Discover Tuscany’s Blog: exploring Tuscany and all its hidden corners…

Photo by TomStardust

The teams of the Florence’s Calcio Storico (Blues, Whites, Greens and Reds) have faced off over the last two weeks in the semi-finals to decide which two teams compete in the traditional Tournament of St. John in Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce on June 24.

The soccer game played in costume is one of Florence’s main events historically planned for the month of June in the celebrations for San Giovanni, St. John, patron saint for the city. For this special occasion, the large, beautiful square in front of the Church of Santa Croce serves as the playing field. Bleachers are set up for spectators and the stone square is covered with sand.

For the final match, the Reds will face off the Blues on Wednesday June 24 at 5 p.m.

Continue reading about the Calcio Storico »

This is the list of Florence State museums that will be open on April 13 (”Pasquetta” or Angel’s Monday) as advertised on the official site.
Many of these are generally open on Sundays so they’ll be open on Easter Sunday. Check the site above for hours and to double check which ones will be open on Sunday.

apertura ordinaria - would normally be open on this Monday anyways
Cappelle Medicee
Museo di Casa Davanzati
Giardino di Boboli, Museo delle Porcellane, Museo degli Argenti and Galleria del Costume (biglietto unico, a common ticket for these museums)

apertura straordinaria - normally closed on Mondays
Galleria degli Uffizi
Galleria dell’Accademia
Galleria Palatina e Galleria d’Arte Moderna (biglietto unico, a common ticket for these museums)
Museo di San Marco
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Villa della Petraia
Villa di Poggio a Caiano

Visiting Florence and Tuscany is an unforgettable experience. For many, it might be a trip made once in a lifetime, for others it will be start of a love affair that makes you return over and over again. I first came to Florence over 10 years ago and have made it my home for almost 7 years now. Falling in love with an Italian certainly helped pave the way for my permanent stay :-).

In all these years, I’ve never really felt unsafe in Florence. The historical center is small, especially compared to many other European cities. You can walk almost everywhere, and there are people on the streets at all hours, making us feel relatively safe. Like all cities in the world, though, there is an uglier, shadier side that exists around this center. I was reminded of Florence’s darker side this last week when I had my purse/camera bag snatched just as I was leaving the city center.

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Florence without the Medici family in its past would not be the Florence we have today. There were certainly other wealthy families in Florence that were patrons of the arts but none to the extent of the Medici dynasty.
Under the Medici, Florence became the “cradle” of the Renaissance. Palaces and churches were built for the family and then everything from tapestries, furniture, household objects and paintings and statues were commissioned to adorn these palaces and churches. As rulers of the city, the Medici had to show off their power to impress not only the citizenry but other powerful rulers throughout Europe.

The Medici dynasty ended with the death of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici on February 17, 1743. Before her death, she created the “Patto di Famiglia” where she willed all personal property of the Medici family to the city of Florence with the explicit condition that none of the Medici artistic patrimony was ever to be removed from the city.

Continue reading about the day of celebration »

It is still quite cold in Florence and wet. At least this past Saturday there was a little bit of weak sunshine in between the rainy days as I made my way south of Florence towards Galluzzo. This small town on the outskirts of southern Florence is well-known for its “Certosa” which also gives its name to the “Firenze-Certosa” exit off the A1 road that passes really close by. Just imagine, though, that when this monastery was built in the early 13th century on a hill between two rivers, this was countryside and quite isolated from the city of Florence.

Continue reading about the Certosa monastery »

A not-to be-missed exhibit currently in Florence is without a doubt the one dedicated to Rafael’s famous painting, the Madonna del Cardellino, which after years of restoration has returned to shine more beautiful than ever.
On a recent day we went to Palazzo Medici Riccardi which is just a stone’s throw from the Cathedral and where the painting is on exhibition after a demanding period of restoration as it awaits to be relocated to the Uffizi Gallery.

The Madonna del Cardellino is not the only work on display in this exhibition, in fact, there are four additional works from the same period (early 500’s): The “Gravida” (attributed to Raphael), the “Monk” (from the Florentine school) and the interesting table that covered this painting and a characteristic glass terracotta by Girolamo della Robbia, “The Madonna, Child and Saint John.”

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Christmas in always is a very festive affair! This year, however, the holiday season in Florence seems a bit less bright, a tad less colorful than it usually is. It might be due to the current international economic crisis that discourages too much gift shopping on everyone’s part, as many worry about losing their jobs and what the new year will bring. This also seems to be the case for tourists, as there seems to be less people in general in the historical center when this period generally means lots of crowds.

Continue reading about Christmas in Florence »

About a week ago, the New York Times (http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/travel/30Florence.html ) had an article on Florence. It was interesting because it takes a literary classic, E.M. Forster’s “A Room With a View”, as the central point from which to compare the experience of visiting Florence, how it was back then and how it would be now. The author and books editor of The New York Observer, Adam Begly, goes back and forth between what Lucy experienced over a century ago in Forster’s classic and what a visitor sees and experiences in Florence today.

Continue reading about visiting Florence »

If you were in downtown Florence in the area around the Duomo or Piazza della Signoria this past Saturday afternoon, you likely encountered a parade in historical costume, drums, flag throwers and even a cannon! This procession went from the Palagio di Parte Guelfa to the Duomo to meet a large cart full of wine bottles before continuing on to Piazza della Signoria. If you saw all of this you might also have wondered what exactly was going on. What you witnessed is the welcome by Florence of the “carro matto” (crazy cart) from the nearby wine producing town of Rufina!

Continue reading about the Carro Matto in Florence »