow-tailed battlements and a double cornice of small arches.
