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Magical Florence by day & night (photo series)
Outdoors

Magical Florence by day & night (photo series)

17 octubre, 2018 / By:
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Writing about a fascination incites to living it twice. Florence (and all Italy) transmits a special magnetism to me, either at night or in the daylight. Indeed, I feel the more you visit a site, the more your identity will be linked to it. Choosing a place is never incidental, but caused by a wish, a certain object of desire. I have felt in love with Florence just as I could have with a person, thus looking to make the affair last, and staying here forever. Is it a whim? Certainly, one that´s rooted deep inside of me.

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‘Steve McCurry. Icons,’ photo exhibition at Villa Bardini
Art & Culture

‘Steve McCurry. Icons,’ photo exhibition at Villa Bardini

14 septiembre, 2018 / By:
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On view until September 16, Villa Bardini presents a retrospective dedicated to the artist Steve McCurry (Darby, Pensilvania, 1950), one of the great masters of contemporary and documentary photography. Curated by Biba Giacchetti, the exhibition entitled Steve McCurry. Icons displays more than a hundred photographs featuring the best works of the North American photographer produced during his extensive career spanning over forty years. The exhibition takes visitors on a symbolic journey through countries like India, Afghanistan, Burma, Japan, Cuba or Brazil across the complex universe full of experiences and emotions carried in McCurry’s images.
Steve McCurry. Icons – Villa Bardini – Costa San Giorgio 2, Florence (admission: 10 EUR)
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Florence from above at Se·sto: exclusive ‘aperitivo’ with a view
Wine & Food

Florence from above at Se·sto: exclusive ‘aperitivo’ with a view

22 julio, 2018 / By:
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As E. M. Forster famous novel A Room With A View, the Se·sto restaurant and bar unique location on the rooftop floor at the luxury hotel The Westin Excelsior in Florence provides a scenic view over the Arno River to the whole city and the surrounding hills. In the kitchen, Chef Matteo Lorenzini has created a menu based on innovative Italian cuisine with an international touch. The proposals for lunch or dinner are Mediterranean dishes made with fresh seasonal products accompanied by a great variety of wines. Se·sto also offers a wide range of cocktails served on the terrace, where you can also enjoy an exclusive Italian aperitivo while looking at the sunset. The selection of music ranges from nu jazz to lounge emphasizing the outstanding ambiance.
Se·sto, The Westin Excelsior, Piazza Ognissanti 171, daily aperitif from 7 to 9 p.m. (€ 21). Walk-in policy, reservations not accepted
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Arty cocktails at Antico Caffè del Moro in Florence
Wine & Food

Arty cocktails at Antico Caffè del Moro in Florence

7 junio, 2018 / By:
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Some venues of Florence became my favourites thanks to dating local guys. The Art Bar – Caffè degli Artisti – Antico Caffè del Moro is one of them. I believe locals are always the key to entering everyday life, anywhere. And, although those dates rarely succeeded, fortunately the places still endure. Despite usually crowded, it´s worth a visit just at Antico´s happy hour (6-9 p.m.), with fruit cocktails at 7 euros (10 euros after 9 p.m.). Customers range from American college students with their last generation iPhones, to gentlemen from the neighbourhood and residents in their early forties. Founded in 1926, it consists of a small room with ten round tables with candles, and the service (especially the girls) is charming. The buts? Cocktails sometimes look like fruit salads and the preparation of drinks takes its time.
Via del Moro 4 50123 Florence FI – open every day from 6:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. (Friday and Saturday until 2 p.m.)
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Pontormo at Palazzo Pitti: from drawing to painting
Art & Culture

Pontormo at Palazzo Pitti: from drawing to painting

5 junio, 2018 / By:
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The exhibition Incontri miracolosi: Pontormo dal disegno alla pittura (Miraculous Encounters: Pontormo from drawing to painting) presents a series of works of outstanding importance, most of which are here displayed for the first time together. Thirty years after it was last here, the return visit to Florence of the Halberdier (1494- 1557) is the perfect occasion for an exhibition dedicated to Pontormo. This magnificent portrait by Pontormo, acquired by the Getty Museum of Los Angeles in 1989 for the then record-breaking sum of $32.5 million, now finds itself back in its home town of Florence. It’s the centre piece of the exhibition curated by Bruce Edelstein, which is now on show in the Sala delle Nicchie in Palazzo Pitti until 29th July 2018. Displayed along with the Halberdier, there is also the Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap, among other master pieces.
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Betty Long’s Florence
Moments & People

Betty Long’s Florence

28 mayo, 2018 / By:
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Bye for now, beautiful Florence. When in Florence, exceptional and majestic artworks created by humans wait for you in every corner. Its streets, always crowded with the bustle that comes with it, make Florence the perfect place for lonely travelers’ initiation where they will never feel alone. Where the coffee, although expensive, is exquisite. Where Michelangelo’s David and the Duomo share space with Dior and Chanel. The city welcomed and captivated me from the very beginning with its magic and, although the coin thrown at Il Porcellino insisted on predicting the opposite, I will always want to return to Florence. Thank you, Paco Neumann, for showing me your Florence, especially from the most outstanding balcony I have ever stepped on. Ci vediamo presto!
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Donnini Cutlery or the survival of ancient crafts in Florence
Fashion & Shops & Markets

Donnini Cutlery or the survival of ancient crafts in Florence

7 mayo, 2018 / By:
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I love the combination right in the middle of Florence of modern shops and old handicraft ones with its tradition living through generations. Such trades grant the city vestiges of its medieval past as well as an air of genuine timelessness. For instance, Florentine artisan Leonardo Donnini´s masters sharpening: from knives to professional scissors or devices used to cut leather, which serve also as tools for other artisan colleagues in Florence. «I began working with my father in 1992, when I was still a teenager. Our bottega, shop and laboratory opened in 1930, and was in Via Gioberti. Since then, I have totally inherited my father’s trade, I have become one of the 11 Mastro Arrotini of Italy and I moved the store, Donnini Coltelleria, to Via G. Lanza 70. It is a pleasure for me to show my work and I would love to share my old craft with your readers.» The knife from the movie Hannibal was indeed manufactured in his shop.
Donnini Coltelleria, Via G. Lanza 70 – 50136 Florence…

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Where to buy alcohol in Florence after 9pm
Fashion & Shops & Markets

Where to buy alcohol in Florence after 9pm

5 mayo, 2018 / By:
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It truly stands as a nuisance: right in the XXI century, the «Dry Laws» of Florence prohibit the sale of alcohol from nine in the evening in the historic centre or Unesco area. Because of it, the queues in supermarkets at quarter to nine are almost hysterical, with everyone rushing to get a little bottle of something … I’m one of them! Besides, the control is increasingly tougher, so it requires persuasive caution in mini markets. For instance, at the supermarket in Piazza di San Lorenzo, alcohol is provided only when going to the charcuterie section. Once there, they force you to put it in a backpack or in an opaque bag. Another option is to buy a bottle of wine «to go» in any restaurant in the city. The price is usually higher, so drinking after 9pm in Florence has become a sort of luxury, only available to few. Besides, if you are post-adolescent or relatively young looking, don´t even try.

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Exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi: «Down of a Nation. From Guttuso to Fontana and Schifano»
Art & Culture

Exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi: «Down of a Nation. From Guttuso to Fontana and Schifano»

22 abril, 2018 / By:
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Until 22nd July 2018, Palazzo Strozzi is hosting the exhibition Dawn of a Nation. From Guttuso to Fontana and Schifano, a truly mesmerising exploration of art, politics and society in Italy from the 1950s to the protest years in the late ’60s, with eighty works of art by such masters as Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Piero Manzoni, Mario Schifano, Mario Merz and Michelangelo Pistoletto. The exhibition, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, illustrates the effervescence of Italian culture after World War II, the years of the so-called “economic miracle” that marked a major transformation in Italian society, up until the fateful year of 1968. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey setting out from the diatribe between Realism and Abstraction, continuing on to the triumph of Informal Art and leading through the images, gestures and figures of Pop Art in strident juxtaposition with the experimental vision of monochromatic painting, right up to the language of Arte Povera and of Conceptual Art.…

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Central Market of Florence: tradition and modernity in one
Fashion & Shops & Markets

Central Market of Florence: tradition and modernity in one

18 abril, 2018 / By:
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Following the European trend of remodelling old food markets with new food stalls, the first floor of the central market of San Lorenzo (called Mercato Centrale Firenze, MCF) opened in 2014 to commemorate the 140th anniversary of its iron and glass building, which also houses the traditional market of the city on the ground floor. MCF offers confectionery, fresh fish, fried foods and dressings, fruits and vegetables, meat and salamis, mozzarella di bufala, chocolate, cheeses, ice cream, fresh pasta, wines, lampredotto and sandwiches. With seating for 500 people, MCF revitalized an area, which had been previously half-deserted, by residents departing the city centre. All the dishes prepared in the MCF are made with raw ingredients sold in the same central market. Touristphobics shall abstain.
Open every day from ten in the morning to midnight
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