It seems cliché to speak of reawakening after a long Winter, but with the amount of rain we got this year, putting England to shame, even a slight glimpse of Spring is extremely welcome. Easter came early this year and for a few hours on Sunday morning here in Maremma, the skies cleared, the sun …
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Ever wondered how Florence looked a hundred years ago, or more? Various paintings in Florentine galleries and churches show recognizable scenes of Florence that are fun to compare to the present day. For the holiday season 2012, the state museums of Florence are offering a free map to visitors of Palazzo Pitti to get out …
Once again it’s Italy Blogging Roundtable time, and this time my colleagues have come up with a helluva topic: Drinking (and/in Italy). I will tell you why I find this to be a difficult topic, and then talk about what it’s like to be a non-drinker in this country.
This is my second post about pre-Christmas initiatives for children in Florence and I’m not going to repeat the ones suggested in last year’s post. I’ll tell you what I’m planning to do this year with 4 year old Francesco.
If you want activities for kids between Christmas 2012 and Epiphany 2013 click here.
The chances of finding a really special restaurant in Italy are pretty good, though it doesn’t happen every day. But what are the chances of stumbling upon a place in Maremma run by art historians?
Pitigliano, a hill town in Maremma, is known for its unusual tufa structure, being built right out of this soft rock, …
Personally I don’t know Milan well: this is a guest post by an ArtTrav reader, Patricia, who had commented on another article on this blog, from which followed some correspondence in which she declared that she loved Milan, and had chosen to live there on her own, not for a man, but for the city. …
Gloria from the Pisa vacation rental “Behind the Tower” and I, Alexandra from ArtTrav, have teamed up to offer a prize in the 2012 Passports with Purpose charitable campaign – proceeds go to providing clean drinking water in Haiti. Do you want to win four nights in Pisa, a great starting point to explore both …
This month’s “for kids” article is a team effort between Laura, our kids’ columnist, and I, Alexandra, certified non-expert in children. My close friends know that I don’t much care for children, so when Laura proposed taking a week’s ski holiday together in the mountains, at close quarters, with 3.5 year old Francesco, to be …
It’s called La Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica di Firenze e il Planetario and it’s Florence’s planetarium; the institute has been around since the 80s while the planetarium (of the ZEISS ZKP2 type, apparently) opened in 2002.
The 8 meter diameter cupola allows kids and adults to see the night sky in simulation. While activity concentrates on …
The topic of this month’s Italy Roundtable is the piazza, and Florens 2012 handed me the perfect solution to what to write. On the occasion of the Biennial of cultural and environmental heritage, Fondazione Florens commissioned an impactful work of public art by the Italian contemporary artist Mimmo Paladino. Piazza Santa Croce became a magical …
I’m heading into a deep tunnel of work, but it’s a good thing. That’s because I’m leading a social media team of 21 people at the major international conference and event, Florens 2012, from November 3-11. Florens is a week dedicated to cultural heritage and economy – more specifically where the two meet (I’ve reflected …
On a recent sunny afternoon, I had some very difficult guests in the house, and they were itching to get out: my parents. My parents have been to Florence so many times that they, like many residents, have stopped doing anything at all touristy. But with a few hours to kill, I thought: what can …
As my parents have been to Florence countless times, last week while I went to work, they took the car down to the Amalfi coast. In this post, Mom reports back proving that the area is as beautiful as they say!
Although many people say it’s not wise to drive on the Amalfi Coast due to …