Browsing AuthorPaco Neumann

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Paco Neumann

Paco Neumann is a journalist, photographer, proofreader, flâneur and perpetual amateur currently living in between Florence, Berlin, Paris and Tenerife. He´s been a regular contributor to fashion, art, trend and lifestyle magazines and worked for news, advertising and communication agencies
Cimitero degli Inglesi in Florence: memento mori
Outdoors

Cimitero degli Inglesi in Florence: memento mori

19 octubre, 2024 / By:
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.

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

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

19 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Società Canottieri of Florence, crossing the Arno river in canoe
Outdoors

Società Canottieri of Florence, crossing the Arno river in canoe

19 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Uncommon museums of Florence #2: Stefano Bardini Museum
Art & Culture

Uncommon museums of Florence #2: Stefano Bardini Museum

17 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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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Chini Museum, the artistic heritage of Galileo Chini
Within Tuscany

Chini Museum, the artistic heritage of Galileo Chini

16 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau
Outdoors

Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau

15 mayo, 2024 / By:
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.
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Uncommon Museums of Florence #4: Stibbert Museum
Art & Culture

Uncommon Museums of Florence #4: Stibbert Museum

7 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Il Giardino dei Tarocchi, Tuscany’s esoteric garden
Within Tuscany

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi, Tuscany’s esoteric garden

5 mayo, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Gardens of Florence #10: giardini Villa Fabbricotti and Baden Powell, between decadence and bucolic solitude
Outdoors

Gardens of Florence #10: giardini Villa Fabbricotti and Baden Powell, between decadence and bucolic solitude

28 abril, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

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.…

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Berlin vs. Florence: comparisons game
Moments & People

Berlin vs. Florence: comparisons game

25 abril, 2024 / By:
PHOTOS, SPANISH & ITALIAN VERSION BELOW

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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