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

In this chapter, we focus on this transforming and equally transformative urban visuality of exposed raw meat in order to showcase how nature, and its selective instrumentalization, becomes a new “silent” key to the tourism-heritage-authenticity nexus unfolding throughout central Florence. We do so by focusing on how meat as exposed externalized nature impacts on the tourists’ perception. Specifically, we aim to respond to the following questions: How does “nature” enter the consumptive entanglement between heritage, tourism and authenticity? In what ways does it contribute to the visitor’s experience of eating the bistecca in specifically orchestrated culinary atmospheres? Finally, what is the contribution of “nature” in the heritage-making process?