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From March 15 to 17 at Florence’s Stazione Leopolda, the Taste food festival offers visitors a unique experience. Taste is a gastronomic tour that explores different cultures in addition to celebrating the natural goodness of Italian food. Sleek and stylish, as only an event organized by Pitti Immagine
In America it’s known as soccer. In Europe, it’s football, or the ‘beautiful game’. And if you’re staying in Florence, then you owe yourself a visit to a Fiorentina game, Florence’s football team. Known to their fans as Viola, they
Anyone who has seen the work of Ottone Rosai (1895–1957) will feel immediately familiar with the San Niccolò area of Florence. And anyone who knows Florence will immediately recognize the subject of his paintings. Rosai painted the small back streets, olive groves and walls near his via
Bagno a Ripoli, Dicomano, Figline Valdarno, Incisa in Valdarno, Londa, Pelago, Pontassieve, Reggello, Rignano sull’Arno, Rufina and San Godenzo: these are some of the towns of the Levante Fiorentino, eastern Florence, the heart of Tuscany. The Levante Fiorentino area, just a few miles from Florence, is rich
The countless fragrances and flavors that characterize the Gonnelli family’s extra virgin oil are the result of years of dedication and care that are sure to satisfy even the most hard to please palate. The press history is a love story that has lasted five centuries, dating back
Though most people can easily name Florence’s famous large theatres, the area is even richer in smaller houses—true theatrical workshops that offer ample opportunities to see different types of performances and companies, often for lower admission prices and reasonable subscription packages. Six such local theatres are
What do holes and Medieval Crusaders have in common? Buttons! When the Crusaders returned to Europe from the Middle East during the 1100s and 1200s they brought the buttonhole back with them. Although buttons had been used to decorate clothing since ancient times, with the arrival of the buttonhole, they
Weaving through the crowd at Piazza della Stazione, you are assaulted by the noise and the crush of people that is ever present in Florence’s busy city center. The brown brick backside of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, an oddly anachronistic image juxtaposed with the city buses
It is almost impossible to walk a block through the center of Florence without catching a glimpse of one of the city’s most-loved, iconic, revenue-inducing images: Michelangelo’s David. Copies come in nearly every desired, or perhaps undesired, shape and size, from puzzles to vaguely
Like the White Horse Tavern in New York City, and Café de Flore in Paris, the Giubbe Rosse in Florence’s Piazza della Repubblica has long been a gathering place for patrons of the arts. Once famously known as the Florentine headquarters of the Futurist movement, the establishment&
Florence is a city that guards its secrets well. Among these are the many gardens hidden behind impenetrable doors and iron gates. The visitor walking through the city’s stone streets may catch a glimpse of a flower-filled courtyard through a slit in a heavy Renaissance door
One of Italy’s best-kept artistic secrets, the mid-nineteenth-century Tuscan school of art known as I Macchiaoli, has finally received the recognition it rightfully deserves, as the object of a far-reaching exhibition at the beautifully restored Villa Bardini in Florence. Running until October 14th, the
When you hear ‘Palazzo Vecchio’ what comes to mind? The Medici? Power? Beauty? Palazzo Vecchio is the symbol of civil power in Florence, yet it is also a palace full of history, action–filled portrayals of epic battles, secret doors, maps and hidden cabinets. It is
Walking into the Duomo beneath its 24-hour counter-clockwise time piece, can feel like stepping through the portals of a time-machine. One enters a space larger and more austere than anticipated. This is the assembly hall of the people of Florence, simultaneously Temple and Forum. The shock
For many years, la trattoria Quattro Leoni, tucked away in a small corner of the Oltrarno, in Piazza della Passera, was a family-run affair that catered mainly to locals and impoverished students. Then in 1995, the family having decided to call it a day, along came Stefano di Puccio,
It’s true they don’t bellow ‘Charge!’ but in other respects they’re very like those fearless condottieri of yore, leading their armies of foot-soldiers towards conquest and glory. Undaunted by the blistering summer sun or the lashing winter wind, they stride forward,
As an artist moving to Florence, everyone told me, that I couldn’t be luckier and that this was the place to learn how to paint realistically. As an abstract artist, I was thrilled about the possibility of picking up a new skill and trying my hand at realism.
‘To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits’, painter Giorgio de Chirico once said. ‘Logic and common sense only interfere’. The immortality of this late ...
Visitors come to Florence eagerly awaiting their first taste of fresh Tuscan cuisine. Visions of rich ribollita, juicy bisteccaalla fiorentina, crunchy crostini toscani and freshly made bruschetta dance through the minds of tourists and locals alike as they think of typical Tuscan fare.‘Do spelt, soy, or seitan
After you've seen the world-famous sites in Florence, how do you gain access to artistic treasures closed to the public? Città Nascosta has the answer. Italy’s artistic patrimony is the world’s largest, but not all of it is on display. In 1994
Imagine if, 100 years from now, a curious resident or visitor to Florence would come across a copy of this very paper you are reading. What would he or she learn about this city during our time? Would any of the subject matter still be relevant? Would the reader smile
Michelangelo. Da Vinci. Caravaggio. Botticelli. These are the artists people generally come to Florence to see. But tucked away outside of the city center is La Tinaia, the birthplace of some of the most world-renowned Art Brut (a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet that literally translates to &
Florence is home to over 1,200 street tabernacles, many of which date as far back as the 13th century. Adopted from the Roman tradition, the tabernacles served as small, altar-like temples and represented the religious faith of local citizens. During the 15th century, many Florentine guilds and powerful
