LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE
Get 1 year from 27.50 €

Digital and paper subscriptions available worldwide

Subscribe now

travel

THINGS TO DO

Escape to nature in Tuscany: Borgo Santo Pietro

A post-lockdown holiday destination surrounded by nature, the five-star luxury hotel Borgo Santo Pietro is reopening on May 14.           Danish owners Jeanette and Claus Thottrup are ...

ART + CULTURE

The Busatti Family: weavers since 1842

A friend telephoned me a month ago and said, “I’m coming by to take you to see a real piece of industrial archaeology”. He did that and so much more. ...

ART + CULTURE

Dante and the Lunigiana

Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century travellers to the Lunigiana were obliged to pay a toll to the Luni church or the Malaspina marquises, who owned castles on the hills above the river ...

NEWS

Florence Airport to reopen on April 2 with a resurfaced runway

Florence Airport will reopen on April 2 with a newly paved, high-performance runway.

ART + CULTURE

The Buffalo Soldiers

Bob Marley wrote “Buffalo Soldier” with Noel “King Sporty” Williams, but the song was released by Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1983, two years after the singer-songwriter’s death. It ...

NEWS

Invest in Tuscany: celebrating 10 years of foreign investment

Retail represents 28% of the FDI made between 2016 and 2020, followed by hospitality (16%) and manufacturing (15%)

FOOD + WINE

Vermouth from Tuscany

Vermouth is a night-off for a wine lover. Coriander? Tonka bean? Sage? Like pot pourri in a tumbler, guessing the botanicals defies reason. The fortified and aromatized wine is basking ...

NEWS

Made in Tuscany: the companies that make a difference in our daily lives

Made in Tuscany is a bellwether of style and functionality. We start 2021 by bigging up the brands who make a difference in our daily lives.     Top left ...

THINGS TO DO

Via degli Dei: hiking between Bologna and Florence

PhD law students at the European University Institute Dominik Dworniczak and Hubert Bekisz are based in Florence for the next four years. Both enjoy hiking and decided to attempt the ...

THINGS TO DO

Hills of healing and kindness: Valdelsa Empolese

    “Prayer is a suspension of the presumption of your ego,” explains Alessandro, his kind eyes sparkling with empathy, after showing us around the cell where the Blessed Giulia ...

ART + CULTURE

The Dream of Lady Florence Phillips in Siena

The Dream of Lady Florence Phillips exhibition currently showing at Siena’s Santa Maria della Scala features a collection of masterpieces belonging to the Johannesburg Art Gallery.      The collection ...

ART + CULTURE

Historic quarantine in Livorno

When William Magee Seton left New York on board the  sailing ship “Sheperdess” on October 2, 1803, he could not have imagined he would never return to his homeland. Born ...

NEWS

Internet Festival returns to Pisa

From October 8-11, the 10th Internet Festival will take place in Pisa with four days of physical events, and three months – continuing until December – of online streaming initiatives. Asking ...

THINGS TO DO

Never-ending renaissance along the Etruscan Coast

“It’s the place with the beaded curtain,” replied the local teenager, as he tucked into the elusive Livorno-style baguette we were trying to track down. Our appetite had been piqued ...

NEWS

Welcome to the (urban) jungle

What happens when you put two of the world’s most innovative thinkers about the nexus between architecture and plants together in a room? While working together on a forestation plan ...

THINGS TO DO

A summer staycation in Florence

Your original summer plans may have been cast aside, but never fear; there’s a great summer stretching out in front of you. If you are lucky enough to be staycationing ...

THINGS TO DO

Summer music festivals in Tuscany

It wouldn’t be summer without a marvellous music festival or two. Let spectacular sights and sounds surround you at one of these tuneful events set in the most stunning locations ...

THINGS TO DO

Finding Machiavelli in Sant’Andrea in Percussina

In Florence, city of pilgrimages, it can be hard to find Niccolò Machiavelli.   The house in via de’ Guicciardini, where he lived from his birth in 1469 to his ...

THINGS TO DO

Balena Baths in Viareggio

Locals have called it “la Passeggiata”, or the promenade, since 1902 when it was inaugurated in Viareggio, the seaside town called the “pearl of Versilia” in the province of Lucca. ...

THINGS TO DO

Forest bathing on Monte Amiata

“Our hotel’s opposite the ski lift, I’ll meet you there,” wrote hotelier and tour operator Franz, in a WhatsApp exchange. Off I set, two hours south of Florence, climbing up ...

FOOD + WINE

My modern Decameron at the Ruffino Agriresort

“Don’t make me leave,” she said. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied, stretching out on the sun lounger at just the right angle to gaze over the greenest of ...

FOOD + WINE

Salvatore Ferragamo on wine

The Florentine‘s Helen Farrell speaks with Salvatore Ferragamo, CEO of Il Borro Relais & Chateaux and organic winery in Tuscany, and Vittoria Ferragamo, head of special projects at Il Borro, ...

NEWS

Pisa unveils a monument to Galileo Galilei

On February 29, a bronze statue of Galileo Galilei will be placed in front of what is believed to be the scientist’s childhood home.     The artist behind the ...

THINGS TO DO

The spas of southern Tuscany

The sun was shining as I set off for southern Tuscany, destination Saturnia. It feels like an odyssey from Florence, pacing down towards Siena, continuing to Grosseto and slowing down ...

LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE