There is a mysterious brick on Palazzo Vecchio. At the bottom right corner of the entrance façade, the brick is easily distinguished by the carving of a face on its surface. The identity of the Importuno (“annoyer”) giving the name to the brick (“the stone of the annoyer”) is uncertain, but the name of its creator is quite known: Michelangelo Buonarroti. The man is known to have annoyed him so much with his chattering, that the artist – holding a chisel behind his back – nonchalantly carved out the man’s face without even looking at the wall. Another legend tells that the Pietra dell’Importuno bears the face of a man sentenced to death, that struck the artist for its intensity.
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