Il Porcellino, Florence

A copy of a copy of a copy

Pietro Tacca cast the bronze boar in the 1630s. He was working from a marble in the Medici collection, which was itself a Roman copy of a lost Hellenistic Greek original. The chain of imitation is four links long before you get to the animal.

The boar you touch today is not Tacca's either. His bronze was moved indoors to protect it from weather and wear, and what stands in the loggia is a modern cast. This disappoints some visitors, which is a little unfair: the ritual was never about the metal being old, and the polish on the snout is real, made by real hands over a very long time.

Two rituals, often confused

The first is simple. Rub the boar's snout and you will return to Florence. This is why the nose is the colour of new brass while the rest of the animal is nearly black — bronze oxidises, and skin polishes it back.

The second is the wishing ritual proper, and it has a test built into it. Place a coin in the boar's mouth so that it falls with the water. If it drops through the grate beneath the muzzle, your wish is granted. If it catches on the bars, it is not.

Very few wishing traditions anywhere allow for failure. Most are unfalsifiable by design — you throw, you hope, nothing contradicts you. The Porcellino gives you an answer within a second, which makes it closer to a game than a prayer, and probably explains why people queue.

Where the money goes

The coins are collected from beneath the grate and have long been directed to charitable work in the city, most consistently to organisations helping children. The amounts are modest by Trevi standards and the arrangement is a local one, but it follows the same instinct: money given to water is not money anyone should pocket.

If you go

The loggia of the Mercato Nuovo is a two-minute walk from the Ponte Vecchio and is open to the street, so the boar is accessible at any hour. In daylight there is usually a short queue and always a camera.

The market stalls around it sell leather and souvenirs; the boar itself costs nothing but the coin, and nobody minds if you use the smallest one in your pocket.

Questions people ask

Do you rub the nose or use a coin?

Both, but they do different things. Rubbing the snout is the promise of a return to Florence. The coin dropped through the grate is the wish.

What if the coin does not go through?

Tradition says the wish is not granted. Nothing stops you trying again with another coin, and most people do.

Keep reading

• Bath, England

  The Sacred Spring at Bath

  Before wishing fountains there were sacred springs. The one at Bath gave up twelve thousand Roman coins — and a hundred letters to a goddess.

• Glastonbury, England

  Chalice Well, Glastonbury

  A spring that runs red with iron and has never been known to fail. Here you leave a ribbon or a word, not a coin.

• Prague, Czechia

  St John of Nepomuk, Charles Bridge

  Prague's wishing ritual costs nothing and involves no water. You put your hand on a bronze relief worn gold by millions of others.