Within Florence

Outdoors

Cimitero degli Inglesi in Florence: memento mori

29 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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We all are born to die, and the awareness of this truth acts as torture for many and as a relief for others. Standing in the centre of the present piazzale Donatello, the English Cemetery (Cimitero degli Inglesi) was laid out in 1828 by the architect Carlo Reishammer, for the Swiss Community, outside the 14th-century walls and the Porta a Pinti (demolished in the later 19th century). When the whole area was rearranged by Giuseppe Poggi, the cemetery stood out as a prominent feature, an ‘island of the dead’ surrounded by traffic.

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Outdoors

Tabernacles: religious street art in Florence

25 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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There is no doubt that the tabernacles are a key element of the oldest streets of Florence. More than a religious character, it seems to me that they have quite an exquisite kitsch appearance. The city currently houses around 1200 tabernacles, of different styles and periods — some are true masterpieces. Catholics fought against heresy not only with preaching, but also by placing sacred images on the streets, houses, shops and public buildings which endure today. In Oltrarno there is still a large number of these particular street sanctuaries, available for a worldly prayer at any time of the day or night. The ancient Romans were already devotees of this form of religious architecture, for they built small temples in the streets with sacred images that protected both the house and the travelers.
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Outdoors

A Florentine flâneur: the art of wandering the streets of Florence

25 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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The figure of the flâneur is associated with the rise of “urban life” and especially with Paris, one of the first major cities of the industrial era in which appeared the flâneur as the person who wanders through boulevards, shop windows, and passages. This wandering character was conceived by authors Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, who defined the authentic flâneur as an attentive and wise voyeur, and far from being a frivolous, banal, idle, superficial and clueless passer-by, he is above all a deep observer of the city, a restless traveler with no definite direction, and a forerunner (without a camera) of the documentary photography.…

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Outdoors

Bridges of Florence (not only Ponte Vecchio)

24 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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They say that what separates life from death is a river and each one chooses his own bridge to cross it. All the bridges of Florence, with the only exception of marvellous Ponte Vecchio, were destroyed by the Germans on the night of the 3rd of August, 1944, during the Second World War. Fortunately they have been rebuilt later.…

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Outdoors

Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau

23 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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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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Outdoors

13 examples of modern architecture in Florence

21 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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Florence is a myth. It is a place where scholars, inventors, artists, and genius have changed the world and invented it as we know it today. The legacy of Florence is modernity. More than a place, Florence makes the world aware of a time flow between ancient time, present and future, with no limits. The buildings described below show the city commitment to the architectural avant-garde, also known as Modern Style.…

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Outdoors

Le buchette del vino: the wine windows of Florence

20 octubre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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Florence is an inexhaustible source of secret treasures, an immortal city that every day gives us lessons of living history. One only needs to open the eyes and pay attention to little details present in the morphology of the city, those details that provide stimuli to the curious souls for nostalgic history. Located one meter above ground level, on the walls of several historical buildings in the city centre, it is possible to glimpse a tiny hole or the so-called “wine window” (buchetta del vino). This was the name given to the notches opened up on the walls of the noble palaces in the 17th century when, following a commercial crisis in Florence, the authorities granted the owners of the vineyards to supplement their income with the retail sale of wine. Through these holes were sold the famous «fiaschi» of wine, which are the typical glass bottles of Chianti, with a spherical shape, long neck and base covered with braided straw. The price of the wine was lower than in the taverns and often in these «buchette del vino» there were small wine jugs and bread for the poor people.
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Fashion & Shops & Markets

Studio Musivo Lastrucci: masters of the Florentine mosaic, the art of «painting with stones»

28 septiembre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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The artistic discipline named “commesso” or Florentine mosaic made with semiprecious stones emerged in Florence in the 16th century. As could be expected, the Medici family was a great promoter of this new artistic manifestation. Using the traditional technique of the Romanesque mosaic, the “commesso” added interspersed gemstones with highly aesthetic results, very similar to those of a real painting. Each mosaic is handmade in the laboratory following the traditional method, which allows to maintain the authenticity of the technique and enhance the natural colour of each stone. To complete a surface equivalent to a DIN A3 size, three or four years of craft work are needed. …

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Fashion & Shops & Markets

The magical world of Gucci Garden in Florence

27 septiembre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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After thorough renovation, Gucci has reopened its Florence museum located in Palazzo della Mercanzia. Its three floors and different rooms have been converted into a multi-space where you can eat, shop and join the Gucci constellation. Past and present merge within a fusion of animals, plants and flowers appearing as cheerful as the intense patterns of Gucci´s traditional garments. …

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Within Tuscany

Castello Ginori di Querceto, celebrating nature and life in the Tuscan countryside

26 septiembre, 2023 / By: Paco Neumann

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Crickets, cicadas, tafani, pheasants, wind, rain, silence … The sounds of nature. But also the colours of sunrise and sunset, the hue of the grapes, the forest-trees, and the countryside … The flavours of wine and a splendid menu at Locanda del Sole restaurant … The aroma of the wetland after the rain … The texture of the olive tree logs and the stone walls covered with ivy. And the compassion of the sun. The days pass by peacefully between swimming pool moments alone and 20 kilometres hiking treks … between wines from the Ginori Lisci winery. The time has stood still. We are in the Ginori Castle of Querceto, enjoying with the five senses. This place is an antidote to stress (the poison of the first world), and it makes us forget about the exhausting urban life, of which we are – sometimes – slaves without redemption.…

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