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The Florentine
Larry Basirico is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Elon University, where he worked for 37 years before retiring in 2020. In fall 2013, he served as Elon’s study abroad faculty-in-residence at Accademia Europea di Firenze. He is an author of an introductory sociology textbook and an occasional guest writer for The Florentine on matters pertaining to culture and society.
Florence markets seem to be everywhere from the moment you leave Santa Maria Novella train station. They are a way of life for Florentines.
“The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it. Art is the transforming experience.” —Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living What is ...
I absolutely walk on the smooth flags of Florence for the mere pleasure of walking, and lie in its atmosphere for the mere pleasure of living. I hardly think there ...
Italian, like all languages do for their respective cultures, conveys an essence of what it means to be Italian that cannot be fully understood using other languages.
In Under the Tuscan Sun (1996), a memoir about her experiences in Cortona, a small quintessentially medieval city, Frances Mayes eloquently fostered the fantasy and romance of life in Tuscany: ...
The city of the Renaissance may be the least likely place to think about the concept of artificial intelligence, broadly defined as the ability of machines or computers to think, ...
“Anni e bicchieri di vino non si contano mai” (Age and glasses of wine should never be counted). “Amici e vini sono meglio vecchi” (Friends and wine improve with age). ...
Food and Italy are practically synonymous. Appreciating and embracing the gastronomic splendor of the Italian meal is one of the most remarkable experiences for tourists and permanent dwellers alike. Indeed, ...
When we returned home to the United States after our four-month stay, I gushed effusively about Florence. Everyone asked what I enjoyed so much about it. I said ...
Besides its unique look and unmistakable beauty, what is it about Florence that stimulates our senses and intellect and captures our hearts like nowhere else? That is the question that ...
My first two visits to Florence, in 2007 and 2008, were brief, a few days each. Dean of international programs at Elon University at the time, I was there ...
If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.-Émile Durkheim Experiencing Florence includes far more than a discovery of its artistic treasures: it is also a discovery of self and others. This
Chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire. No matter where you go or turn, you will always end up at home. —Italian proverb Dr. Larry Basirico lived in Florence in the fall of 2013 while serving as visiting professor at Accademia Europea di
Experiencing Florence includes far more than a discovery of its treasures; it is also a discovery of self. This is the conclusion of Larry Basirico, professor of sociology, chair of ...
“Man’s most fundamental need is to experience his existence as meaningful.” —Christian Norberg-Schulz Whether you are a first-time visitor, a returnee or a permanent resident, it is nearly impossible ...
For many Americans ‘old’ means a few hundred years, and ‘history’ is found in books, museums and historic sites. For Western Europeans, a few hundred years is borderline ‘contemporary.’ There are very few places on Earth where the ubiquity of the distant past is
