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Paco Neumann |
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The association I Renaioli was founded in 1995 to keep alive the tradition of old boats used to sail the Arno River. Additionally, the goals are to recover, conserve and maintain the Arno vessels along with the promotion of navigation using traditional boats in the Arno; encourage the expansion of the pole rowing and last but not least, the protection and conservation of the fluvial ecosystem as historical and environmental heritage.…
The Società Canottieri Firenze (Florence Rowing Club) has its headquarters in the terrace just below the Galleria degli Uffizi. Like any other private club, it is only accessible for its privileged members. No need to say that it is the best place with a view to Ponte Vecchio in solitude and in all its magnificence, oblivious to the hectic passage of people a few meters above, fighting for a spot from where taking the obvious Florence selfie.…
Everyday, I get up and go to bed with the Cappelle Medicee. And it is not a metaphor. It’s the first thing I see when I open the windows in the morning and as I close them at night. Indeed, I appreciate this view. God has so many prayers to answer that I have decided just to refer mine to the Medici. The Medici chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence comprises two structures added to Brunelleschi’s original design. Currently, the chapel is one of the State´s museums of Florence as well as the burial place of the Medici family. Its Sagrestia Nuova was designed by Michelangelo. The opulent Cappella dei Principi, dedicated to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was raised in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is completely covered with splendid coloured marbles. But unfortunately, and since I can remember, is still under restoration.
Practical info
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Stefano Bardini (1854-1922) was a prominent Italian antiquary who decided to transform his collection into a museum and donate it to the city of Florence. The building, a magnificent palace eclectic in style, where the museum has its headquarters, was acquired and restored by Bardini in 1881, in order to be used for his antiquarian trade activity. The antiquary modified the structure adding new gates and stairs, used medieval and Renaissance stones, chimneys, in addition, he affixed painted coffered ceilings. Bardini transformed the old building — the former church and convent of San Gregorio della Pace — into a wonderful neo-Renaissance villa, where, besides the exhibition halls, there were workshops so that the pieces were restored before selling them.
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Galileo Andrea Maria Chini (Firenze, 1873 – Firenze, 1956) was an Italian decorator, designer, painter, potter, and a prominent member of the Italian Art Nouveau movement or Stile Liberty. His theatrical labour includes sets designs for some Puccini’s operas. Thanks to his work in ceramics, he was awarded at the universal exhibitions in Brussels and St. Petersburg. At Chini Museum visitors can discover a permanent collection dedicated to the works and history of Galileo Chini and his family, as well as temporary exhibitions.…
Florence is not only synonymous with the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Its streets hide other equally valuable treasures that no one expects to find, as samples of the Liberty style, the Florentine art nouveau of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is quite a decorative style in wrought iron, with floral and animal motifs, linear and curved forms. The Liberty patterns found opposition, hostility and criticism in Florence, as it was believed that these buildings broke the architectural uniformity of the city.
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Frederick Stibbert was born in Florence in 1838. He was an eccentric antique collector, of most weapons and armours. If he had lived today, any doctor would have diagnosed him Diogenes syndrome. In spite of this, being of good lineage, albeit not being aristocratic, Stibbert prepared some rooms of his house to keep his collection, which would be ended up transforming the house in a real museum. After his death, the collection and the site were donated to the city of Florence, as Maria de’ Medici shortly did before the dynasty became extinct.…
Il Giardino dei Tarocchi, a picturesque park located in Garavicchio, pays homage to the esoteric world of tarot. Placed near Pescia Fiorentina (Capalbio, Tuscany), the Tarot Garden was created by the Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). It is composed of statues of intense and vivid colours inspired by the tarot major arcana figures. Although kitsch and naive in appearance, these enormous and explosive sculptures, in fact, combine art, architecture, and crafts. Besides that, they unveil a oneiric and spiritual aura.…
In this less-traveled park, not especially projected to attract tourists, on a Saturday noon you will find a couple of people lying on the benches sunbathing, reading, drinking beer or walking dogs. The fact that it looks semi-abandoned gives it an attractive decadent appearance. Formerly the Fabbricotti villa and the park belonged to the Strozzi family.…
As I arrived in Berlin, I remember being fascinated by its wide sidewalks, streets and avenues. I sense the opposite in Florence, where a car hardly fits in its streets and maximum two people can meet on the sidewalks. In Berlin, I might just longed for distance. Now I search for proximity. Closeness. They say that Berlin is a cosmopolitan city, but in Florence I hear everyday languages that I could never identify. Florence windows are not double-glazed. Not so isolated like those in Berlin. I get up sometimes at night to check that mine are not open …The city enters my room as if I really lived in the street. And I do not care, because I know all of these little bits, together, are called life.
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