Travel Spot

Fresh stories, local discoveries and practical ideas for your next trip.

Apr 5, 2024

Museum Galileo Galilei in Florence

It was once called the Museum of History of Science and today Galileo Museum and is hosted in the Castellani Palace built on the vestiges of the Castello d'Altofronte. It is divided into two floors and is well usable thanks to an attractive setting, audiovisuals and downloadable online guide. It houses the Medici collections that were transferred to the Uffizi from Palazzo Vecchio and then to Pitti, to finish, in the Lorenese era, in the Imperial Regio Museum of Physics and Natural Sciences in the Torregiani Palace in via Romana. Of this institution desired by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, we will never stop talking about it.

Apr 4, 2024

Niccolo Machiavelli

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.

Apr 3, 2024

Baptistery of Florence

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.

Apr 2, 2024

I Carroccio

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.

Apr 1, 2024

An American in Florence

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.

Mar 31, 2024

Another Buonarroti

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

Mar 30, 2024

Il Carroccio in Florence “II part”

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).

Mar 29, 2024

Scoppio del carro in Florence

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.

Mar 28, 2024

Antico Vinaio at the train station SMN

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.

Mar 27, 2024

Simonetta Vespucci the beauty of Florence

Simonetta Vespucci Cattaneo, a captivating figure of the Italian Renaissance, was born in 1453 into a prominent Florentine family. Renowned for her […]

Mar 26, 2024

Leonado da Vinci and its secret

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!

Mar 25, 2024

Geometric illusion on the Cathedral’s Floor

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.