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Michelangelo’s Crucifx

Michelangelo was hosted in the monastery of Santo Spirito in 1492, at the age of seventeen, following the death of his protector, Lorenzo Il Magnifico, who had hosted him during his artistic studies in the enormous family building in via Larga (now Palazzo Medici Riccardi). In this convent, thanks to Piero de’Medici’s intercession and the prior’s permission, he was able to analyze the corpses from the convent hospital to study anatomy, and it is also because of this experience that Michelangelo became one of the most capable of representing the human body in every smallest detail.

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150 years of St. Ambrogio Market

Based on ideas drawn from the Halles Centrales market in Paris and the Covent Garden and Hungerford markets in London, Poggi proposed a system of covered marketplaces with a huge central market bordered by several smaller local markets. The new central market will be located in San Lorenzo’s Camaldoli neighborhood, with additional sites in Sant’Ambrogio and San Frediano (now defunct). The construction of the San Lorenzo market was unpopular since many densely populated, decrepit buildings had to be expropriated and demolished, but this was not the case for the other two markets, where the chosen locations were primarily covered in vineyards or vegetable and flower ga

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Salt like gold for Tommaso Baroncelli

A privilege granted to a Florentine gentleman named Tommaso Baroncelli is documented on an English parchment dated November 16, 1564. In addition to being a banker, he had other business dealings with numerous Florentine families, particularly in Flanders, where he relocated and married Chiara Gualterotti, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. In England, he engaged …

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Ex St. Paul Hospital in Florence

On the other side of the Basilica of S.M.Novella, we may view the vast edifice with the loggia of the former S. Paolo hospital, which is now a twentieth-century museum. The name of this huge edifice, built in the early twelfth century, comes from the settlement that sprang up around the Porta S.Paolo and the …

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Palio of Cocchi in Florence

Since the Middle Ages, the square has been the site of festivals, rides, and other races. In 1563, Grand Duke Cosimo I de’Medici designated it as the headquarters of the Palio dei Cocchi, which took place on June 23, the eve of the feast of San Giovanni Battista, Florence’s patron. This wagon race, which continued …

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Miracle’s broth of San Frediano

All this to introduce the famous Sanfrediano broth broth. What does the tripe broth have to do with it? It has to do … it has to do with why, the only antidote for the above was the nourishment. This black hole in the food space was soothed by the hand of a saint: San Brodo di Trippa. Why San Brodo di Trippa? Well … I am jokingly say this but, behind … behind it is not a great petty thing this definition, since, if we consider saint who has made miracles and given love for others during his life, I am not so much outside if I call saint A substance, which gave all this

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Orsanmichele best church in Florence

Talking about Orsanmichele is usually reductive… The stories that pervade this structure, and the symbols that are sprinkled throughout it, are so many that an entire volume may not be sufficient to describe them. In the seventh century, a tiny church dedicated to San Michele Arcangelo was built on the site of the former female monastery dedicated to San Michele, which had huge plots of land cultivated with vegetable gardens.

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Andrea del Castagno was a killer?

We can be sure of one thing: at Vasari Andrea del Castagno was not nice, just at all. In his “lives of the most excellent architects, painters and Italian sculptors”, in the chapter dedicated to Andrea del Castagno, Vasari indulges himself: he speaks of the bad character of the painter, calling him “…

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Starbuks in Florence

Starbucks has recently opened a location in Florence, Italy. In Via dei Cerretani in front of Santa Maria Maggiore church in the main street that is going from the train station of Santa Maria Novella directly to the cathedral of Florence with the iconic Brunelleschi Dome the biggest dome made in bricks.

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Berta’s Santa Maria Maggiore Church

The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence, Italy, is a historically important religious site. It is one of the city’s oldest churches, with a long history extending back to the eighth century. The church is a combination of Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles that has been renovated multiple times throughout the years. Here its the place of Berta. The Florentines refer to her as ‘La Berta’, and it is a woman’s visage around which legends have grown over the centuries.