Rose water was employed as an antiseptic to clean houses from plague infections. Still produced today, it has been turned into a perfume or a product for aromatherapy,  now lined up together with contemporary skin care products, soaps scents on the shelves  of the dimly light frescoed rooms. The same destiny

for the “ Vinegar of the Seven Thieves” a remedy for fainting fits or a  mixture for hysterical women changed now into a Santa Maria Novella Water,  special for its antispasmodic properties. The activity of the monks  has been marked by the historical events, the apothecary survived the bonfire of vanities of Savonarola,  a Dominican monk himself, because of its mostly medicinal character. The great fortune of the Officina was the patronage of its most famous customer Catherine de’ Medici,  queen of France.  A new fragrance was created for her, a perfume that became known as acqua della regina or “water of the queen”.

Later it underwent  changing fortunes because the business seemed to be in contrast with religious piety. After a temporary shutdown the production was resumed until the state confiscation in 1866 and a consequent decisive  control by laymen whose descendants still run it today.

A real  business.  In the 19th century, the products became all the rage in the United States and its  top selling liqueur, Alkermes, was advertised as a way to “revive weary and lazy spirits”.

Today the pharmacy still keeps entirely its historical charm. The neo-gothic blue and gold  hall , the well preserved rich decoration of the Green Room,  the Old Apothecary  shelves and cabinets under a frescoed ceiling, the actual sale room, a former chapel dedicated to San Niccolò ,  not to mention it adjacent sacristy frescoed, according to some, by Mariotto di Nardo enchant the visitors-customers.

An echo of this flagstore reaches as well the international stores in New York , Los Angeles and Tokio in the preserved tecniques of manufacturing,  many of the products are still handmade and when you wash yourself with one of its soap bar you can really perceive the smell of the City of Lilies and imagine the long story of a craft which has safely crossed many centuries.

A must you can’t miss.  Profit from the holiday accommodations offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent.

Thence  the great cultural partnership between Netherlands and Tuscany, called “Olandiamo”,  which includes  events taking place along the whole year 2012  in  Firenze, Lucca, Pisa, Prato and Leghorn. The Dutch ambassador Alphonsus  Stoelinga, on April the 17^th 2012,  started this initiative to enhance the relationship between the two countries  with the documentary exhibition  about Anna Frank at Prato. After   May the 16^th, 2012,  it will be transferred  to Leghorn and Lucca. The issue is still relevant and  the personal story of Anna Frank and in general the  Jewish persecution  during the second world war  have  to stimulate the necessary and up- to- date  reflections on  the basic  values of  tolerance and freedom.

Exhibitions on art , performances  are planned to highlight the artistic exchange as well. From May the 3^rd up to the 13^th, 2012   sound installations of the Dutch artists Ronald van der Meijs and  Jeroen Uyttendaele have been scheduled at the Florentine  festival,  Fabbrica Europa.

On the  respectful attention to environment the cycling event at the Cascine, Florence,  is focused on Saturday 12^th 2012. Its prelude  the joint press conference in Palazzo Vecchio, on Friday May 11 by Mr. Stoelinga and Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi. They are going to underline the cycling advantages as to pollution, energy saving and a new way of moving downtown, drawing on the long established  Dutch experience.  A cycling tour for families, who will be offered  T-shirts and led lights will follow the following day.

Just a hint at the planned next events

-the  conference on Carrara marble and Lowlands in June

-the Pisa Book  Festival in November

- the exhibition of architectures and art at Pecci Center for Contemporary art, Prato, in December

-the Dutch textile designs in February 2013 at the Museo del Tessuto a Prato.

Plenty of excuses for a holiday in Florence, profit from the holiday accommodations offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent

If you think to spend a holiday here, please have a look at the  accommodations in Florence offered by www.tuscanyholidayrent.com

For further information about this event write to info@tuscanyholidayrent.com

They are perfect for a regenerating, though short, holiday, being plunged into a  landscape made up of  rolling hills, of rows of cypresses and  solitary farmhouses. An invitation  into history, a journey into the slow time, which still continues to beat  in the  surrounding medieval  villages characterized by distinctive  colours  at this period of the year.

Colle Val d’Elsa stands for a plunge into the spiritual Middle Ages of the nearby Cistercian Abbey of San Salvatore. But the magical atmosphere of this town,  elongated on the tuff  ridge of the Elsa River catches the visitor for its urban features  the Castello and the Borgo, joined by the 16^th century Palazzo Campana. Beyond Poggibonsi the landscape offers an incredible skyline, the towers of San Gimignano, still stunning  even after many visits. Walk inside towards the Piazza Duomo with its sequence of medieval palaces and climb up to the Torre Grossa to get lost amidst the Tuscan countryside. Certaldo, the hometown  of Boccaccio the novelist of the Decameron can’t be missed at sunset time when the pervading brick becomes reddishly golden. A tour has also to be devoted to Castellina in Chianti and to its widening vineyards outlining the landscape. A slow drive along the Via Cassia, the consular  road joining Florence with Rome will lead  to Monteriggioni,  to  its 14 towers compared by Dante, in his Inferno, with giants. This medieval jewel  deserves to be discovered  through a walk along the main street joining  the two opposite gates towards Rome and Florence. The houses look special,  detached from modern times, and their towers tell old stories of sieges,  cavaliers and wartimes.

Experiencing the Chianti means  tasting the flavors  which have made famous this part of Tuscany all over the world. Cooking is here art, the high-ranked  ingredients  are  enhanced through ancient simple rites, handed down from generations. Thence the ribollita with stale bread and black cabbage and vegetables from the kitchen garden as main ingredients or the pappa al pomodoro  and the so much loved panzanella from a mixture of  tomato, onion, basil and its final trickle of  real Tuscan olive oil.

A glass of Chianti classic wine can be missing   for this unforgettable  mid-spring holiday.

Finished in 1467 to receive the mortal remains of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, it includes the notable small temple of the Holy Sepulchre,  built according to  Renaissance golden section rules.  It is a masterwork, rich in polychrome marble tarsias, reproducing natural elements such as laurel or oak leaves or  geometrical forms. The history of  Florence’s glorious period is hinted at  in the coats of arms of its forefathers, Cosimo the Elder,  Piero de’ Medici  and  Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The church,  along the centuries, accomplished different tasks,  ranging from Napoleon’s Imperial Lottery Seat to tobacco factory and finally, in the eighties, it was renovated by the Italian  architects Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi  to house the Museum  of Marino Marini, a great contemporary artist. The final result is quite interesting,allowed to watch the sculptures from different viewpoints and perspectives in compliance with Marini’s  progressively enriching states of mind of his  artistic career. going to be restored to a special unity, though not original.

Within  the end of the year the two areas, the Ruccellai Chapel and  the Marini  Museum , will be connected by a door, able to establish a constant dialogue between the past and the present.  A little revolution, something new,  because the chapel,  a small treasure, sometimes unjustly neglected,  will be able to be enjoyed by the visitors to the Marini Museum, passing directly from one to the other. The works, financed by the Marino Marini Foundation in accordance with the Superintendent of Public Works are going to kick off in June.

Finally in September 2012 we will be able to admire this little Renaissance treasure, joined to our times by a metaphorica, though real door,  which someone has cleverly called  the Door of the Time

The eye runs onto the icons of the celebrated landscape  and the foot  walks over the Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini or the Rape of the Sabine Women by Jean de Boulogne,  masterworks of  renaissance and  mannerism respectively. You can really imagine to go back to the  Medicis’ times  when the Grandukes used to  spend,  in a unique environment,  pleasant evenings with such breathtaking views. That is the project of  Cocktails for Art, an initiative by the Polo Museale Fiorentino, Firenze Musei,  ATAF and NTV which propose  an appetizer buffet on top of the Loggia dei Lanzi. It is going to kick off from April 26^th 2012. A date for visitors and Florentines every Thursday from 19,30  up to 21,30. It schedules a guided tour to the recently opened part of the New Uffizi, the so-called eight blue rooms, devoted to Spanish, French, Flemish and Dutch paintings. As testimonial  of the weekly event a masterwork on show here, the Countess of Chinchon, painted by Goya in the years between  1797 and  1801. The staff of the State Museum of Florence are going to  accompany groups of 25 people, departing every half hour, at the price of 10 €, from the western wing of the Uffizi, just behind the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Reservation at the call center Ataf is advisable.

On purpose have a look at  the following posts on blog.tuscanyholidayrent.com

- A Firenze “Galleria degli Arazzi: Epifanie di tessuti preziosi “ published on March 22^{nd     2012}

- Japan in Florence on April  7th, 2012

-  The Seine and Paris replaced by the Arno and Florence in the American Impressionists on April the 11^th , 2012

- The virtually confident world of American Dreamers at the Strozzina  published on March the 9^th 2012

Among the many events not to be neglected the restored painting by Max Klinger “The Mermaid” which will be on show at the Galleria d ‘Arte Moderna for long.
At the Museum of San Marco it is possible to admire some restored paintings by Fra Angelico, accompanied by explanatory panels.

Many other treasures can be discovered in Florence these days.

An opportunity not to be missed

At present, on the fifth anniversary of the death of  the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci,  the  town celebrates the fertile relationship between the old and new worlds with an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi ”Sargent and the Impressionists of the New World” going on up to July 15^th, 2012. The issue is the Impressionism of  the American painters, who  lived in Tuscany and in Florence  between the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20th. .It is possible to admire artists like William Morris Hunt, John La Farge and Thomas Eakins who, though not explicitly subscribing to the Impressionist movement,  formed the new generations of American painters.

The exhibition includes the great cosmopolitan forerunners such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The main part deals with remarkable artists belonging to American Impressionist group,  known as the Ten American Painters among whom William Merritt Chase and Frederick Childe Hassam.
An interesting appendix the Italian painters  Giovanni Boldini and Telemaco Signorini who, keeping in touch with  the American community, mutually  exchanged themes and techniques.

A new energetic flow  introducing  a more modern approach to painting involves Florence, still thinking over the past pictorial experience of the Macchiaioli.

A  pivotal character, a link with the American group is  Egisto Fabbri, born to an Italian wealthy and cosmopolitan family in New York in 1866. The Fabbris, after decades in the States,  came back home, to the Florentine palace in Via Cavour. Here the versatile Egisto,  dandy and great art collector (his Cezanne paintings were greatly admired) shared the passions of the Americans who incessantly moved  among Paris, Venice and Florence such as Whistler, Sargent, Mary Cassatt,  Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Bernard Berenson.

A new  revolutionary wind in Florence brought by  painters  from Boston and New York. Abandoned the traditionally academic  training and invigorated by the new trends of Paris and Munich,  they translated into  the impressionistic style their daily experiences. Thence paintings of  the landscapes along the Arno River, of views of Florence or the immediate surroundings like Fiesole or the countryside around Lucca villas, the marble quarries of Massa Carrara or the Etruscan Volterra. The Tuscan world  is declined through portraits which seems to be coming out of James’ and Foster’s  novels. The old and new worlds emerge in a varied synthesis ranging from the rebounding taste of the Capponcina,  home of D’Annunzio to  the splendor of the Tatti, Tuscan villa of Berenson, the most acclaimed Renaissance expert of the period.

“Sargeant and the Impressionists of the New World” at Palazzo Strozzi  and its counterpart  ” American Dreamers” at the Strozzina  (on purpose  see  the article “The virtually confident world of American Dreamers at the Strozzina” published in the blog of Tuscany Holiday Rent  on March 9^th,2012) stand as faithful  witnesses of the on- going  historical fil rouge between Florence and the United States

Anyone can participate with their own sailing boat or as part of the crew on the Vela Mare boats. The event consists in various routes of different difficulties, with high-sea courses between Viareggio, Tino and Giraglia or costal routes between Viareggio, Livorno and Forte dei Marmi. The occasion is to unite sailing passion with competitiveness and the opportunity of sighting cetaceans in their natural habitat, fusing sea and fun together.