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Museo degli Innocenti: one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture
Art & Culture

Museo degli Innocenti: one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture

12 diciembre, 2017 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

The Ospedale degli Innocenti was a children’s orphanage designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419. Following a long period of renewal, the new Museum degli Innocenti has finally opened to the public in June 2016. It verses on the theme of welcoming and caring for children, telling the visitor about the essence of the institution during six centuries, through historic documents as well as its artistic heritage. The lower level narrates the history and evolution of the Institute of the Innocents through the biographies and personal memories of the «Nocentini» (the children hosted here); the ground floor focuses on the architectural approach, describing also the evolution of the old hospital. Finally, but most importantly, the second floor houses a gallery with Renaissance treasures by Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Piero di Cosimo, Neri di Bicci, Luca della Robbia and Andrea and Giovanni del Biondo. The terrace-café of the Quattrocento open to the public crowns the building.
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Small pleasures and subtle surprises in Lucca
Within Tuscany

Small pleasures and subtle surprises in Lucca

2 diciembre, 2017 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

Embracing the heart of Lucca stand two miles and a half of a Renaissance wall in excellent condition, converted today into a stroll. No wonder such length, as its legacy deserves it: more than a hundred churches, many medieval palaces and lively streets, full of colour, are the major attractions of this city once home to Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Boccherini and Alfredo Catalani. In 1799 Napoleon occupied Lucca and created here a principality for her sister, Elisa Bonaparte, who naturally tried to transform Lucca into a new Versailles. Then came the Bourbons, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and finally the Unification. Although Florence and Pisa enjoy greater fame as well as number of visitors, Lucca treasures an amazing patrimony. Its streets, alleys, squares and towers were, back in the late Middle Ages, witness to a prosperous silk trade, too.
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His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in Florence: «This must be the century of dialogue»
Events & Entertainment

His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in Florence: «This must be the century of dialogue»

19 septiembre, 2017 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama has inaugurated on September 19th the Festival of Religions of Florence 2017 at the Forum Nelson Mandela. In his speech, the Dalai Lama praised the European Union as a great contributor to making peace, and pointed on the need for Russia and all the countries in the continent to focus also on this task. He wished for a similar alliance between Asian countries, among Africans and Americans, achieving a great union of humanity through which conflicts would be eradicated. «Man should use intelligence to cultivate values ​​like love, instead of putting it at the service of anger to generate conflicts and wars (…). This century must be the century of dialogue.» He also criticized the Western educational system in which studies focus more on the material, rather than on promoting the inner values ​​of the human beings, among whom love prevails. The intervention ended with a round of public questions.…

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Sala della Niobe, a passage not to miss at Uffizi Gallery
Art & Culture

Sala della Niobe, a passage not to miss at Uffizi Gallery

26 agosto, 2017 / By:
PHOTOS & SPANISH VERSION BELOW

Room 42 or Sala della Niobe is my favourite area at the Uffizi. An spectacular frame created in 1781, during the Neoclassical period, to house the ancient sculptures of the Villa Medici in Rome. The pieces represent the Greek myth of Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, who witnessed the murdering of her seven children in the hands of Apolo and Artemisa as an act of revenge to their mother, whom Niobe had previously mocked. The ones at the hall are Roman copies of Hellenistic originals, moved to Florence after their discovery in 1583. The walls at Niobe also display some canvases; two signed by Rubens, in baroque style. The decoration of this notable room was by Peter Leopold of Lorraine.

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