All photos by Andrea Paoletti     On Saturday, October 12, Porta San Frediano opened to visitors for a guided tour, which will be repeated every Saturday this month.     Newspapers called the gate “very magnificent” when it was erected as the western entrance to Florence in 1333. Porta San Frediano still stands somberly […]

  Andrea Paoletti reports from the red carpet at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.

The first comprehensive retrospective devoted to Andrea del Verrocchio opened at Palazzo Strozzi on March 9, with an accompanying section at the Bargello Museum, both running until July 14, 2019.

Made from plexiglass, sheet metal and coloured light emitting diodes, this year’s Christmas lights, aptly titled Winter Garden, at the city’s popular marketplace have been designed by visual artist Marco Lodola.

Despite the late-November winds and the chill in the air, if you looked up in the sky at any point yesterday in Florence, you could be forgiven for thinking it was June 24 (feast day of the city’s patron San Giovanni, with fireworks an integral part of the celebrations.) Access points were blocked off and authorities […]

Monte Altissimo is famous for the marble quarries where a certain Michelangelo selected the marble for his Renaissance sculpture. Today it’s a place of billion-dollar business and rife with opportunity for tomorrow’s artists. The Cervaiole quarry on the southern spurs of Monte Altissimo is reached by driving through Stazzema and part of the Apuan Alps […]

Gala evening held at Palazzo Pitti

  It’s perhaps time for the Rockin’1000 to consider a name change: nearly 1500 musicians came together for the giant group’s performance in Florence on July 21 at Franchi Stadium, the Rockin’1000 That’s Live Village. Conceived and managed by Fabio Zaffagnini, the 1000-plus-piece band was created in 2015 as an (ultimately successful) viral stunt aimed […]

Photos of Day One of the IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival in Florence, Italy, as breast cancer survivors compete on the river Arno.

Forte Belvedere has opened its summer show, Gong, staging the works of Eliseo Mattiacci up on the regal ramparts of Florence’s fort.       The Marche-born artist proved a pioneer on Italy’s contemporary art scene, a craftsman of experimentation and renewal in sculpture and an inspired inventor of spatial and conceptual relationships between art […]