Toscana & Chianti News
Firenze
Playing football in Santa Croce
It is one of the most anticipated happenings of the summer and one of the most popular events in Florence: the Calcio Storico. The game has its roots in the Roman Empire, and became a real challenge during the era of the Medici.
Hannibal and the elephant
Just five minutes from civilization, the legendary Hannibal Bridge is located in Bruscheto, in the municipality of Reggello.
The Cart and the "Colombina"
The story of the "Scoppio del Carro" (The Explosion of the Cart) has its origin in the First Crusade, and on Easter Sunday makes Florence people gather in Piazza del Duomo.
Snowboarding in Florence
Scent of cinnamon, mulled wine and German atmosphere full in the centre of Florence. The traditional Christmas market of Heidelberg will be hosted again, this year, from the 28th of November, by the famous Piazza Santa Croce of Florence.
The greengrocer is Sting himself
Message in a bottle? No, it’s better to say wine in a bottle. Yes, because Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, after having changed his life becoming, together with his wife Trudie Styler, an expert farmer, decided also to create a little shop, which has become an important part of his beautiful estate near Figline Valdarno. But let’s take a step backwards.
An Accorsi "Furioso" on the stage
From the 20th to the 25th of November, at the Pergola Theatre of Florence, one of the most expected event of this season will take place: Furioso Orlando (Mad Orlando). A ballad of rhymes after the manner of Ariosto, performed by a narrator/knight, with Stefano Accorsi, playing Orlando, and with Nina Savary, the daughter of Mona and Jerome Savary, a refined actress and a famous musician.
Miniature Brunelleschi
At the very beginning of the 13th century, Semifonte, which nowadays is just a little village near Petrognano, in the municipality of Barberino Val d’Elsa, was a big power, so big that it posed a threat to the hegemony of Florence.
Running through nature and culture
“I love athletic because it is like poetry. At night, when I dream, I dream I am a marathon runner”, Eugenio Montale. This is the motto utilized by Giuseppe Pederiali in his book “The marathon runner’s dream. The story of Dorando Pietri”, which tells the story of this boy from Carpi who became a protagonist of the Olympics of 1908.
A theatre without borders
A global theatre, which connects opposite parts of the world, trying to explain diversity through the analysis of similarities, and to examine the most concrete problems from the privileged point of view of theatre, which gives the possibility of opening one’s mind and of acquiring a deeper awareness.
Jazz Oltrarno
The idea, the name of the event, the set-up and the location: it all feels brand-new and bubbling with interest. During the first fifteen days of September 2012 the space in front of Grotta del Buontalenti, in the Boboli Gardens, will be the natural stage for the first Pitti Jazz event...
Home to new musical talent
Some of the world's leading artistic training and best talent: these are the two elements that have always distinguished Fiesole Music School, a unique point of reference for the training of young musicians for the last forty years. It has made a crucial contribution to the training of thousands of professionals, promoting ensemble music. Students come from all over the world...
The music lovers' festival that caters for all tastes
Tignano Festival is all fired up and ready to rock you in 2012. The festival, which has reached its 25th year and was founded by a group of generous citizens from Tignano, spearheaded by Paolo Gianni in 1988, will feature events dedicated to the environment and the meeting of different cultures in a ten-day playbill crammed with music notes and international guests.
Conference Tourism
Tourism is about conferences too. The multitude of visitors who love our city also come here for meetings. From this point of view, Florence has one of the loveliest conference centres anywhere.
Drinks at sunset
There are places where sipping a drink is not merely somewhere to enjoy a cocktail with friends, but which are all about shaking up - in Italy in general, on the banks of the river Arno in particular - a group "ritual" like the aperitif hour. In Florence there are dozens of places and we can't list them all or choose them based on their individual tastes.
restored Medici masterpieces
The frieze created in the last decade of the fifteenth century in glazed terracotta, now replaced with a copy, was placed on the trabeation of the pronaos of the facade of the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano. The five panels that form it depict the Legend of the Soul of the Bad and the Good Man taken from the Myth of Er, as told...
American dreamers
Since March Florence has been discovering and celebrating American art in two interesting exhibitions held in Palazzo Strozzi, "Americans in Florence. Sargent and the American Impressionists", which we wrote about in the March issue and "American Dreamers. Reality and Imagination in Contemporary American Art"...
sculpture overdose
The works of Marco Lituani cast a magic spell, an artist born in Forlì, but who moved to Florence at a very young age, where he graduated from art school in 1977. He lived and worked on the edge of the city, in the suburban area known as "Le Cinque Vie", in Via Belisario Vinta, the same street where his father, a stonecutter, worked in the nearby quarry.
FLORENCE BECOMES LIONS CAPITAL
A unique city on one hand, a famous humanitarian association on the other. Florence and Lions Clubs International will join forces on 22nd April for Lions Day 2012. An event that will be celebrated all over Italy with Florence as the centre of it all.
A JOURNEY THROUGH CULTURE
“Casa Davanzati must not be considered a ‘minor’ museum”: this is the opinion of Mario Andrea Ettorre, Director of Servizio II - Comunicazione e Promozione del Patrimonio Culturale [Ministry of Culture Service 2: Communication and Promotion of Cultural Heritage].
The passions of Victor Emmanuel
The private life of Victor Emmanuel in Villa La Petraia, a suburban residence that had also been patronized by the Medici and Lorena families, has been the subject of painstaking research performed in largely unexplored archives.
