Sundial of Marina di Cecina (Livorno)
Latitude 43° 17' 44" N - Longitude 10° 29' 47" E
This horizontal analemmatic sundial spread over an area of about 100 square meters in a splendid position in the area in front of Viale della Vittoria on the sea promenade at the Terrazza dei Tirreni. A fishing net, a fish, a starfish, buoys and flags recall the oldest maritime activity: fishing. A theme all too obvious for a sundial positioned on the seashore; but behind fishing there is a world of symbols that recall the time, the reflective expectation of the fisherman, the folk wisdom of the proverbs, the orientation and the life in close contact with the sea and the sun: the two main actors of this sundial. The days of the year are indicated by the date scale positioned on the South/North meridian line, at the center of the sundial; the set of the scale of the dates and the twelve orthogonal lines that indicate the first day of each month forms a stylized fishbone. The sundial, along an imaginary elliptical line, has nineteen hour points, from four to twenty-two, represented by buoys and floats connected by an irregular curvilinear rope; to help time reading were also placed six flags of signaling above the buoys at the hour points of six, twelve and eighteen. Everything is completed by a stylized fishing net, two starfishes and a hermit crab. Time is read from the dial by noting where the shadow cast by a person placed with the feet together on the date scale and preferably rigidly raising a arm, crosses hour points. A fine combination of colors characterizes this sundial made of a background in polished yellow marble grit (Veneziana technique) with the various elements embedded thanks to the Palladian technique using both domestic and foreign stones and marbles: Spanish yellow stone, yellow Siena, Azul Macaubas, Azul Bahia, red Levanto, black Portoro, red of France and Bardiglio.
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