Fresh stories, local discoveries and practical ideas for your next trip.
Walking in the busy via Guicciardini main artery of the Oltrarno towards the city center, we can only focus on n.18 to think for a moment about the alleged residence of the great multipurpose character of the great political scene of the Italian Renaissance: Niccolò Machiavelli. What we currently see is a questionable building built after the war after the destruction of almost all buildings around the Vecchio Ponte, mined by the Germans during the retreat in '44.
The Baptistery of Florence, known as the Baptistery of San Giovanni (Battistero di San Giovanni), is one of the oldest buildings in the city and a significant symbol of its rich history and artistic heritage. It is located in the Piazza del Duomo, just in front of the Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) and the Giotto's Campanile.
The Carroccio (Carrocch in Lombardo) was a large four -wheeled chariot bearing the city signs around which they gathered and fought the militias of medieval municipalities. It was particularly widespread among the Lombard, Tuscan and, more generally, of northern Italy. Later his use also spread out of Italy.
Walking on the Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci, perhaps on the left sidewalk in the direction of Ponte alla Carraia, almost up to Piazza Ognissanti on the wall of the current Grand Hotel raising our heads we can see a small plaque on the wall of the aforementioned hotel. The plaque bears the following writing: "In the memory of Leland Stanford Jr. who died in this house on March 13, 1884 and in homage to the university that bears his name the undergraduates of the year 1907 place this memory". But who was Leland Jr? He was the son of the US politician first governor and then Senator of California Leland Stanford.
Michelangelo collected Etruscan works ... Well yes, Michelangelo Buonarroti collected works from the Etruscan period, but it was not the famous Michelangelo that we all know, but the great -grandson that in the first decades of the seventeenth century, the preparation of the family home began in via Ghibellina in memory of the illustrious ancestor. In addition to making four rooms decorate from the best Florentine artists of the moment such as: Pietro da Cortona, Artemisia Gentileschi, Domenico Passignano, Cristofano Allori
Once deliberated to move against the enemy, the Florentine government used to order public prayers, and Martinella was played night and day, which was a bell, also called Bellifera for its connection with the war events, located in the arc of the door Saint Mary. This door, which gives its name to the current via Por Santa Maria, closed the first walls of Florence in the direction of the Ponte Vecchio, and was at the height of the current loggia of the new market (or Porcellino).
On the morning of Easter day the magic of the "outbreak of the wagon" is renewed. The "Brindellone", the "fire" chariot escorted by 150 armed, musicians and flag -wavers of the historic procession of the Florentine Republic, moves from the square of the lawn, driven by two pairs of white Bovi Infiorati, and arrives in Piazza del Duomo, where it is placed in the space between the baptistery and the cathedral. Then, at the song of the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo", fire is set to the fuse of the Colombina who, by hissing, goes to fire the mortgages and fireworks expertly arranged on the cart.
Rather sorty, without great ads on the eve, All' Antico Vinaio inaugurated a few minutes ago a new place in the city where it all was born, clearly in Florence. At 11:00 today, Friday 22 March, the owner Tommaso Mazzanti removed the card that hid the new shop, literally opening the door to those present, waiting, more with smartphones in hand to immortalize the scene.
Simonetta Vespucci Cattaneo, a captivating figure of the Italian Renaissance, was born in 1453 into a prominent Florentine family. Renowned for her […]
he great Leonardo, an absolute genius in many fields, from artistic to the scientific, was a man with great inventiveness, and all the drawings he left us and who, after centuries, are still current and often used, demonstrate it. But Leonardo was not only this: Leonardo loved good cuisine and loved to show off his culinary skills, even if he often did not meet the consent of his diners!
Florence, in Santa Maria del Fiore. This floor is completely flat. The remarkable optical illusion of the seventeenth century of the marble tiles of the Florence Cathedral. View from above, the intricate geometry creates the illusion of a giant abyss in which people could come across. The red, white, black and green marble floor was a colossal task to complete it took 160 years. It was created by the Grand Ducal Laboratories of Florence, led by the Renaissance sculptor Baccio d'Agnolo, and completed in 1660.
Next to Dante's alleged house in the homonymous street, a place with a great story behind him in the square of S.Martino. It is a place founded by a famous painter of the time, Mariotto Albertinelli. Born in Florence on October 13, 1474 from Biagio by Bindo Albertinelli, he began his career before in the shop of the goldsmith's father and subsequently in that of Cosimo Rosselli.
