Mary Gray

    Mary Gray is a freelance writer, reporter, and the former events editor of The Florentine. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Forbes Travel Guide, Time Out and Dream of Italy, and she teaches travel writing and fashion media for university programs in Florence. Her M.A. is in Italian from Middlebury and her straniera stripes are from the school of life.

    Articles by the author

    ART + CULTURE

    Poem: If you give a girl a chickpea

    If you give a girl a chickpea when she’s barely boiled an egg, do not be quick to doubt her, for you’ve gone and upped her leg.     Sorana ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental Diaries, vol. 29

    “I’m going to have to zoom in on your face and on the food, Mary,” said my cameraman colleague during a recent filming session in my kitchen. We were shooting ...

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    Rental Diaries, vol.28

    I was three Negronis deep with my friend Valentina recently when the conversation took a familiar turn. You know the one: discussing the merits and drawbacks of the day-to-day in ...

    COMMUNITY

    Quakers in Florence

    It’s a sunny-but-chilly winter morning in Florence and a small group of Quakers—formally known as the Religious Society of Friends—is warming up inside Sylvia Hetzel’s apartment. The fledgling family, founded ...

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    Rental diaries, vol.27

    I don’t tend to think of Phil Dunphy and Clark Griswold, the dopey dads of Modern Family and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, respectively, as characters with whom I have much ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental Diaries vol.26

    In the past week, I’ve had a particularly dense concentration of deadlines and a growing list of ungratifying errands to be run. In the past week, I also reactivated my ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental diaries, vol. 25

    By the time this column is printed, this is likely to be old news, but file the intel away for future reference. It seems that the Bellini Gallery—that antiques-filled, Arno-facing ...

    ART + CULTURE

    Facing Fallaci

    She was a talker, wasn’t she? Flannery O’Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

    COMMUNITY

    Rental Diaries, vol. 24

    At the start of our senior year of high school, my friend Anna and I discovered we’d neglected to earn the gym credits required to graduate. In a kind of ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental diaries, vol. 23

    I had dinner last night with an old friend and onetime Florence housemate, someone who inspires envy quite easily: ritzy job in Rome, gorgeous wardrobe, adoring fidanzato. Even though we ...

    COMMUNITY

    Arrivederci from Mary Gray

    I hope in my work for The Florentine you’ve seen yourselves and your concerns reflected, because...

    THINGS TO DO

    Best events in Florence in June 2019

    ROCK/Imagine Dragons June 2 Various venues in Florence         Following the November release of their fourth studio album Origins, American band Imagine Dragons are coming to Florence ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

    CONTEMPORARY/Tony Cragg May 5-October 13 Boboli Gardens, piazza Pitti, Florence The Boboli Gardens’ quasi-rebranding as a summertime contemporary art park continues with a solo exhibition by the Britain-born, Germany-based artist ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental diaries, vol. 22

    My mother calls something a “Rear Window experience” when it fails to live up to great expectations (“I’m excited to take you to this restaurant. Sure hope it’s not a ...

    ART + CULTURE

    Was Leonardo da Vinci a cat lover?

    Gattaro—“cat man”—was not among the many titles Leonardo collected during his one (known) lifetime. Had he stuck around for nine of them, however, his affinity for felines might be better ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Best events in Florence in May 2019

    VINTAGE/Visarno Market Spring Edition 11am-9pm, May 4-5 Visarno Arena, viale del Visarno 14 (Cascine), Florence Soak up the spring weather and score some vintage and handmade finds at the May ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

    We’re publishing this usual Thursday events roundup a day in advance due to the Liberation Day holiday tomorrow. Enjoy! FLOWERS/Iris Garden April 25-May 20 Viale Michelangelo 82, Florence Ph. Giardino ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

      LITERARY/L’Ora di Carta April 18, 7.30pm La Compagnia, via Cavour 50r, Florence Cinema La Compagnia is launching a new salon-like literary aperitivo series and The FLR. The Florentine Literary Review, TF’s bilingual Italian-English literary ...

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    Carmela Batacchi

    There is not much that can faze Carmela Batacchi. Certainly not the questions she’s posed in Vino al Vino, the wine shop she owns on borgo Ognissanti. Tipsy on Tuscany, ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

    CHARITY/FILE Florence Vintage Market April 13-14 Serre Torrigiani, via Gusciana 21, Florence Wardrobe could use a spring refresh? Rifle through the vintage-filled racks at Serre Torrigiani, where for the second ...

    COMMUNITY

    Rental diaries, vol. 21

    Hello, my name is Mary, and I’m not an alcoholic (I don’t think). But if I am one thing, I am categorically unable to keep wine glasses from shattering into ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Best events in Florence in April 2019

    EXHIBITION/Heroes – Bowie by Sukita Until June 28 Palazzo Medici Riccardi, via Cavour 1, Florence Ph. Mark Higashino 80-something Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita is best known for his long collaboration ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

    THEATRE/Blue Man Group March 28-31 Mandela Forum, piazza Enrico Berlinguer 5, Florence They may have a goofy, Smurfs-esque look about them, but their 35 million audience members met in more ...

    THINGS TO DO

    Your Thursday forecast: best events in Florence

    QUEEN/ We Will Rock You March 22-24 Teatro Verdi, via Ghibellina 99, Florence Post-Oscars season is upon us and the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, particularly Rami Malek’s Best Actor ...

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