YOUR FLORENCE EXPERIENCE

FINE ARTS AND
CULTURE ACADEMY

When the Carro Matto arrives in Florence

The fourth Saturday in September sees the Carro Matto (Crazy Cart) parade through the streets of the historic center of Florence, a tradition that has its roots in fourteenth-century Florence. At the time, the wine mostly came from the Chianti area, now known all over the world for the production...

The abundance of the form in Botero

The style of Fernando Botero Angulo, characterized by subjects with dilated and full forms, of caricatural appearance, is absolutely unmistakable.The artist developed this style in the 1950s after painting a "fat" mandolin in a still life with mandolin. Since then he will continue to paint men, women, animals and inanimate...

Curious Florence: buchette del vino

Walking down the streets of Florence you might have seen them: tiny arched shaped doors on the walls of buildings in the city center. Many wonder what they are, even some florentines don't know their history. They are called "buchette del vino" (litterally "wine holes"), closed with little wooden doors...

Curious Florence: Palazzo dei Cartelloni

In via Sant'Antonino 11 in Florence, there is a building that immediately catches the eye of passers-by as it features decidedly unusual decorative elements. It is Palazzo Viviani, otherwise known as the "Palazzo dei cartelloni” (Billboards Palace), due to the enormous epigraphs with which the facade is decorated. Among these...

Spiagge Bianche: the dark side of the Caribbean of Tuscany

Spiagge Bianche are a stretch of about five kilometers of white sand bathed by beautiful clear waters, in the municipality of Rosignano Marittimo in Tuscany, between Rosignano Solvay and Vada. A postcard landscape that attracts many people from all over Tuscany, but also tourists who have heard of this perfectly...

The Gardens of Florence - Stibbert Park

At the moment of his death, English entrepreneur and collector, Frederick Stibbert (1838-1906) left to the municipality of Florence his villa containg a spectacular collection of more than 50,000 objects: armors, weapons, porcelains, furniture, jewelry, paintings, sculptures and much more. This property included also a beautiful park with sculptures, little...

Yan Pei-Ming. Painting Histories in Florence

Another major monographic exhibition is underway at Palazzo Strozzi until 3 September 2023, and this time it brings us in contact with over thirty works by Chinese artist, Yan Pei-Ming: Yan Pei-Ming. Painting Histories.Born and raised in Shanghai, he emigrated to France at the age of 20, enrolling at the...

Recipes of the tradition: Florentine Zuccotto

Florentine zuccotto is a semifreddo liqueur dessert invented in the mid-sixteenth century by Bernardo Buontalenti, the same Buontalenti to whom we also owe the invention gelato. It is also called Caterina de' Medici’s Helmet, since it seems that originally, to make this dessert, the helmets worn by the infantry at...

“The return of Joseph, the prince of dreams” at the Salone dei Duecento

The Medici tapestries from the cycle “The return of Joseph, the prince of dreams” are back in the Salone dei Duecento, exhibited in rotation in five exhibition cycles. The twenty tapestries in the series are displayed, four at a time, according to their original location in the hall of Palazzo...

As the saying goes: San Giovanni non vuole inganni!

Have you ever heard a Florentine say: “San Giovanni non vuole inganni" (Saint John doesn't allow deceit)? This saying is often used in situations where someone has tried to trick somebody else and the other person found out, or they don't believe the lie told. Where does this saying come from?...

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