Authenticity (re-)naturalised. The mise-en-scene of raw meat in the heritagized city of Florence

Focus of this chapter are the visualities of foodification in central Florence, Italy, and especially those of the bistecca local specialty. It centres upon an emerging visual practice within the city’s heritagized retailscape, namely, the exposition of pieces of raw meat behind restaurants’ windows, in order to reflect on the role of “nature” in the tourism-heritage-authenticity local nexus. Approaching the exposed bistecca as “externalized nature”, and recognising the intersecting heritagization processes of both the city and the bistecca itself, the chapter explores the various implicit associations that render nature within the raw meat what we term a “silent key”, which manages to hold together the fragile tourism-heritage-authenticity nexus. An analysis of tourists’ reviews of the boutique-like food spatialities in question reveals that the visualities of raw mean expand beyond the exposed bistecca so as to contribute to the overall touristic experience of heritage consumption, and to the affective atmospheres that render it convincing within the touristic experience.