Within Florence - A visual diary

Isadora Duncan awaits you in Florence

17 julio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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Over 175 pieces dedicated to Isadora Duncan will be exhibited until September 22 in the charming Villa Bardini and the Stefano Bardini Museum in Florence. Paintings, sculptures and documents including unpublished photographs that trace the link of the founder of modern dance with Italy and the influence she had in the international context. Rebellious to every convention and with a strong charisma, Isadora Duncan distinguished herself for her dancing free from social conditioning.…

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Wine & Food

I have a date at Caffè del Verone in Florence

12 julio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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Due to the tangle of streets that makes up the medieval layout in the historic part of Florence, with its narrow, winding and cobbled alleyways, it is not easy to find a terrace where you can sit and sunbathe, drink a beer, and read a short novel by Stefan Zweig or Italo Calvino. This is only possible in certain large squares and in the upper lodges of some Florentine hotels and palaces, such as the last floor of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (piazza Santissima Annunziata).
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Moments & People

Before sunset at Ponte alla Carraia

10 julio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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During the spring and summer evenings, when the Arno River runs low, Ponte alla Carraia grants one of the most picturesque sights of Florence. An isle in the middle of the river called Pescaia di Santa Rosa — between Ponte Amerigo Vespucci and Ponte alla Carraia — stands as a sort of no man’s land and becomes the spot where young people get together for a beer, a chat or share a joint. The water drop reaches three meters, thus the force of the current is considerable. However, whereas the bridge helps to maintain the natural flow of the river, the area close to Oltrarno remains dry and passable. Moreover, here the town flourishes against the light, a top scene for those in love with melancholic sunsets in Florence.…

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Outdoors

Gardens of Florence #14: Giardino Villa La Pietra

8 julio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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Villa La Pietra is currently the headquarters of New York University (NYU) in Italy. Its garden is by far my favourite private garden in Florence and it is one of the most renowned in Italy. Built by the Acton Family between 1908 and the beginning of the Second World War, its design is very much inspired by the real Renaissance gardens of Florence, though it also contains elements of the many gardening trends and styles popular since then.…

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Outdoors

Bridges of Florence (not only Ponte Vecchio)

6 julio, 2019 / 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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Moments & People

Monica Magnani’s Florence

5 julio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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Se qualcuno mi dice ‘Firenze’ la prima cosa che mi viene in mente è fuggire via. Firenze, a volte, io la guardo e mi sembra diventata un luogo comune, un cliché inventato per far contenti i turisti. Firenze per la nave da crociera è il percorso di due ore, per gli amanti clandestini è la città di un fine-settimana, per le famiglie sono i musei delle vacanze di Pasqua, per le gite scolastiche è il capitolo sul Rinascimento, per gli animi malinconici è lo struggimento della sindrome di Stendhal. Io, da questa Firenze, ho continuamente voglia di scappare e forse mi piace proprio perché, poi, quando sono fuggita via dai luoghi comuni, è così bello aver nostalgia di questa città! Firenze, per chi ha voglia di scappare, ha molte vie di fuga: per alcune ci vuole un mezzo di trasporto, per altre, invece, basta un paio di scarpe comode.
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Medici Traces

Gian Gastone de’ Medici, the last homosexual of the Medici dynasty

26 junio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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The last sovereign ruler of the Medici dynasty, Gian Gastone (1671-1737), Grandson of Ferdinando II, reigned fourteen years – from 1723 to 1737. He was a lonely pubescent man who spent most of his time isolated in the Boboli Garden, concentrated in his studies on flowers and plants and his collection of dainty, delicate objects and things. It is said that because of his homosexuality, he was affected with a deep melancholy. He was the second in the hereditary line since the first soon of the Grand Duke was Ferdinando. When Ferdinando died without heirs in 1713, Gian Gastone inherited the throne. In 1697 and for alliances and dynasties reasons, Gian Gastone was forced to marry a German-Bohemian princess, Anna Maria Franziska. The matrimony was a calamity from the beginning due to the lack of comprehension combined with a high degree of repellency and depressed resignedness on part of Gian Gastone. The marriage had no children thus consequently the option of a Medici heir vanished.

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Outdoors

“I renaioli” of Florence: sailing the Arno on a traditional boat

26 junio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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The association I Renaioli was founded in 1995 with the aim of keeping 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.…

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Moments & People

María Muñoz´s Florence

25 junio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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Trapped time in Florence

I have returned to Florence after almost thirty years. Although I had no corporeal memories of my presence in the different places, I did have visual memories, probably because Florence is one of the most photographed cities on the planet, and is part of the collective memory of many, at least in the West. My studies in art history and the monographs I did about Leonardo, Florentine himself, and Michelangelo, whose artistic life began in the Florence of the Medici, might have help to keep that memory. Apart from the spatial and visual experience, the latter of unquestionable beauty, which, according to Stendhal, even hurts; there is another characteristic that in my opinion, is explicitly Florentine. And I do not mean the public sculptures, nor the symmetrical facades of the churches and palaces, nor the marbles of different tonalities, neither the perspectives of their perfectly cobbled streets.

I’m referring to the ‘trapped time’.

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Art & Culture

‘Heroes – Bowie by Sukita.’ Photo exhibition at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi

20 junio, 2019 / By: Paco Neumann

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The retrospective Heroes – Bowie by Sukita, curated by ONO Arte Contemporanea, features the pop icon David Bowie through the eyes and lens of the undisputed master of Japanese photography, Masayoshi Sukita. From March 30 to June 28, 2019, at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (via Cavour 3) the show presents 60 large-format photographs, including the iconic photos that illustrated the cover of the album HEROES, and photographs belonging to Sukita personal archive which document the friendship, that started in the 1970s, between the pop-rock legend and the photographer. With this exhibition, Florence pays tribute to Bowie and fuses, once again, the historical with the contemporary.
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