SUNDAY, FEB 7th - FREE ENTRANCE IN ALL STATE RUN MUSEUMS OF FLORENCE

Sunday, Feb 7th, 2016 (the first sunday of the month) the state run museums of Florence will be free of charge !!!

There is no need to make reservationS, just queue up and in few minutes you will enter the museum.

Here is the list of the state run museums that you can visit:

 Galleria degli Uffizi, 

Galleria dell'Accademia,

 Galleria Palatina e Galleria d'Arte Moderna,

 Museo degli Argenti, Galleria del Costume, Museo delle Porcellane,
Giardino di Boboli e Giardino Bardini,

 Museo del Bargello,

 Cappelle Medicee,

Museo Archeologico,

 Palazzo Davanzati,

Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto.

EUROPEAN HERITAGE DAYS

On Saturday Sept 19th and Sunday Sept 20th during the European Heritage days the Accademia Museum and the Uffizi Museum will stay open until 11pm.

And on this occasion the Uffizi Gallery will have a symbolic €1 entrance cost.

So go and visit one of the most beautiful and important museums of Florence !!!

NOTTE DEI MUSEI 2013

#nottedeimusei2013

Save the date: Saturday May 18th, 2013

All state run museums of Florence are open from 7pm to 11pm for the Museums Night with 

no fee entrance.

Don't loose the chance to visit the Uffizi Gallery, The Palatine Gallery, the Accademia Gallery or the Aerceogical Museum for free.

ANNIVERSARY ELECTRESS PALATINE

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici - Elettrice Palatina

Today, Feb 18th, 2013, on her 270 anniverasry of death, the last surviving of the Medici family, the Electress Palatine, will be commemorated by the city of Florence with free access to the 

Civic Museums.

Take the chance to visit the Palazzo Vecchio and the Torre di Arnolfo from 10am to 6pm.

Here more info: http://www.museicivicifiorentini.it/en/index.html

SYNAGOGUE OF FLORENCE

Sinagoga di Firenze

The synagogue was built between years 1784 and 1882 by the jewish architect Mario Traves.

The overall form of the synagogue is the cruciform of the Hagia Sophia emulated by so many mosques.

Its structure is alternated of travertine and pink pomato. Old photographs show bold red and beige stripes, but the bold colors of the stone have faded over time, leavink a ore mottled effect.

Synagogue of Florence

It has a great dome and two corner towers topped by smaller domes in a perfect Moorish style. The domes are sheathed in copper wich has turned green over the years. 

Interior of the synagogue

The interior, suffused with golden light, is covered with decorative motifs by Giovanni Panti, consisting in red and blue arabesques. 

The synagogue during world war II was used as a vehicle garage by the fascists and after the war the italian resistance saved it by beeig destroyed. Only a limited amount of damage was done.

The doors of the Holy Ark - before wich a lamp burns perpetually - still bear scars inflicted by Fascists bayonetes.

The Great Synagogue of Florence

Via Luigi Carlo Farini, 6

Info and Reservations: +39 055 2346654

Open: Everyday from 10am to 5pm

Closed: Every saturday and on Jewish holidays/December 25th/January1st

Tickets price: full €5 / reduced €4

28th AUGUST 1498 - "LA PIETA' VATICANA" MICHELANGELO

It was year 1497 when Michelangelo Buonarroti (he was only 20 years old) was commissioned by the french cardinal JEAN DE BILHERES to build this marvelous marbel sculpture.

Michelangelo went himself to Carrara to take the marbele he used. It takes to him 1 year to finish the opera and he deliverd it on August 28th, 1498. The statue is high 174cm, large 195cm and deep 69cm.

La Pietà Vaticana - Michelangelo Buonarroti

The "Pietà" is conserved in Rome at the Basilica di San Pietro.

Go to the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence to see other masterpieces of the gran maestro Michelangelo. One of his most important works conserved in here is the David.

David - Michelangelo

The Accademia is open from tuesday to sunday from 8.15am to 6.50pm. Until September, 30th, every thursday from 7pm to 10pm there's a free entrance.

Take the chance to visit one of the most beautiful museum of the world.

APERITIVO AD ARTE @ BARGELLO MUSEUM

In a previous post i suggested to have an aperitivo @ The Uffizi Gallery. Well, this ends in august! Yes it is sad, but there is another aperitivo ad arte going on in august, september and october.

Aperitivo ad arte @ The Bargello Museum is a new way to discover this magnificent museum. 

Aperitivo ad arte @ Bargello Museum

It starts from 1st of August every tuesday from 7pm until 10pm. Enjoying a cocktail or a granita drink you have the possibility to visit the Michelangelo's room and the Florentine Reinassance room. The aperitivo costs € 12 per person!

Which better way to enjouy your stay in Florence?

Museo del Bargello - Via del Proconsolo, 4 - Firenze

Book in advance by calling: +39 055 294883

XIVth WEEK OF THE CULTURE

From 14th until the 22nd of April in Florence several state-run museums, galleries, monuments, villas and archaeological areas will have a free entrance.

So dont loose the chance to visit the Boboli Gardens, the Medici Chapels, the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the museum of  Palazzo Vecchio, the Palazzo Davanzati, the San Marco museum and many other places.

UNESCO recently estimated that nearly 40% of the world's cultural heritage lies in Italy, Culture Week offers the opportunity to explore Florence's phenomenal historical treasures.

Uffizi Gallery - Florence, Italy

CHRISTMAS IN ART

Extraordinary opening for the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery on monday, 26.

The new opening blue room @ the Uffizi Gallery - Florence, Italy

The Uffizi and the Accademia will be colosed sunday for Christams but opend on monday, 26 from 8.15am to 6.50pm.
Extraordinary opening for the Medici Chapels monday, 26 from 8.15am to 4.50pm.
Will be open the Palazzo Vecchio museum from 9am until midnight.
The Duomo Cathedral will be open monday 1.30pm to 4.45pm and the Tower of Giotto opend from 8.30am to 7.30pm.

Medici Chapels - Florence, Italy

Uffizi gallery and the Palazzo Vecchio

I just wantet to remind you the free museums night on tuesday, 27. Don't miss it as this will be the last night! Have fun and enjoy the museums!

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.

THE SOCCER MUSEUM (AUGUST 26 - SEPTEMBER 12)



Soccer Museum - Florence

 

Soccer Museum - Florence

Italy National Soccer Team has been for 4 times World Champion - 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006.

In Florence at the Old Palace from August 26 to September 12 you can visit the Soccer Museum. I find it very intresting. There are all the shirts, shorts, shoes, balls and a lot of other things players and referees wears during the competitions. This tiny museum has a free entrance.



Shoes of Gilardino, Ball, World Cup - 2006



Soccer Museum - Florence



World Cup 2006























It's a very small museum, I think in 30 min you're done, but anyway I suggest you a stop here to get documentated about the "Azzurri" - the Italian National Team.

Don't miss the "Fiorentina" section. Fiorentina is the local soccer team of Florence. This modest team a lot of times has reached very very good results on italians and europeans championships and competitions.

Fiorentina - Soccer Museum - Florence

Fiorentina - Soccer Museum - Florence

THE PERFECT ESCAPE FROM THE FLORENTINE HEAT: FIESOLE

During your stay in Florence I will suggest you a breezy half day trip to Fiesole, which is perched on a hill overlooking the Arno valley.



Piazza Garibaldi - Fiesole


Fiesole is a small town with a main square, a few restaurants and shops, a few minor sights, and a great view. The ancient Etruscans knew a good spot when they saw one, and chose to settle here, estabilishing Fiesole about 400 years before the Romans founded Florence. Also healthy Renaissance families chose Fiesole as a prefered vacation spot, building villas in the surrounding hillsides. Later, in the 19-th century Romantics spent part of the Grand Tour admiring the vistas.

Fiesole

               GETTING TO FIESOLE

Bus #7 runs every 30 minutes from the train station or the San Marco square. Tickets costs €1.20 for 90 min or €3 for a daily ticket.
Sightseeing buses has a stop to Fiesole.
Taxis from Florence cost approx. €20 to Fiesole.

Sightseeing bus in Fiesole

SIGHTS IN FIESOLE

Fiesole's sight are either free or covered under one €10 combo ticket, avaible at the Roman Theater.

Via San Francesco - Fiesole

Terrace with a View - Catch the sunset (and your breath) from the view terrace just below San Francesco's Church. It's a 5/6 min hike from the main bus stop: Face the bell tower and take via San Francesco, on the left.


Church of San Francesco - For even more hill-climbing, continue up from the view terrace to this charming little church. The small scale and the colorful altar paintings make this church more enjoyable than Fiesole's Duomo. Free of charge from Mon-Sat 8-12 & 15-19, Sun 7-11 & 15-19.



Church of San Francesco - Fiesole





The Duomo of Fiesole



Duomo - While this church has a drab, 19th-century exterior, the interior is worth a look, if only for the blue-and-white glazed Giovanni della Robbia statue of St. Romulus over the entry door. Free entrance daily 8-12 & 15-18.



Museum of Fiesole



Roman Theater and Archaeological Park -

Occasionally used today for plays, this well preserved theater held up to 2000 people. The site's other ruins are, well, ruined, and lacking in explanation. But the valley view and peaceful setting are lovely. €10 combo-ticket also covers Civic and Bandini museums, Wed-Mon 10-18, closed Tue.

Civic Museum - Located with the Aercheological Park, the museum imparts insight into Fiesole's Etruscan and Roman roots with well-displayed artifacts and with a few English descriptions in the corners. Wed-Mon 10-18, closed Tue.

Bandini Mueseum - This small museum diplays the wooden panels of lesser know Gothic and Renaissance painters as well as the glazed terra-cotta figures of Andrea della Robbia. Wed-Mon 10-18, closed Tue.

Tourist Information

The TI is immediately to the right of the Roman Aercheological Park, at via Portigiani, 3 (open daily 9.30-18.30 - phone 055-598-720)

EATING IN FIESOLE

I will suggest to you an open air pic-nic in Fiesole. Bring some sandwiches and drinks with and just sit in one of the manys gardens of Fiesole. This will be a really lovely lunch for you.

HOW TO AVOID LONG LINES AT THE FLORENCE CATHEDRAL

long lines at the Florence Cathedral and dome

Yes I know long lines outside of the Florence Cathedral are frustrating. You loose your precious time waiting outside to climb the Florence dome, the Giotto's campanile, to visit the Duomo Museum and the baptistry...and espetially in the summer the sun makes you "mad".

Priority Pass Florence Cathedral

There is a new way to avoid long lines. It's called "Priority Pass". This pass costs € 7.00 and permits you to skip the long lines. But attention: if you want to climb the dome, the campanile, visit the museum or the  baptistry you have to pay also the entrance ticket price for this sights.
Ticket prices are: Duomo dome €8, campanile €6, baptistry €4, museum €11, dome and museum €15, or you can buy a unique ticket for just €23.
You can buy the Priority Pass just outside of the Cathedral, and save your time!

GRAND OPENING GIACOMO PUCCINI'S MUSEUM

Il maestro torna a casa

You're planning to visit Florence & Tuscany in September?? What I suggest to you is a half day trip to Lucca, the birth place of the "maestro" Giacomo Puccini.
His house-museum in Lucca after a long time of renovations, is re-opening its doors to visitors.

The Grand Opening is on 13th of September at noon.

Mueseo Giacomo Puccini - Corte San Lorenzo - Lucca, Italy
Opening hours: from November to March 11am - 5pm
                           from April to October 10am - 6pm
                           closed on Tuesdays (except for holidays)

This is a fully refurbished museum and through the documents, paintings, furnitures, his clothes, his letters, and his music... talks to you about the Maestro's life and musical education.

Statue of Giacomo Puccini instead of his birthplace in Lucca

The "maestro" was born in Lucca on 22 December 1858, and died on 29 November 1924. When he was 17, he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida and became inspired to be an opera composer. He and his brother, Michele, walked 18.5 mi (30 km) to see the performance in Pisa.
From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca situated between the Ligurian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio. While renting a house there, he spent time hunting, but regularly visited Lucca.

Tosca - Giacomo Puccini

Turandot - Giacomo Puccini

 His operas, including La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire.  Some of his arias, such as "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi,  "Che gelida manina" from La bohème, and "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.

Madame Butterfly - Giacomo Puccini

La Bohème - Giacomo Puccini

PALATINA GALLERY OF PALAZZO PITTI

Hello guys,
yesterday evening I went to visit the Palatina Gallery - situated inside the Pitti Palace.
Find here some important informations about the Gallery...

Address: Piazza Pitti, 1
               50123 - Firenze

Tickets: Full €8,50 (but mandatory special exhibitions often raise the price to € 12)
             Reduced € 4,25
             Includes entrance to Gallery of Modern Arts

Opening hours: From Tuesday to Sunday - 8.14 am to 6.50 pm
                         Closed on mondays

Getting there: The Pitti Palace is located several blocks southwest of the Ponte Vecchio, in the Oltrarno neighborhood

Phopography is not permited in the Palatine Gallery.


The Palatine Gallery occupies the whole left wing of teh first floor of the Pitti Palace, which was the residence of the medici Grand Dukes. In 1828, when Tuscany goes under the rules of the Lorraine family, the most important paintings in the Palace were hung in the Gallery and opened to public. it is an impressive collection comprising works of painters like Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Rubens, Pietro da Cortona, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, Sanzio and many others.

The Gallery seems like a private picture gallerywith a sumptuous combinations of lavish interior decorations and the rich picture frames oredered by the Medici family. The Palatine Gallery layout follows no order. You can find paintings of different period or painting of different size hanged together in the same room. This is great!

The rooms occupied by the Gallery overlooking the Pitti square were frescoed by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) with an imposing decorative cycle wich make use of teh classical myth to allude to life and education of the one of the most important examples of the Baroque style in Florence and provide a splendid framework for the 16th to 18th century.

From the Palatine Gallery, the visit continues through the Royal Appartments, fourteen magnificent rooms, which were the home of the MEdici and Lorraine families and, from 1865, of the king of Italy during the brief period that Florence was capital city of Italy. Three historical moments and styles are seen side by side in these series of rooms, giving a sense of the growth of the palace over a long period of time.

Suggestions: Seeing all the Palatine Gallery, the Museum of Modern Arts and the Boboli Gardens is imposible, and choosing where to spend your time can be confusing. In my opinion, i reccomend sticking to the Palatine Gallery, which has the paintings collection, plus the sumptuous room of the Royal Apartments. The painting pick up where the Uffizi leaves off, at the High Renaissance. Lovers of Raphael's Madonnas and Titian's portraits will find some of the world'sbest at the Pitti Palace.

Below some of the painting and pictires and directions to Pitti Palace....

View of Florence with the Cathedral and the Old Palace

Caravaggio - Bambino che dorme

Fra Bartolomeo - Compianto sul Cristo morto

View of Florence by night

Cesare Augusto

Cesare Chini - Festa dell'ultimo dell'anno a Bangkok 1913

Giovanni Bastianini - Pescatorello

Giovanni Fattori - Maremma Toscana

Giovanni Fattori - Il salto delle pecore 1887