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Deirdre Pirro, author of Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy, Famous Expats in Italy and Royals in Florence, published by The Florentine Press, is an international lawyer who lives and works in Florence. Her writing focuses on modern Italy, its people, history and customs. Follow her on Twitter @dp_in_florence or contact her at ddpirro@gmail.com.
For nearly 30 years, the block between piazza Ghiberti, via dell’Agnolo and via Ferdinando Paolieri in the heart of Florence’s Santa Croce quarter has been the site of a major centre of style and design: the architecture faculty of the University of Florence. Long known as
For the full programme of ‘The Early Seasons of Man’ at the Lyceum Club, see theflr.net/qfmqpl (in Italian). The International Lyceum Club of Florence recently announced its public programme for 2015. On the theme ‘The Early Seasons of Man,’ the Lyceum will present
The famous German scientist and father of the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein, was two years older than his only sibling, his sister, Maria. Known to family and friends as ...
Visitors of all ages, from all over the world, make their way to the basilica of San Lorenzo, heading for the chapel in the right transept. It contains the late-Roman sarcophagus of Danish doctor, anatomist, geologist, naturalist and bishop Nicholas Steno (in Danish, Niels Stensen), beatified by Pope John
The 450th anniversary of the death, at 88, of the great Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter and poet, Florentine Michelangelo Buonarroti, has produced a flurry of new books about him and his work. One of the best and unique among these is Carl Smith’s What’s in a
On the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, a cavalcade led by the Three Wise Men winds its way through the historic streets of Florence.
Although apples, a classic harbinger of autumn, have been grown in Italy for more than 2,000 years, most people are surprised to learn that Italy is one of the two prime European producers of fresh apples, supplying 30 percent of the demand in the 15 EU member states and
After living in Florence for a certain amount of time it is easy to become a little blasé, thinking you’ve seen and done it all. What a mistake! Just when you least expect it, you stumble on a gem that has been right under your nose for
There are many places one might easily turn to learn about the art of Ottone Rosai. Here, my task is not to critique the artistic or literary works of this Florentine painter, engraver and author, but rather to tell you about his troubled, turbulent life, which played out against the
In 1933, Villa Sparta, situated on the hillside leading up to Fiesole, just behind the San Domenico convent, became home to a royal refugee: exiled Queen Helen of Romania. She soon set to work lavishly embellishing the rooms of the fifteenth-century villa, and, in 1935, employed British garden designer
As cars, buses and motorbikes hurtle by in via San Agostino, a white marble monument seems defenceless as it stands precariously on the southern tip of Florence’s piazza Santo Spirito. ...
In a square not far from the church of Santa Maria Novella, at the junction of via del Moro, via delle Belle Donne and via del Trebbio, stands the Croce al Trebbio column, one of two columns in the city that commemorate the triumphs of a Dominican friar, Peter of
Over the centuries, Florence has been the home to many wealthy and illustrious expatriates. But it has also been the home to some disputable foreign rogues and fugitives from the law. Between 1879 and 1932, one such ‘wanted’ man sought refuge there. His name was Lord Henry Somerset,
According to the 11th report by the Observatory on Wine Tourism in Italy, the organization of the most wine-oriented municipalities of the Italian foundation Censis and Cities of Wine presented in February 2013 at the International Tourism Exchange (BIT) event in Milan, wine tourism has not been badly affected
In recent months, unrest has been high in Figline Valdarno, a town in the triangle formed by Florence, Arezzo and Siena. After 52 years, the Pirelli factory located there, which specialises in the manufacture of steel cord, the metal belt that is the fundamental strengthening element for radial rubber tyres,
The small elegant palace and garden evoking the style of the sixteenth century on busy piazza San Marco has both less and more of an intriguing history than is attributed to it. Built between 1775 and 1778 and originally known as the Casino Royale or Casino Imperiale, it soon became
A plaque affixed to the wall outside via dei Bardi 28 simply states that there, ‘in palazzo Canigiani, the English art historian and honorary citizen of Florence, Sir John Pope-Hennessy (1913–94), lived and died.’ There is so much more to his story than that
Chariot racing conjures up images, at least for me, of ancient Rome and, in particular, of Ben Hur, the Oscar-winning film in which the hero, played by Charlton Heston, drove his chariot and team of four white horses full pelt around the Circus Maximus. So it was quite a
If you enjoy a taste of panforte margherita this holiday, you should thank two people. The first is Queen Margherita (1851–1926), wife of King Umberto I of Savoy, who was so popular that, in June 1889, in celebration of her visit to Naples, Raffaele Esposito, a cook at
The cover of coffee maker Lavazza’s calendar for 2014 features a photo of the Spanish avant-garde chef Ferran Adrià. Seven other of the world’s top chefs also appear in the ...
By the time Jerome Bonaparte (1784–1860), the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, took up residence in Florence in 1831, first at Palazzo Serristori and then at the sumptuous Palazzo Orlandini del Beccuto, he had long since divorced his American wife, Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Patterson, and sent her
The man dubbed by The New Yorker as the ‘Italian Ralph Lauren,’ Diego Della Valle has been a familiar face at the Artemio Franchi soccer stadium in Campo di Marte since he and his younger brother, Andrea, bought the ACF Fiorentina football club in 2002, rescuing it from
On August 10, 2013, the local press photographed Florence’s mayor, Matteo Renzi, sitting on a bulldozer in the Cascine park, ready to help demolish the burned-out shell of the former nightclub Meccanò. In doing so, he declared that it was the city’s intention to
On June 26, 2013, the funeral of Australian artist Jeffrey Smart was held at the Pieve of San Pietro Apostolo in Pieve a Presciano, not far from the home near Arezzo where the painter and his companion, Hermes De Zan, had lived for almost 50 years. Describing the funeral, a
