Taxi therapy in Tuscany

A female taxi driver’s Chrysler becomes a vehicle for fun and joy for children suffering from cancer , writes

Caterina Bellandi twirls gaily by her first taxi, now a monument in the Garden of Horticulture in Florence, Italy.

THE black-and-white checkered floor of the taxi looks a bit like home flooring. The seats are yellow, purple and orange leather, while the pea-green interiors are plastered with daisy stickers. When riding in the cab, passengers can play with plastic swords and a megaphone, or make soap bubbles.

Welcome to Milano 25, the Florentine taxi that for 16 years has offered free travel, by day, between a paediatric hospital and the homes of young cancer patients — and, in the evening, carried regular clients around Tuscany’s main city.

Its soul and operator, Caterina Bellandi, 52, is better known in Florence and across the country as Zia Caterina (Auntie Caterina). She drives her Chrysler taxi wearing a flashy green-and-azure cloak topped by a straw top hat decorated with pompoms, and fabric roses and gerberas. An army of little bells sound at the movement of her wrists and of her necklace, a polka-dot rosary of yellow, orange and red.

“This is not a show,” she said, looking in the rear mirror through her fluorescent glasses. Her warm smile was accented by her red lipstick. “My children may be sick, but they can and have to be happy.”

Bellandi’s partner, the original owner of Milano 25, died prematurely in 2001. His taxi licence was his legacy to her.

“I found such a profound love in him and in his death that I decided to make his taxi live on,” she explained. “I wanted to pay homage to him, making his Milano 25 the most wonderful cab in the world, so special to be remembered by anyone.”

Bellandi surely succeeded. With a sense of style reminiscent of Mary Poppins, she and her taxi are one-of-a-kind.

Not even Patch Adams, the US doctor in a clown suit whom she highly regards for his work with sick children, could get her to wear the outfits that those attending his clown tours in hospitals worldwide usually Caterina Bellandi, left, visiting cancer patient

Giulia Di Minno, 5, at her family’s home in Florence, Italy. put on. In 2007, she drove 2,897km from Florence to Moscow to attend his course in clown therapy, but she refused to wear a red nose.

“I am not a clown,” she explained. “I am a taxi driver. So I do taxitherapy.”

Her creative idea initially ran into city rules. Taxis usually look alike here, and hers carries unusual items, like a stuffed figure of Disney’s dwarf Grumpy on the passenger seat. The local authorities also objected to the pictures she glued to the