In "The Prince, " a treatise on the art of politics, the 16th century Italian philosopher NiccoloMachiavelli insisted that compassion got in the way of eminence.
And that's no mean feat in the city of Guelphs and Ghibellines, NiccoloMachiavelli and Lorenzo de' Medici, a place where the present is often weighed against a glorious and bloody past.