Within Florence

Outdoors

Il Liberty fiorentino: the Florentine art nouveau

15 mayo, 2024 / 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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Art & Culture

Uncommon Museums of Florence #4: Stibbert Museum

7 mayo, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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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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Within Tuscany

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi, Tuscany’s esoteric garden

5 mayo, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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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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Outdoors

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

28 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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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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Moments & People

Berlin vs. Florence: comparisons game

25 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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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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Events & Entertainment

‘Noble Earth:’ a movie set in Florence criticizing Florentine high society

24 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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Emma meets Tancredi in Florence, embarking on a love affair with the intoxicating cosmos he represents: endless days in the gauzy Florentine hills or the sun-blanched beaches in Maremma. They become engaged. Soon, however, Emma becomes caught in family politics, learning what is expected of a woman in Florentine high society. The same beauty that overwhelmed Emma reveals itself as superficial and suffocates her. Noble Earth is a study of ennui and female repression within a world rarely seen onscreen — Italy’s hermetic nobility. On the occasion of the screening of Noble Earth at the Berlin Visionär Film Festival 2018 past sprin g, I had the opportunity to briefly interview Ursula Grisham, director of the film, which was shot mostly in Florence.
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Outdoors

Gardens of Florence #9: giardino di Boboli, the paradigm of a 16th century Italian garden

24 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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The Boboli Gardens date back to 1418 when Luca Pitti bought its land in Oltrarno intending to build the magnificent Pitti Palace, later owned by the Medici family. The Medici commissioned the landscaping to Niccolò Tribolo, the famous architect responsible for the gardens of their villas of Castello and La Petraia. However, after the premature death of Tribolo, it was Bartolomeo Ammannati who finished the job. The Boboli is the paradigm of the 16th-century Italian garden, as well as one of the most significant historical parks in Florence. Around the principal axes are placed avenues, hedges, terraces full of statues and fountains. The first operas of history were also represented in its open-air amphitheatre.
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Moments & People

‘Flight mode’ in Florence: sex dating apps, endless queues at Uffizi, panino at Antico Vinaio and some tacky souvenirs

23 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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There is always someone at any time of the day pulling a suitcase in Florence. I do not know what they carry inside, but what is rarely missing is a sex dating app in their ‘digital luggage.’ Transit, data roaming, digital nomads and ‘aeroplane mode’ on. Between heaven and hell. It is the social philosopher Zygmunt Bauman‘s immediacy and the disconcerting desire of wanting to live it all. Liquid loves, gaseous encounters and sparkling lives. The profiles named ‘Visiting’ multiply in the flirting apps. Sex express and the odd souvenir, which commonly becomes a shag with a local. Fuck’n’go!…

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Moments & People

Before sunset at Ponte alla Carraia

22 abril, 2024 / 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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Medici Traces

Medici villas #1: La Petraia

21 abril, 2024 / By: Paco Neumann

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Perched on a hill top of Castello, with a panoramic view of Florence, this astonishing 14th century villa was first owned by the Brunelleschi family and the Strozzi, before being home to Cosimo I de’ Medici and his offsprings. It was also the favourite residence of Vittorio Emanuele II in the company of her lover Rosa Vercellana. Its significance has paved the way for restorations throughout the centuries, thus becoming declared UNESCO World Heritage in 2013 and an asset of the state museums today. Not to miss are the famous lunettes painted by Giusto Utens — each representing a Medici villa and garden —, the sculptures of Giambologna and a wander lost in its gardens. There is a guided tour in Italian every 30 minutes. Free entrance.

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