sabato 17 settembre 2011

BILANCINO: LAKE OF TOSCANA

Bilancino: Lake of Toscana

During your stay in Florence, you can have an half day trip in the Mugello Area (north of Florence). There's a very beautiful lake called BILANCINO. You can go there for sunbaths, swimming, windsurf, trekking or fishing. The lake is just 30km north of Florence and you can reach the lake by car or by bus.

By car: Highway A1 Milano-Napoli, direction Bologna exit Barberino del Mugello.
My suggestion - take the via Bolognese (SS 65) throug Trespiano, Pian di S. Bartolo, Pratolino, Vaglia, Campomigliaio, Cafaggiolo, Ischietti - Lake of Toscana. It is 35km to reach the lake, but is a very panoramic and good for sightseeing.

By bus: Take the SITA bus to Barberino del Mugello. (bus stop next to the SMN train station in Florence).

Bilancino: Lake of Toscana



Bilancino: Lake of Toscana

giovedì 8 settembre 2011

RIFICOLONA: A FOLORENTINE FOLKLORE FESTIVAL

On September 7, the eve of the liturgical calendar of the nativity of Maria, in Florence from the XVII century ther's a festival going on every year.
In the mid '700 a lot of farmers coming to the Florence valley from the mountains nearby the city, in order to celebrate the nativity of Maria and to sell their products in the fair-market held the day after. Drven by the devouted pilgrimage, they walked approx. 13km to reach the city, and in the night they used this hand-made lanterns to illuminate the paths. This lanterns was open at the top to allow the candle to burn and farmers came to Florence with this lights hanged on the top of a stick.

There are also a lot of young guys shooting the lanters with paper bullets to make them go on fire (because of their material paper pr canavas is very easy to get burned).

But nowdays farmers doesn't came anymore walking, but the festival is a tradition of childern and adults.

Here are some pictures of the best lanterns (rificolona), and the winner of the 2011 festival.

Rificolona @ Via Doni - Florence, Italy

Rificolona @ Piazza San Giovanni - Florence, Italy

Rificolona @ Piazza San Giovanni - Florence, Italy

Rificolona @ Piazza SS Annunziata - Florence, Italy

Rificolona @ Piazza SS Annunziata - Florence, Italy


The Florentine warrior
The Florentine warrior





The lily of Florence - Rificolona


                     
                            The dome of Florence - Rificolona


             






The Noah's ark - The winner of the 2011 festival

lunedì 5 settembre 2011

PALAZZO DAVANZATI: HOW LIFE WAS IN THE RENAISSANCE


     Explore this palace and get a sense of what life was in the Renaissance

Palazzo Davanzati - Florence, Italy

Via Porta Rossa
Open from 8.15 to 13.30
Cost €2, €1 with discount


The Palazzo Davanzati was commisioned in the mid XIV century by the Davizi family, who were memebers of the wool guild. The Davizi had to sell the palace due to financial difficulties, and the building changed hands twice before of being the Davanzati Palace (from the name of the owners Davanzati), who had it until 1838.
In year 1904 Elia Volpi bought the palace, who restored it and opened it as a museum in 1910. Volpi used it as an antique showroom and the objects were for sale. The museum was closed in year 1995 because the palace was falling down. After 10 years of renovation it is open again.


Palazzo Davanzati - Florence, Italy




The facade seems like a medieval tower house, and the groundfloor loggia was added in the XVI cenntury. Before it was an open space for commercial use. Typical Florentine spaces related to its merchant power.
                                
Loggia Palazzo Davanzati
             
Through the loggia you can reach the courtyard and the stone stairs bringing to the first floor. only the first floor has stone stairs, the other floors have wooden stairs.
                                                              

Stairs of Palzzo Davanzati


On the first floor the big room was for business affairs. In correspondence with the three openings of the loggia below are three holes in the ground that can be revealed by opening up trap doors. These permitted the owner to check who was coming in, and in case of undesireables, drop heavy things on their heads.




Then there is the room of the parrots, which is set up like a dining room, and has a large fireplace. The much-restored frescoes on the wall (at this point more rightly called wall paintings than true frescoes) have a pattern of diamonds and parrots after which the room is named.
The room of the parrot

A very small room in between this one and the next was a bathroom, with a potty hole. Florentines reinvented indoor personal hygeine, which was known to the Ancients but lost in the middle ages

Bathroom in the Palazzo Davanzati

Next to this bathroom was the study, or studiolo. Its wall paintings are now lost, but it is suggestively set up with objects that one might find in the man of the house’s room used for storage of business and recreational items. On display are a forziere (safe or strongbox), a cassone covered with velvet (more rightly found in a bedroom), some chairs, some small bronze statuettes, and some paintings with mythological scenes.

sabato 3 settembre 2011

THE CURCH OF SANTO STEFANO AL PONTE VECCHIO


Church of Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio
Florence - Italy

This tiny but marvellous church takes its name by the nearness to the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). The church was built in year 1116 in a Romanesque style. At the begining it has three asles an a white and green marble facade. In the XIV century the facade was renovated and only the marble work around the portal remained. Another important renovation was in year 1631-1655 when the three asles was convertet in one big open hall.


Church of Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio
Florence - Italy


Bernardo Buontalenti's Steps



This was the church of the Gherardini family, they still have a chapel inside.

At the begining of the XX century the church was renovated again and the city of Florence put inside the steps of Buontalenti, and the altar of Gianbologna bringing them from the church of Santa Trinità






Interior of the church of Santo Stefano - Florence - Italy





Nowdays the church of Santo Stefano hosts a lot of concerts and events at  its inside.













Dali & Rodin: "Homage to Dante: more than 250 works"
Church of Santo Stefano
Florence - Italy


You have time till September 28 to visit the exhibition dedicated to Dante (the great italian writter).

Salvador Dalì and Auguste Rodin together with their masterpieces from the Divine Comedy. More than 120 works and bronxe statues from Dali, and 60 bronxe statues from Rodin explaining the Divine Comedy and its song: The Hell.

The exhibition is open everyday from 2pm to 10pm.
Entrance ticket is €9, or €6 (reduced).
At the shop inside you can buy illustred copies of teh Divine Comedy.





Dali & Rodin: "Homage to Dante: more than 250 works"
Church of Santo Stefano
Florence - Italy


venerdì 2 settembre 2011

FLORENCE: A ROOF WITH A VIEW


Florence: A roof with a view
Do you want to see Florence from a different and striking point of view, maybe enjoying an aperitivo or having dinner? Do you want to enjoy the Florence sunset or the Florence starry sky??

So you should go to one of this terraces of hotels linked below:

  • Antica Torre di Via Tornabuoni - Via Tornabuoni, 1
  • Grand Hotel Baglioni - Piazza dell'Unità Italiana, 6
  • Grand Hotel Cavour - Via del Proconsolo, 3
  • Grand Hotel Minerva - Piazza Santa Maria Novella, 16
  • Hotel Boscolo Astoria - Via del Giglio, 9
  • Hotel Kraft - Via Solferino, 2
  • Hotel La Scaletta - Via dei Guicciardini, 13
  • Hotel Laurus al Duomo - Via de Cerretani, 54r
  • Hotel Medici - Via de Medici, 6
  • Hotel River - Lungarno della Zecca Vecchia, 18
  • Hotel Silla - Via dei Renai, 5
  • Hotel Tornabuoni Beacci - Via Tornabuoni, 3
  • Hotel Torre Guelfa - Borgo SS. Apostoli, 8
  • J.K. Place Firenze - Piazza Santa Maria Novella, 7
  • Pitti Palace al Ponte Vecchio - Borgo San Jacopo, 3
  • Relais & Chateaux Hotel Villa La Vedetta - Viale Michelangelo, 78
  • Ristorante Terraza Bardini - Via Costa San Giorgio, 6a

You have time till the end of September to get three stamps on a voucher you will find at each hotel terrace that you visit and get a funny gift from the Tourist Information Office in Via Cavour, 1r http://florencebydenis.blogspot.com/2011/08/tourist-information-office.html


SHOOT & WIN
Take a picture from your favourite roof garden, and sent it to this Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrazzaconvista2011/
The best photo of the competition will WIN a 2 nights stay in Florence.

Here is the winning picture of the 2010 edition:
Paolo Burrini winner of the 2010 edition

giovedì 1 settembre 2011

THE GHOST BICYCLE


Streets of Florence - Italy

This is the ghost bicycle, standing in the air with no wheels :-))

THE FLORENTINE GENIUS

Streets of Florence - Italy

Here we have an example of the Florentine Genius - transforming a baby chair in a baby seat for the bicycle. I simply find it genial...