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Alexandra Korey is Head of Digital at The Florentine's sister company, Flod. She specializes in social media & digital strategy for tourism, culture and wine. In a past life, she was an art history professor with a PhD from the University of Chicago. For fun, she writes her blog www.arttrav.com, where she's been reporting on art, culture and life in Italy since 2004.
Cristina Acidini, the current director of Florentine state museums, will soon have to give up the direction of the Uffizi, Accademia and Bargello. The announcement came on July 17, 2014, as part of an Italy-wide reorganization of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Mibact). This is one
Jacopo Ligozzi was an important painter in the court of Francesco I de’ Medici, where he was noted as active from 1577 until his death, in Florence, in 1627. For this reason, the majority of his works are housed in the Uffizi and Pitti collections. This new exhibition at
The Madonna della Misericordia, a fresco in the Bigallo from 1342, is newly legible thanks to a careful restoration funded by the no-profit foundation Friends of Florence. In the Sala dell’Udienza Vecchio in the Museo of the Bigallo, the first location of the Confraternity of the Misericordia,
A new report by researchers from the National Research Council (CNR) and Geosciences Institute at the University of Florence provides scientific proof that Michelangelo’s David risks crumbling under his own weight -- though only in the case of high-stress conditions such as an earthquake. This news has
On the weekend of May 3–4 at Impact Hub Firenze, fifteen volunteer programmers divided into three working groups took part in a 48-hour ‘hackathon’ to develop software that will make a difference in the lives of 2,000 victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
The grassroots phenomenon ‘Invasioni Digitali’ is back this year from April 24 to May 4, 2014, after making unexpected headlines in 2013. Brainchild of Fabrizio Todisco and supported by an ever-growing team, the annual event is intended to promote digital sharing of culture. ‘Invaders’ enter
Prato-based photographer Alessandro Moggi has been photographing all his adult life. Recently, he had the opportunity to travel to Burma with the American photographer Steve McCurry, considered one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography. The results of this trip, in photos and a short, amusing documentary, will
It is easy to see why the artists Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino have long been lumped together under the label ‘Mannerism’: both were born in 1494, just a few ...
The return of an important copy after a painting by Leonardo da Vinci to Florence is being hailed by most as a triumph, though by one critic as a scam. Outspoken critic Vittorio Sgarbi is probably amongst the minority of those who believe the famous Tavola Doria is a &
Thirty days to raise 5,000 USD to fund the printing of a new book about Michelangelo’s David: that was the challenge that The Florentine staff set on launching a crowdfunding campaign on March 17 to cover printing costs for From Marble to Flesh: The Biography of Michelangelo&
March 24 – 30, 2014, is international #museumweek on Twitter. Across Europe, museums are opening up channels of communication with their online visitors. Over the course of the week, daily themes with hashtags guide the discussion. For example, on Tuesday March 25, the theme was to challenge users with
The Doni Tondo, a tempera-on-wood painting dated between 1506 and 1508, in the collection of the Uffizi, is one of the few completed by Michelangelo and represents an essential masterpiece of High Renaissance art. To mark the 450th anniversary of Michelangelo’s death, the Doni Tondo
Thousands of Instagram users temporarily immortalize Florence each day. The idea for the photography social network, which was purchased by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately a billion dollars, was developed in Florence, when co-founder Kevin Systrom took a photography class as a study-abroad student here in 2004&
Philippe Daverio is one of the greatest popularizers of art on Italian television and an important opinion leader (though he hates being called a ‘critic’). His TV program Passepartout, which ran for over a decade, is the prime example of his incredible ability to converse about literally any
Tuscany is not synonymous with ‘winter sports’: indeed, the mountains here are not nearly as good as in the Dolomites or the Alps. But avid skiers or snowboarders can nonetheless find temporary satisfaction in the region. Abetone, northwest of Pistoia, is a little under two hours’
Museums and the Web may be the most important on-going discussion of digital practice in the arts and heritage world. Scholars and museum professionals meet to trade ideas and experiences about everything from social media to augmented reality as these innovations apply to museums and cultural institutions. What was
Anthony Tang says he is the first Chinese to have arrived in Prato, back in 1978. A physician who specialized in acupuncture, Tang, now retired, spends time teaching Chinese language and calligraphy to Italians. In the project Facewall Prato, consisting of 100 photographs of Italians with foreigners as friends, Tang
50 miniature Davids with a not so miniature male member placed in key locations around the city are a provocatory art project, not just a souvenir gone wrong. The artist Pep Marchegiani is challenging the status of contemporary art in Florence, which he claims "is stagnant, and should
If you are in Florence on January 6, 2014 for Epifania (Epiphany), there are a number of cultural activities available to you on this very special Monday. FREE MUSEUMS Although state museums are usually closed on Mondays, this year you can visit the following museums on Monday Jan 6
Every day, thousands of tourists stop in Florence’s piazza Duomo while tour guides gesture towards the copies of The Gates of Paradise, the golden east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni. Fewer make the effort of circling the building to look at the other two sets of
20,000 boxes packaged to look like cardiac pills called ‘Misericordina,’ but actually containing a rosary and instructions for use in four languages (Italian, English, Polish and Spanish), were distributed at the papal audience on Sunday, November 17. Pope Francis joked that ‘some might think the pope
While Italy is cutting funds for culture, the arts have taken on new digital life. Recent online movements suggest that the Italian public is primed to appreciate and share art. Stefano Guerrera is a 25-year-old engineer who currently works full time updating his Facebook page Se
On September 26, an Italian visitor to the Museo delle Porcellane at Palazzo Pitti bumped forcefully into a glass case containing 18 precious statuettes from the 18th century from Ferdinandea di Napoli manufacture. 12 of them have been broken, and the damage has yet to be fully evaluated by restorers. &
A small exhibit at Villa Bardini, Il Rinascimento da Firenze a Parigi: Andata e ritorno, is worth the hike up Costa San Giorgio. Thirty works that now form the Italian nucleus of the Jacquemart-André museum in Paris were sold to Nélie Jacquemart at the end of
