Pisa: I wanted to become a painter and I became Picasso

Pubblicato il 12 Ottobre 2011 da Genni

Pisa is known worldwide for its Leaning Tower and Square of Miracles but there are more than 20 historic churches, several palaces, a lovely botanical garden and various bridges crossing the River Arno that are worthwhile seeing, as well as the surrounding countryside with the Natural Park of Migliarino-San Rossore-Massaciuccoli with its pinewoods reaching down until the Pisan coast and the hills where the famous Chianti wine of the Colline Pisane is produced. Tuscany Holiday Rent has a wide selection of holiday accommodations in the Pisa area from which to take advantage and take the opportunity to visit this incredible town and the new exhibition starting soon at the Palazzo Blu on the River Arno’s banks.

From October 15th until 29th January 2012, Palazzo Blu, in fact, is hosting the exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso entitled: ‘Ho voluto essere pittore e sono diventato Picasso’ – ‘I wanted to become a painter and I became Picasso’. After the happy dreams of Marc Chagall, which took shape in the light of the south of France, after the poetry of Joan Miro, bound to his Catalan land, this year is the turn of Pablo Picasso, absolute genius of the twentieth century, whose creative fury, born in Barcelona, marked the whole century.

The exhibition features more than 200 works, paintings, ceramics, sketches and designs, lithographs, watercolours, books and tapestries, that will allow the public to understand how the will to become painter of this young Picasso in Barcelona at the end of the nineteenth century led him, through a continual expression of his creative genius, to explore every possible artistic career.

The highlight of the entire exhibition will be an extraordinary and unique collection of 59 linocuts, belonging to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. These form the core of the exhibition, around which are wrapped the creations dating from 1901 through to 1970.

Another excellent chance to also admire the halls of this historic building alone the River Arno, the exhibition will be running from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 7 pm and from Saturday to Sunday from 10 am to 8 pm. Fare: € 9,00.

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Precious Florence

Pubblicato il 4 Ottobre 2011 da Genni

From the 5th of October until the 23rd La Specola Museum of Florence, near Pitti Palace, is hosting the 2011 edition of  Preziosa,  an exhibition dedicated to contemporary jewellery created in 2005 by Le Arti Orafe, the jewellery school and academy founded by Giò Carbone, whose prestige is recognized both in Italy and abroad. Another excellent opportunity to book your holiday apartment in Florence and visit the town’s highlights.

The event is the first art exhibition of contemporary jewellery which has been exported, and much appreciated, abroad with the 2007 edition in Barcelona and the 2009 one in New Delhi, as well as every year in Munich. It is truly a showcase of excellence which sheds light on the various goldsmith techniques both modern and antique and presents artists internationally famous.

Le Arti Orafe is the first private school dedicated to the goldsmith’s art born in Italy, appreciated all over the world, not only for the absolute validity of its teaching methods, combining traditional craftsmanship to technical innovation and contemporary design, but also for its efforts in diffusing over the years refined jewellery by organizing exhibitions, conferences and meetings which have culminated in the Preziosa project.

This year on show at Preziosa the monographic exhibition, Parallel Worlds, by Japanese artist Mari Ishikawa edited by Maria Cristina Bergesio. The recurring theme of the last collection of this award-winning designer, born in Osaka but now living in Munich, is nature. The artist observes nature during its cyclic periods and expresses her deep fascination managing to infuse in both her photographs and her jewellery its magic.

Mari Ishikawa’s jewels are pure sculptures representing the innermost details of nature’s show, celebrated by the colours she uses. With works such as ‘Moon light Shadow’, ‘In the Shadow of a Tree’, ‘Clouds’,  the artist conceives the delicacy of intertwined branches, leaves, flowers and buds by working together silver, pearls, paper and Japanese lacquer.

Since 2008 also Preziosa Young, from an idea of Giò Carbone to promote the work of young designers/goldsmiths and the technical and formal innovations of contemporary jewellery, now at its fourth edition. On show thus the works of eight young artists chosen by an international committee for their individual research and the originality of their creations and coming from China, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Sweden.

Some of the jewels on show have been donated by the artists themselves, by the teachers and the students of Le Arti Orafe as well as by some designers so as to be put up for auction in favour of the non-profit organization FiorGen created to fund research for the medical diagnosis of genetic disorder and degenerative diseases.

For further information please contact us at Tuscany Holiday Rent.

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Sagre -Village Festivals- in Tuscany, an alternative way to experience the region

Pubblicato il 30 Settembre 2011 da Genni

Sagra del Cinghiale

In Italy a sagra is a village festival, very often concerning food but also sometimes historical pageants or sporting events. Originally old country fairs, today many towns organize these events both for the village people as well as to attract visitors, especially during the summer when the weather is more favourable for these outdoors activities. Tuscany has a large tradition of sagre which often are dedicated to a specific local dish and the name of the festival includes that precise gastronomic speciality, such as the Sagra del Tartufo, the Truffles Festival, the Sagra del Fungo Porcino e della Bistecca, the Boletus Mushroom and Steak Festival, the Sagra del Cinghiale, the Wild Boar Festival, and so forth.

Square rigged up with tables for the Sagra

Long tables are assembled in a square or some recreation centre large enough to host everyone and visitors can chose from mouth-watering menu, generally just hanging outside the main entrance or next to the cash desk. Sometimes, in fact, people queue up at the cash desk before seating themselves and order their meal while in other festivals the ‘waiters’, usually village people volunteering for the occasion, come directly to the table and take the order.  Mostly homemade the sagre are an excellent way of coming into direct contact with the local habits, including traditional dishes and excellent wine, of the region you’re visiting. They are an invitation to spend a day differently in contact with the cordiality of the local people, the traditions of their land and the genuineness of their products: a perfect combination of folklore, culture and gastronomy.

Grilling in the woods

After a summer packed with sagre over all Tuscany, this weekend – 1st and 2nd October-  Carmigliano, a hamlet of Montalcino, the hometown of the exceptional  Brunello wine, is hosting its traditional Sagra del Galletto, the Cockerel Festival. Held annually, the first Sunday of October, the event is intended to also be an enhancement of the Sienese countryside since the dishes served at Carmigliano are the result of old country recipes. The cockerels are tasty farmyard birds, suitable for the preparation of the famous scottiglia, ‘the browning’, a method which requires cooking for a long time on a low flame. The meat, in fact, is prepared on a grill fired with coal in the nearby woods. The pies, because dessert is never missing, are instead baked in wood-burning ovens according to old tradition. The wines served are various vintages of the Brunello of Montalcino, perfect for dishes prepared so patiently and lovingly. A gastronomy typically rural and genuine.

The druzzola

Within the sagra Carmigliano also holds its traditional Torneo di Druzzola, the Druzzola Tournament, a competition amongst the quarters of Montalcino and its castles. The ‘Throwing of the Druzzola’ is carried out wearing 14th century costumes and recalls a very popular ancient game of this area, handed down until today from father to son. The druzzola is a 12cm circle made of olive wood and rimmed with iron which is hurled by means of a short rope, cleverly wrapped around the iron circumference, which serves to give direction and speed to the druzzola. The throws can even exceed  200 meters. The prize is a silver rimmed druzzola awarded to both the thrower and his quarter or castle. The event ends with rural dancing in costume by the local Folklore Group.

Montalcino

Montalcino will end the thematic hunting season sagre with its Sagra del Tordo, Thrush Festival, generally on the last Sunday of October. For those wanting to try these village festivals personally next year we offer a wide selection of holiday homes in Val d’Orcia and not only.

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Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities

Pubblicato il 18 Settembre 2011 da Genni

Of the many sights and exhibitions Florence, the capital city of Tuscany, has to offer to visitors there is a new one on show right now which presents you another opportunity to spend the weekend in town. Tuscany Holiday Rent has a wide selection of holiday apartments in Florence which will allow you to enjoy a brief stay in one of the world’s most beautiful towns, visit its highlights, savour some dishes in its ‘trattorie’ and do some shopping.

For the art lovers one of Palazzo Strozzi’s events right now is “Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities” with masterpieces by ‘the cream of Renaissance’ such as Botticelli, Beato Angelico, Lorenzo di Credi, the Della Robbia family and Piero del Pollaiolo. The exhibition intends to narrate the birth of the modern banking system and the economic boom it triggered developing side by side with the highest artistic peak in the history of the Western world. The art patrons lives were, in fact, closely linked to those of the bankers who financed the business enterprises of both princes and noblemen and this union supplied the breeding ground for some of the leading artists of all time.

The exposition’s intention is to lead visitors through the daily life of the families controlling the banking system, with an insight into the roots of Florentine power in Europe and the economic mechanisms which allowed them to dominate this world. The exhibition also analyses how these bankers succeeded, 500 years before the birth of modern communication, to handle international relationships and accumulate their immense riches. The show, moreover, provides a reconstruction of the birth of modern art patronage, which often began as a penitential gesture only to later turn into a tool for wielding power. Practically the visitor looks at art from a point of view involving economists, diplomats and politicians, or better art, money and power.

The era of Florence as financial capital of the world ultimately clashes with the religious and political storm set off by Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola with his “bonfire of the vanities” focused on destroying objects that might tempt one to sin. Supposedly, even Sandro Botticelli, apparently a partisan of Savonarola, participated burning several of his paintings on the great bonfire of 1497.

On show until the 22nd January 2012, the museum is open every day from 9 am to 8 pm, on Thursdays until 11 pm. For more information on this event please contact us.


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Arezzo celebrates its illustrious son Vasari

Pubblicato il 13 Settembre 2011 da Genni

The beautiful Tuscan town of Arezzo, believed to have been one of the twelve most important Etruscan cities, is a popular destination for tourists in Tuscany.  For those wanting to spend a vacation here Tuscany Holiday Rent has holiday accommodations in Arezzo as well as in its lovely surroundings, such as Cortona. A great opportunity for those interested in visiting the town’s many sights as well as exploring its interesting events. And right now we have to report that to mark the fifth centenary of the birth of Giorgio Vasari, two major exhibitions are being held in the birthplace of this great Italian painter, architect, writer and historian.

Until the 11th December, in fact, the Civic Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Arezzo is hosting “Giorgio Vasari Illustrator and Painter 1511-1574. Learning, care and loving fatigue”. Here are gathered famous works as well as absolute novelties for the public, in order to retrace the main events and the stylistic evolution of Vasari. As well as masterpieces from the Louvre, the Uffizi Gallery and private collections also an original letter of Michelangelo writing to Cosimo I, commenting on Vasari’s project for the Palazzo Vecchio.

Until the 9th January 2012, instead, in the Lower Church of the medieval Basilica of San Francesco, one can admire the exhibition “Rousing the souls of many to wonderful deeds. The Primacy of the Tuscans in Vasari’s ‘Lives’”. This exhibition reconstructs the path of art and architecture from Cimabue to Michelangelo, drawn though the protagonists of Vasari’s “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects”. Considered the foundation of art-historical writing, this encyclopaedic biography of Italian artists, first published in 1550, also includes a valuable treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The show starts with those Vasari considered the forerunners of modern Mannerism and proceeds until its triumph with Michelangelo. Over 60 masterpieces of the main Tuscan artists such as Cimabue, Arnolfo, Giotto, Duccio, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Rosso Fiorentino are on show.

For those who want to continue this investigation of Giorgio Vasari we also suggest a visit to his house in the city centre, Casa Vasari, rebuilt by Vasari himself between 1540 and 1548 from an older house. Today a museum containing Vasari’s archives, the biographer actually frescoed the main rooms himself, and in the drawing room, one can admire his remarkable portrayal of an artist’s journey through life with ancient gods protecting the artistic virtues. 

Arezzo, hometown of Giorgio Vasari, but not only.

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