Deprecated: Required parameter $offset follows optional parameter $limit in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php on line 16 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php:16) in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/gdpr/public/class-gdpr-public.php on line 367 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php:16) in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/gdpr/public/class-gdpr-public.php on line 416 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php:16) in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/onecom-vcache/vcaching.php on line 604 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php:16) in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/onecom-vcache/vcaching.php on line 612 Deprecated: Required parameter $parent follows optional parameter $field in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/libs/redux-framework/redux-extensions-loader/extensions/softhopper_slides/softhopper_slides/field_softhopper_slides.php on line 44 Deprecated: Required parameter $parent follows optional parameter $field in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/libs/redux-framework/redux-extensions-loader/extensions/softhopper_slides_skill/softhopper_slides_skill/field_softhopper_slides_skill.php on line 44 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/themes/ramble/inc/functions/function-for-post.php:16) in /customers/8/f/b/withinflorence.com/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/onecom-vcache/vcaching.php on line 304 Within Florence - A visual diary by Paco Neumann
The house of Piero Bargellini, a key figure during ‘l’alluvione di Firenze 1966’

The house of Piero Bargellini, a key figure during ‘l’alluvione di Firenze 1966’

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

The Arno River severely overflowed on November 4, 1966, provoking what is commonly known as ‘l’alluvione di Firenze.’ The city of Florence and part of Tuscany were inundated by the floods, causing an impact affecting the economic and cultural environment of Florence. Fortunately, as November 4 was a bank holiday, many businesses were closed, and a large part of the population was at home, thus avoiding an even bigger disaster. Nevertheless, 101 people died, 5,000 families lost their homes, and 6,000 businesses had to close. The deluge also destroyed and/or damaged countless works of art, prominent buildings and books. The damages could be repaired thanks to the efforts of Italian citizens, international committees and foreign donors. Piero Bargellini (1897-1980), writer, historian, politician and intellectual, was the mayor of Florence in that awkward moment.

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Illustrious tombs of Florence, celebrating death on All Saints’ Day

Illustrious tombs of Florence, celebrating death on All Saints’ Day

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

Leonardo da Vinci said: “Just as a well-used day produces a sweet dream, a well-used life produces a sweet death.” Death and life are two sides of the same coin. We fear death as children fear the darkness. But in fact, one should fear life more than death. What happens after death has been the great “incognitum” of humanity since its foundation. Death makes us reflect on life’s value.…

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Cimitero degli Inglesi in Florence: memento mori

Cimitero degli Inglesi in Florence: memento mori

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Tabernacles: religious street art in Florence

Tabernacles: religious street art in Florence

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

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

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

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Bridges of Florence (not only Ponte Vecchio)

Bridges of Florence (not only Ponte Vecchio)

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau

Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Vertical beauty: towers of Florence

Vertical beauty: towers of Florence

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

The ‘skyscrapers’ of the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, high constructions became a form of power for the aristocracy. The feudal nobles and their vanity competed among themselves building ‘skyscrapers’ to demonstrate their authority and wealth – as if they were contemporary multinationals companies. Although the Tuscan Manhattan of the Middle Ages is undoubtedly San Gimignano, Florence is not far behind. This city of modest dimensions has currently 70 fortress-houses which could have had a defensive purpose apart from taking advantage of the housing space once the internal wars ceased.…

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

13 examples of modern architecture in Florence

13 examples of modern architecture in Florence

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

Continue Reading

You May Like Also

Le buchette del vino: the wine windows of Florence

Le buchette del vino: the wine windows of Florence

PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.

Continue Reading

You May Like Also