Editor-in-Chief of The Florentine, Helen writes about food, wine and all things literary. She is also a freelance contributor to Decanter. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Instagram @helencfarrell.
Former investment manager, now full-time art collector Christian Levett and his wife Florence recently moved to the city. Their central Florence home is an inspiring gallery in its own right, hung with abstraction art by women artists, alongside classical busts and lovingly framed family photos. The Florentine spoke with Christian and Florence one grey afternoon, […]
It takes guts to open a business during a pandemic, but Antonio Badalamenti has shown he can stomach it. Formerly the chef at Nugolo (2020’s rave review restaurant opening, back in the days when restaurant reviews were written!), Antonio and his Sydney-based brother Alessandro spent summer 2020 thinking up TYPIQO, an online quality grocery delivery […]
The conservation and restoration of the Archangel Raffaele e Tobiolo, which Giovanni Baratta sculpted between 1696 and 1698, has proven a months-long labour of love for the Mircea Maria Gerard Foundation and an international team of women restorers. Luke Olbrich founded the Mircea Maria Gerard Foundation in 2016, in loving memory […]
“Somehow, in painting, I try to make some logic out of the world that has been given to me in chaos.” American Abstract Expressionist artist Grace Hartigan’s words hit home during the recent ‘Restoration Conversations’ series led by AWA director Linda Falcone around art collectors Christian and Florence Levett’s home gallery in the city centre. […]
New Hampshire-based author and TV anchor Mary Ann Esposito has devoted her 30-year career to championing Italian regional cuisines. In this interview, the host of America’s longest-running television cooking program, Ciao Italia, recalls the beginnings of her love for Italian food, explains the charitable work carried out by her foundation and humbly plays down the […]
This April issue is a tribute to Florence’s food—and, in particular, restaurant—scene. Il piatto piange is an Italian expression, literally, “the plate is crying”, meaning that the salver is deprived of food. The anthropomorphism can be extended to the restaurants and eateries of Florence whose tables, in turn, have no customers. […]
It’s an overcast Friday afternoon as I sit down with Benson Taylor in the pub in piazza Santa Maria Novella. The composer and producer is usually making music in his recently adopted home in the province of Pisa, but the Bradford lad warmly agreed to a drive down the FI-PI-LI for a beer and a […]
Retracing Dante’s steps means setting off on a unique journey into the art, history, culture and spirituality of Florence in the mid-1300s. In this self-guided tour of Dante’s Florence, we peel back the layers of history, often in plain view of the piazzas and occasionally hidden away in the medieval backstreets. […]
Children were cycling across the pietra serena slabs and locals were tucking into panini in piazza Santa Croce as I perched on a bench beneath Dante Alighieri’s stony stare. Ravenna-born sculptor Enrico Pazzi donated the statue to Florence in 1865 to mark the 600th anniversary of the poet’s birth. Dante stands protectively above our heads, […]
