Category: History

Mar 7, 2024

a Hold theater at Baglioni hotel

Today, we wanted to relate the story of, or recall a portion of, the Gran Hotel Baglioni, which was held by Prince Carrega de Lucedio in the nineteenth century. The Baglioni hotel's lateral half is visible from Piazza dell'Unità Italiano to Via del Melarancio. At first sight, everything appears normal, but if you look closely, you can see a coat of arms at the top on the left. Nothing new can be seen here, so what? Examining the previously described heraldic coat of arms, we observe a cabinet with a finger close to the mouth, indicating that it is intended to contain a mouse trap.

Mar 6, 2024

A Guide to the Best Walking Tour in Florence, Italy for 2024 Travelers

There are many beautiful sights to see in Florence. Read here for a guide to the best walking tour in Florence, Italy for 2024 travelers.

Mar 5, 2024

War of families Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Amidei and the Buondelmonti were two noble and conspicuous Florentine families, whose historic dispute is considered as the beginning of the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence. The background took place in January 1216 when Mazzingo Tegrimi de 'Mazzinghi gave a great party in his own castle of fields, to celebrate his appointment as a knight, a party to which all the Florentine nobility was obviously invited....

Mar 3, 2024

Palazzo delle Cento Finestre

The Palazzo delle Cento Finestre, already known as Palazzo del Centauro, is located in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence. On four sides, in fact, a number of openings of just under one hundred is placed. In this site there were in ancient times the houses of the hesses, of the Carnesecchi and perhaps of the Martini. At the end of the fifteenth century numerous of these buildings were purchased by Michele di Carlo Strozzi, but only at the beginning of the eighteenth century a real noble palace was built, probably since 1720. In 1744 Giuseppe Zocchi already included a view of the «Palazzo del Sig . Marquis Strozzi, of the centaur, and the road that leads to S. M. Novella »in the famous series of engravings of views of Florence. The «Centauro» appellation derives from the fact that at the time the sculptural group of Giambologna di Ercole with Centauro Nesso was located in front of the building, at the song of the Carnesecchi, where they converged via dei Cerretani, via Panzani, via de 'Rondinelli and via dei Banchi, and only just before the mid -nineteenth century was he moved to the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Mar 2, 2024

Gianbologna Centaurus

Once upon a time there was a centaur named Nesso and travelers tragled the travelers on the Evento or Licorma river (Greek region of the Etolia). Heracles, heading to Trachis with his family, entrusted him with Deianira but Nesso tried to rape her and Heracles killed him with a poisoned arrow dipped in the blood of the Idra di Lerna. A Flemish sculptor named Jean De Boulogne aka Giambologna around 1598 sculpted one of his many masterpieces with great skill, the marble group of Hercules and the Centaur Nesso. The work of great emotional impact certainly proposes forms and styles different from the classic models , resuming Michelangeioleschi motifs, but with a strong sense of dynamism. In 1599 he was placed on the song of the Carnesecchi formed by the quadrivio composed of via Rondinelli, via Cerretani, via Panzani and via dei Banchi. And it is in this place that the marble group of Giambologna creates a real fulcrum of the area so much so that the adjacent palace took the name of Centauro also known as the Palazzo delle Cento Windows.

Mar 1, 2024

A secret library in Florence

This time we visit a building transformed over the centuries ... a great testimony present in the area in question: it is the hospice called Orbatello I recommend not Orbetello and is located between via degli Alfani and via della Colonna. Perhaps on the design of Agnolo Gaddi was founded in 1372 thanks to the left of the banker-Mecenate Niccolò degli Alberti. The building takes its name from the orbades (from the lat.orbus- without) or women who had had deaths in the family, so much so that it is no longer self-sufficient. The hospice was large compared to the frequent city, it consisted of a hundred small "two -room apartments" and a small common cuisine, while the structure reserved for medical assistance was prepared for a few tens of beds.

Feb 29, 2024

Fishing Lab, the Florence restaurant-museum

Walking through the center of Florence, one realizes that the Tuscan city is still immersed in that glorious past that makes it a prominent destination for lovers of culture. Located in via del Proconsolo, near Badia Fiorentina and Bargello, the place was the headquarters of the art of judges and notaries since the thirteenth century. However, as the archaeological remains in the basement show, the site would have been occupied by the Romans already in the first century. The first to notice the traces of the frescoes after many centuries, in 1880, was the Owner of the building that marked the works to the conservative commission of fine arts, but the restoration was finished only in 2004.

Feb 28, 2024

Wine Excellence of Tuscany

Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 March, at the Leopolda station, the 22nd edition of "Excellence of Tuscany", tasting of the best wines of the Grand Duchy will be held, there will be over 150 wine and oil producers and beer for over 800 labels, is organized by AIS Tuscany, with the patronage of the Tuscany Region, of Tuscany showcase with promotion Tuscany Tourist, of the Metropolitan City, of the Municipality of Florence and in collaboration with the Tuscany System Foundation.

Feb 27, 2024

Stenone a very unique scientist

October 1687 Arriva a merchant case at the Medici Court, addressed nothing less than in Cosimoiii. The Cassa embarked in Hamburg on the "San Bernardo" ship was wrapped in an incerated canvas from which an smell of spices came out, what did it contain? Perhaps rare spices or ... in reality inside the body of Niels Stensen was located more commonly called Niccolò Stenone and the "perfume" of the spices was to cover the smell emanated by the body of the Danish scientist. But what did this character now deceased to the Medici court .... at that time one of the stars of the moment was our Galileo Galilei attracted precisely for those innovations in the Scientific field Stenone who landed on February 28, 1666 in Livorno and then headed in Pisa To meet Galileo. But was in Florence that Stenone felt like his house so much so that he wrote "that Florence was his real homeland", the same Grand Duke besides giving a monthly salary assigned him an anatomical laboratory in the Opinion of S.Maria Nuova .

Feb 26, 2024

The highest man in the world …

That's right, Florence also holds this record .... obviously I am kidding but not entirely. We take a step back and precisely in the years 1764-1766, when the HMS Dolphin (Delfino) of the Royal Navy commanded by Captain John Byron managed to circumnavigate the terrestrial globe, a company that is not really easy for those times. The deeds of the English captain Byron impressed the Grand Duke of Tuscany Pietro Leopoldo, especially those who told the events of the people of Patagonia, inhabited by gigantic beings. The first Europeans to meet this population of giants were the Portuguese of Ferdinando Magellano and the description of this meeting was written by an Italian .... Antonio Pigafetta one of the few survivors returned home from the long journey. This is the report of the meeting with the giants of Patagonia from the book published in 1524 "" ... starting from here we reach up to 49 degrees to the Antarctic.