Porcellino

"Il Porcellino" (Italian "piglet") is the local Florentine name for the bronze fountain of a boar "Il Cinghiale" in the Mercato Nuovo in Florence, Italy. The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca (1577 –1640) in 1612, following a marble Italian copy of a Hellenistic marble original, at the time in the Grand Ducal collections of the Uffizi, but which has since been lost or destroyed. Visitors to "Il Porcellino" toss a coin into the grating at the boar's feet and rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that has kept the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar's body has patinated to a dull brownish-green. Copies of the sculpture can be found around the world.

Sightings Around the World:

*Sydney Hospital - Sydney, NSW, Australia
* [http://www.viansa.com/ Viansa Winery] - Sonoma, CA, USA
*Derby Arboretum - Derby, Great Britain
*Butchart Gardens - Victoria, BC, Canada
*University of Waterloo - Waterloo, ON, Canada
* [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12817/ Sutton Place Park] - New York, NY, USA
*University of Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR, USA
*The Louvre Paris, France
*The Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, MO, USA
* Aix en Provence, France
*Private Residence- Salt Lake City, Utah USA
*Lyndonville, Vermont, USA
*Balmoral Castle - Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK