The time has come for me to tell you about my first date with my husband, on the occasion of our 8 year wedding anniversary (next week) and of the one year anniversary of the Italy Blogging Roundtable, of which the topic is (drumroll please) anniversaries.
The day I fell irrevocably in love with Tommaso was …
Just a short “news” post to let fans know that on Friday May 18 and Saturday May 19 2102, travelers with Kindles can download my Florence 3-day itinerary, normally 5.99$, for FREE! (Promotion times are from just midnight pacific time on Friday through midnight Saturday night, pacific time.)
Unanchor has published 10 itineraries for Kindle, so stock up – you can get one for Ancient Rome, Paris, New York, Sydney, Seoul, San Francisco, Bangkok, or Beijing too!
Sometimes, the hunt for perfection makes it necessary to hike uphill. This is the case with Bramante’s Tempietto, which you’ll forgive me if I call a “jewel” of Renaissance architecture, for its size and perfection is much like a little, domed jewel box.
A survey of 2,068 British adults who were asked “What country in Europe has the best food” has found that Brits like Italian food (30%). But the funny thing is, Brits also like British food (22%)! This data has been – rightly so – made into an infographic.
The Uffizi Gallery has finally woken up to what international museums have been doing for ages: an aperitivo in the museum, with extended evening hours. (I wrote about this phenomenon in 2010 for Illywords.)
Thursdays from April 26 through the end of June, from 7-9:30pm, you can enter the Uffizi for an aperitivo buffet and drink …
Present-day Michelangelo fans will appreciate this unusual opportunity to get to know one of Michelangelo’s past admirers: artist Andrea Commodi (1560 – 1638). The museum of Casa Buonarroti in Florence is hosting an exhibit this summer (until August 31 2012) that puts works by Commodi from the Uffizi’s drawing collection (Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe) alongside …
A year ago I received an email from Jessica Spiegel of Why Go Italy in which she invited me to a project that would unite a few Italy bloggers. I was very honoured to be included in her shortlist of people she considered good enough for the task. We ended up being a group of …
There is a place in which art and architecture are perfectly integrated, in aesthetic style and function, creating a sensation that is both calming and exciting at the same time. The Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (Southern France, near Nice) is my all-time favourite museum.
It must have been incredible to live in the midst of the …
If you thought Instagram was just a gimmicky way to make crap photos into good ones, think again. I’m a recent convert; very specifically, I converted last week when Kirsten Alana showed a group of us in an iphoneography workshop the amazing things she can do with her iPhone 4s. The take-home message was: if …
An anonymous document that has been circulating in my husband’s office has fallen into my hands. The document, with a very formal cover page and introduction, was born as a joke but has become the definitive guide to the best Schiacciata all’olio in Florence, with a ranking of all bakeries where to buy it. With …
Prato’s textile museum (Museo del Tessuto) says ‘hello’ to contemporary art and modern museum practise with the exhibit ‘Il Tessuto è Tutto‘ (Fabric is Everything). With this exhibit, that opened in March 2012, the museum broke in a new contemporary space that is over 1000 square meters large – 5 times the previous area dedicated …
Apparently, before the current trend in sushi restaurants hit Florence, there was a time that Florentines (and Italians) were crazy about Japan. And then they forgot all about it. For a while. Luckily, some scholars have thought to compile evidence of Japanism in 19th and early 20th century Tuscany, resulting in a small but interesting …
It’s that time again… for annual Slow Art Day! The date is Saturday April 28 2012, worldwide. In Florence, the event will be taking place at Palazzo Strozzi from 3-7pm.
Last year I co-organized Slow Art in Florence 2011 with Palazzo Strozzi’s education department and we had almost a hundred people show up! The year before, …
The folks at Radio Papesse sent me this cool opportunity for anyone interested in sound design or circuit hacking for noisy results.
Nicolas Collins is a professor of sound design at the Art Institute of Chicago. studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with numerous …