SUNDAY (October 25, 2009) Dante was worn out after all of the “A Passo Duomo” celebration around the cathedral. The new mayor of Florence had decreed that the entire piazza surrounding the Duomo would become a pedestrian mall instead of a busy thoroughfare where over 500 buses and thousands of taxis round the Duomo every […]
As the November 4th anniversary of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence approaches, it’s the perfect time to read Robert Clark’s Dark Water: Art Disaster and Redemption in Florence, which was just released in paperback. As Angela Leeper writes in her concise review in bookpage.com: “History and art criticism, with a dash of memoir thrown in,
Despite the fact that it may seem like carrying coals to Newcastle or running the sprinkler in a downpour, the arrival of many of American Greg Wyatt’s sculptures to Florence’s Piazza Signoria and the Sala d’Arme in the Palazzo Vecchio is a welcome change from the offerings of Giambologna, Cellini and Ammannati. Greg Wyatt, a native
“Viva Fiorenza” bellows the crowd of over two thousand, echoed by the roar of a cannon. The noble horsemen, clad in velvet, gold and leather, gallop on huge stallions into the sand-covered piazza. “Viva Fiorenza” and the cannon booms again, the sound bounces off the imposing marble facade of the Church of Santa Croce. Armored
Visitors to Florence this summer should keep an eye out for special events in special places. Update (9/11/09): Patti Smith came back to town this past week for her i. was in Florence tour – a tour limited to the city limits, including unannounced stops to sing on street corners and small piazzas. She spoke
Between 10 and 11 o’clock on Easter Sunday morning, a tradition that has played out annually over the last 500 years will be celebrated in front of the Duomo in Florence. The Scoppio del Carro, or Explosion of the Cart, is a mixed pagan/religious ceremony. Marking both Easter and Spring, the successful ignition of the
Behind the arched iron gate, just across the street from the Montevarchi train station, in a quiet courtyard, nestled below tall pines, is one of the trendiest restaurants in Tuscany. With an updated take on Tuscan cuisine, the kitchen at Ristorante Galeffi never fails to please. Ristorante Galeffi is built on the site of the
It’s nearly impossible to find a store in the U.S. that has been in business for 130 years. And it is getting more and more difficult to find a multi-generational family business in Florence. But tucked across from the back side of the Duomo is one such place – Nante, a shop of timbri (rubber or
In the Oltrarno of Florence, upstream from the Ponte alle Grazie, is a small jewel of a museum that is open free to the public. The Museo Casa Siviero is located at the ground floor of the fine 19th century building on the banks of the river Arno, where the sophisticated collector and wartime “James
Snow in Florence is rare. But it does frost the Duomo every few years for a day or two. While Tuscan Traveler was enjoying the sun on the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Chile in 2005, snow fell on Florence. Again in 2008, this time the sun, but not the warmth, was in Santa