Florence and tourism in COVID time
We all know too well that our lives have radically changed starting from February 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. This post is an account of how COVID…
New at the Uffizi Gallery
New rooms of the Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery has just opened to the public 14 new rooms located at the first floor, adjacent to the rooms which until recently…
Modern Art Gallery
Visiting the Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Modern Art Gallery) means encountering the great Italian masters of the 1800’s. The collection enriches us with the lights of Macchiaioli, makes us participants in…
The Cinquecento in Florence.
So much happened in the 1500’s: the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation (aka Catholic Revival), Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the worldwide geographic discoveries, not to mention Ariosto and…
The Hospital of the Innocents
Last June 24th the Innocenti Museum was reopened after extensive renovation work and just after Christmas the facade was unveiled. The Museum is housed in the complex built by Filippo…
WWII and Liberation in Florence
Italy’s Liberation Day (Festa della Liberazione), or simply April 25 is a national Italian holiday commemorating the end of the Italian Civil War (started September 8th 1943) and the end…
The Spanish Chapel
The Spanish Chapel was originally planned around 1345 as the chapter room of Santa Maria Novella by Fra Jacopo Talenti, and was financed by Buonamico Guidalotti who is buried at…
The New Museum of the Duomo
After one year of intense work (and some 10 years planning!) the Duomo Museum finally has reopened and it is going to be a highlight of your next Florence visit….
Divine Beauty at Palazzo Strozzi
Palazzo Strozzi in Florence hosts a winter exhibition Divine Beauty dedicated to modern sacred art that is part of a program of initiatives related to the Ecclesiastical National Congress, including…
The Florentine Iris: history of a symbol
The Red Lily is the symbol, the emblem that represents Florence and is inspired by the white iris, very common around the city. The best way to see the beautiful…
Leonardo, Vasari and Dan Brown
Federico Giannini is a young art historian who wrote this article on his popular website Finestre sull’arte (and who kindly allowed us to translate it. If you read Italian you…
April Blood
It is April 26th 1478 and the setting is the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore where a mass is being celebrated. The Medici have been in charge of the…
Celebrate the Florentine New Year
From the seventh century the Catholic Church officially celebrates the Annunciation (and the Incarnation of Christ) on March 25th, exactly nine months before Christmas. In Florence up until 1750 this…
What awaits us in 2015: exhibitions
Between the City of Florence, the Museums, Expo and Palazzo Strozzi we expect a year of extraordinary exhibitions and cultural events. We will see which ones will be memorable, which…
Cellini on Ponte Vecchio
The restoration of the fountain on Ponte Vecchio A few months ago the restoration of the fountain-monument to Benvenuto Cellini was finally completed and water started flowing again. It has…
The legend of the Florentine T-Bone steak
The Origin The steak has an old and fascinating story, truly a legend. According to tradition the birth of this specialty is connected to the Medici family: they used to celebrate…
A Florentine readlist
This is of course a work in progress, we will try to keep the list up to date and enrich it with suggestions and comments. Florence Margaret Haines (ed.) – The…
Happy Birthday Pinocchio!
The anniversary Once upon a time there was …..an anniversary! Well, my dear readers there were in fact 2 anniversaries; because July 7th has been twice an important date…
Visiting gardens in Florence and around.
The Tuscan landscape has been charming travelers since the Middle Ages: the construction of villas, to enjoy views and sights, and of gardens, to experience the emotion of landscape in…
Walk in Oltrarno
If you have decided to stroll in the Oltrarno, maybe after a tour of the main sights, the left bank has more wonders to offer and allows you to enjoy…
La finestra di Hitler
La seconda guerra mondiale ha lasciato ferite profonde anche a Firenze. Mentre il centro della città si salvò quasi completamente dagli attacchi delle bombe, la zona lungo il fiume fu…
Markets in Florence
Markets of Florence A visit to Florence markets allows the visitor an opportunity to experience daily life and become part of it: colorful and noisy a stop at a market…
Pontormo and Rosso at Palazzo Strozzi
The magnificent altarpiece by Rosso Fiorentino on display at Palazzo Strozzi summarizes the meaning and sense of the exhibition: in spite of the celebrity and notoriety of the works it…
5 art sites to see in Florence for free
The offer of art in Florence is unrivalled, but tickets and entrance fees can become a worry when there is so much to see. Fortunately there is a lot of…
The wise princess: Anna Maria Medici
That Florence is still overwhelmingly full of artistic masterpieces we owe in greater part to the Medici family and, more specifically, we are all indebted to a woman of extraordinary culture…
Magi, Medici and Stars
The Three Kings and the beginning of the story The origins of The Ride of the Magi in Florence can be traced to the 15th century when a secular brotherhood…
All the Michelangelos in Florence
A first approach to Michelangelo as sculptor and architect should focus on the most famous works visible in Florence, but you can discover more in order to have an overview of his…
Machiavelli’s Prince 1513-2013
On February 19th Florence celebrated the 500th anniversary of Niccolò Machiavelli’s imprisonment with an historical parade that followed his footsteps from via Guicciardini, where Machiavelli lived, to the Palazzo Vecchio,…
Visiting Villa Caruso
Spring has finally arrived, more and more events are held on weekends and most of them take place outside to enjoy the sun before it gets hot. Villa Caruso was…
Springtime of the Renaissance at Palazzo Strozzi
A new exhibit on Renaissance In mass media and popular culture there is a trend to identify the Renaissance with Botticelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo and this creates a…
Visiting Florence with children.
As Florence with guide we have put together activities in museums and in the city aimed at families, but here are some suggestions for everyone travelling with children to Florence. Fortunately…
Florence with Cinema
Florence in the movies: locations, movie theaters, actors As far as we know the first showing of a Lumière film took place in Pitti Palace in 1897, and Florence…
Those strange road signs in Florenze
Many people visiting Florence stop quizzically to look at some strange road signs scattered around the city. Pass on arrows running into hearts, no way signs transformed into a pillory…
Brunelleschi tour of Florence
“He was given to us by Heaven to give new form to architecture” said the biographer Giorgio Vasari about Filippo Brunelleschi, who had as a matter of fact started his career as a sculptor: His…
Remembering the flood.
On November 4th 1966 Florence was ravaged by a flood that covered the city and surrounding areas with water and mud. After 2 days of heavy rain the Arno river…
The Thirties: exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi
The exhibition in Palazzo Strozzi this winter calls attention back on a controversial and complex historical period, after a long silence. There is a great variety of styles and trends…
Andrea del Sarto, a poem by Robert Browning
But do not let us quarrel any more, No, my Lucrezia; bear with me for once: Sit down and all shall happen as you wish. You turn your face, but…