Gazing up inside the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi

Pubblicato il 29 Aprile 2012 da Beppe

The courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi  has lately lost its function of passageway. It has become a  vital spot for cultural events taking place all the year round, thanks to the Strozzina Foundation. A new challenging trend  to define  its  role, the urgent need to re- state cultural, economic and political values which seem,  by now,  unhinged. Thence its  intriguing proposal: the courtyard becomes an agorà where to build up and share  different viewpoints, inside a common cultural heritage, as  privileged issues unknown to the anonymous social  media. The court gets a catalyzer of  confrontation, on April the 30th 2012 at Florence” Notte Bianca” (sleepless night). Palazzo Strozzi  celebrates it with an installation “Aerial Boundaries” by Loris Cecchini, an artist from Milan living between the Siena countryside and Berlin. The work consists of large three-dimensional geometrical  reflecting shapes, suspended on the courtyard. A game of light and shadow  fragmenting architectural elements around. It is a dialogue between the reality and the image of it. The connection with  Florentine neo-platonism, source of  Renaissance and the real world  is clear. The reference  to the fragmentation of our times is patent, no need to disturb Modernism and its highest work Eliot’s Waste Land.  The geometrical shapes, looking like  floating clouds, capture  the harmonious elegance of the courtyard to give back  distorted, though  intriguing, images. The  visual perception of the court through them has completely changed. The aim of my work – Cecchini says – is questioning oneself, abandoning the customary certainties in search of more complex and deeper understanding. From there  the installation will move on June the 30th  to an open- air museum, the Fattoria di Celle. Look at the  post written about it on tuscany holiday rent blog.

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

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Riding a bike among vineyards and Tuscan villages

Pubblicato il 27 Aprile 2012 da Beppe

Let’s abandon  cars  for a while  and devote ourselves to slow time. What ‘s better than joining two passions  like bike and  wine? Just in few days,  in the heart of Tuscany  a pleasant   event “ Tuscany  wine and bike” is taking place,  from April the 30th up to May the 2nd 2012. It is something more  than  sipping a good glass of wine, it is a way of  understanding  and appreciating wine as final result of a traditional process, deeply rooted in the local culture. Tuscany Holiday Rent suggests you a suitable  accommodation in a gorgeous medieval hamlet transformed into a beautiful  farmhouse for a short  but refreshing  holiday.  The tour is planned in order to start from the aesthetic  contemplation of  the landscape made up of vineyards in their glorious springtime blooming  to the actual tasting of wine as the  due conclusion in  several farms.  Here the winegrowers  will disclose the treasures of their “cantine” (cellars) in a glass of Tuscan wine:  different  bouquets according to vines and production areas.  Little by little  the awareness of wine as an age-old knowledge and wisdom gets increasingly clear,  enriching past experiences and looking for future curiosities.  A training  journey aiming at the real pleasure of tasting a glass of wine in a real emotional involvement of the eye, nose and palate. The background of this adventure is as exciting.  Cerreto Guidi,  Varna,  San Miniato,  Chianni  and  San Gimignano are just few stops that fairly represent the different aspects of the Tuscan landscape,  a relaxing mixture of natural beauties and historical landmarks.  The  towers , roads and  churches the biker meets  stand there as witnesses of a rich past  still dialoguing with the present  and a permanently significant milestone  such as the Via Francigena,  the medieval road linking  Canterbury to Rome,  rightly deserves  the respectful homage of  believers and of anybody else aware of this cultural heritage.

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

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A mid-spring escape to Chianti, Tuscany

Pubblicato il 25 Aprile 2012 da Beppe

Chianti, a strongly evocative word. It can be  both a unique wine and a Tuscan area, a spot of extraordinary beauty, roughly extending between Florence and Siena. The accommodations offered by www.tuscanyholidayrent.com are plenty. Particularly recommended the lovely apartments from a renovated 14th century convent on a plateau at 5km from Colle Val d’Elsa.

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 16th 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.

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In Florence, a twenty first century passage back to Renaissance

Pubblicato il 20 Aprile 2012 da Beppe

A door from the old  to the contemporary and viceversa. It is not a  metaphor. In San Pancrazio Square, Florence,  the homonymous deconsecrated church hides a Renaissance jewel, unjustly unknown to most people, a chapel by Leon Battista Alberti, commissioned in the 15th century by the Rucellais,  a rich merchant family turned into  bankers.

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,  because the visitor is invited to watch the sculptures from different viewpoints and perspectives in compliance with Marini’s  progressively enriching states of mind of his  artistic career. 

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

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On a historical roof, in front of Palazzo Vecchio, taste Florence in all its flavours

Pubblicato il 18 Aprile 2012 da Beppe

Unforgettable mid-spring evenings on the terrace of Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, sipping a glass of Tuscan wine to celebrate  the sun setting on  Florence,  after a  guided tour in the area of the new Uffizi.

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 26th 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.

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