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

Apr 14, 2024

Monnalisa house in Florence

Not everyone knows that Lisa by Antonmaria Gherardini alias Mona Lisa, was born on June 15, 1479 in via Sguazza a crossbar of via Maggio. He married the tender age of 15, very normal for the time the silk merchant, Francesco di Bartolomeo of Zanobi del Giocondo. Our Mona Lisa (abbreviation of Madonna-Signora) has been made immortal, thanks to her portrait painted by Maestro Leonardo da Vinci, thus becoming the most famous woman in the world over time. And so it was that on June 15, 2013 the artist Franco Bini on the occasion of Monnalisa Day in collaboration with Associazione via Maggio placed a frame with the image of Mona Lisa and a plaque in memory below it inside.

Apr 13, 2024

Origin of Fiaccherai in Florence

Piazza Signoria and precisely in front of the bronze statue of Cosimo I del Giambologna. We are in the nineteenth century, the […]

Apr 12, 2024

Cosimo bust made by Cellini

The great sculptor-Orafo Benvenuto Cellini was in charge of creating a work that represented all the magnificence of the first Grand Duke, a few years earlier or in 1541, a magnificent bronze statue of the Etruscan civilization was discovered at the church of S.Lorenzo in Arezzo.

Apr 11, 2024

A History Buff’s Guide to Walking Tours of Italy

Walking tours of Italy are one of the best ways to get to grips with the finer details of these historic treasures, but with so many to choose from, where do you start?

Apr 10, 2024

Le Cascine Park

Spring and a promenade at the farmhouses imposes itself, also because it is not only leisure and good air between the vegetation, but also history. The green strip populated by olmi, lime trees, holm oaks, ballars, plane trees, cedars, pine trees, faults, poplars, horse chestnuts, gingko ... was born as a hunting reserve and agricultural farm in 1563 for Cosimo i gods. Cows were raised that produced the Cascio or Cacio, whence the name Cascine.

Apr 9, 2024

Michelangelo’s faun

At the age of fourteen-four, Michelangelo started going to the Garde of San Marco in Bottega from the garland, at the recommendation of his friend Francesco. This was the location where Lorenzo de Medici had gathered some of the family's classical art collections, and where Donatello's old student and direct collaborator Bertoldo di Giovanni oversaw a school for aspiring sculptors.

Apr 8, 2024

Galileo Galilei Odyssey

Galileo's proclaimed heretical beliefs led to a report of his being brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition in 1616. Galileo is persuaded to travel to Rome for his trial by the Grand Duke, who is also his great admirer and friend. The Grand Duke assures Galileo that he will be treated like a member of the Medici family and that he need not fear anything. When Galileo arrives in Rome, Piero Guicciardini, the Florentine ambassador, escorts him to the Holy Office.

Apr 7, 2024

Free museums in Florence

On Sunday 7 April the appointment with the initiative of the Ministry of Culture returns which includes free admission on the first Sunday of each month in all monuments, museums, galleries, parks and monumental gardens of the state. Many of the places of state culture of the Regional Museums of Tuscany widespread throughout the regional territory will also be open free of charge with the temporary exhibitions still in progress, theme visits and initiatives.

Apr 6, 2024

The scandal of Leonardo da Vinci

The complaint was included in the "drum" (mailbox of the time) of Palazzo Vecchio. He bore accusations of sodomy towards the figure of Jacopo d'Andrea Salterelli goldsmith and also ..... "part of many miserable and consensus affairs to please people who require such evil from him", and of four other people involved: the Sarto called Baccino, Leonardo da Vinci, the goldsmith Bartolomeo of Pasquino and the scion of the Patrizia Leonardo Tornabuoni family. All the accusations were rejected and stored, perhaps also for the person of the Tornabuoni for which the scandal was avoided in all the ways.

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.

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