The Barber of Seville: the great opera in the Tuscany summer.

Innovation and search, style and prestige on the new calendar of the OperaFestival 2008 season. Among these events we have to remark the presence of the Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa “The Barber of Seville“, that will be presented both in the charming atmosphere of the medicean villa of Cafaggiolo (near Barberino di Mugello) on Friday 18th of July and in the Boboli Gardens in Florence on Wednesday 30th of July.

The theme of Rossini’s opera is based on the first of the plays from the Figaro trilogy, by French playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, while Mozart’s opera “Le nozze di Figaro” - composed 30 years earlier, in 1786 - is based on the second part of the same trilogy.
Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” was produced on (more…)

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Visit Mugello: discovering Florence Renaissance

From 8th of June until the 30th of November a great exhibition on Renaissance will be organised in Mugello in four different historical locations.
A very low price shuttle service from Florence will be available to go to the different places of the exhibition as a one day tour. To join this event it’s necessary to buy a “Mugello Card” (5 Euros, 3,5 Euros reduced) which give access to Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Florence), to most of the museums present in Mugello and a 10% of discount with all agreed restaurants, shops and hotels.
Furthermore, on weekends, a free guide will take partecipants through the exhibition. For group reservations are required.

In Palazzo Medici Riccardi it’s possible to assist at the “introduction” of the exhibition, with the
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Pitti Uomo N. 74 18 - 21 June 2008 Florence

As every year, in the month of June for three days, Florence turns into the pillar of International male Fashion by giving hospitality to one of the most important Fashion Exhibitions in the world: Pitti Immagine Uomo.

From the 18th to the 21th of June, the Fortezza da Basso hosts again “Pitti Uomo”, which has come by now at its 74 edition. It is the exhibition that presents the 2009 spring summer collections.

There will be 688 firms and more than 800 brand names, 200 of which are foreigner.

The sections displayed will be 15.

This year the bike, meant as accessory of fashion and design, plays the starring role. It is the center of a striking installation created by Oliviero Baldini, which stands in the central square of the Fortezza.

Free Cycle - Free Mobility is the new topic of Pitti Uomo’s Layout.

For the layout of this edition, Pitti Uomo takes inspiration from a topical subject that is the ecosustainable mobility, and in this field the bike represents more and more the symbol of a daily aesthetics and a cult object.

Thanks to the collaboration with ANCMA (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION CYCLE MOTORCYCLE ACCESSORIES), the bike will be the main object of the show’s exhibition stands. (more…)

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The Garden of Roses in Florence

The Garden of Roses is one of the most romantic and suggestive place of Florence and it will be open everyday for three months until the 31st of July.

This place offers a panoramic view of the city that will take your breath away, and it is placed near San Niccolò among Viale Poggi, Via di San Salvatore and Via dei Bastioni. This year it will offer visitors 160 new varieties of roses, new measures of security and new setting.

The municipality of Florence commissioned the architect Giuseppe Poggi to design new public spaces showing the beauty of the new capital, and the Garden of Roses became one of the first such places in 1865.

Made according to the french-model, it is a wonderful garden covering about one hectare (about 2 acres) of the slopes of the hill below Piazzale Michelangelo.

It is located between the Piazzale Michelangelo and the Forte Belvedere and it was inaugurated in 1895 in occasion of the Festa delle Arti e dei Fiori. (more…)

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TERRA FUTURA FLORENCE 23 - 25 OF MAY

From the 23rd to the 25th of May, from 9 to 20 there will be in Florence, in the Fortezza da Basso, the fifth edition of Terra Futura, the national meeting-exhibition of the “good practices” of sustainability.

The event was born with the aim to guarantee a worthy future for our planet and it suggests the themes and the “good practices” of the social, economical and environmental sustainability. The topics deal with every field of daily life and of the social relationships of persons, from the economic system to the public administration.

The goal of this event is to bring the whole society towards a process of global sensitization. Terra Futura wants to promote all the cultural initiatives that are already experimenting and using these lifestyle models of sustainability.

There will be many organizations, companies, firms and associations, which are already investing in this field, toghether with visitors. They will meet, exchange views and try to find a way to adopt more and more sensible behaviours.

The event comprises 500 expositive areas and more than 4000 companies that will show visitors a lot of products and services, which have been made according to the sustainability’s principles. (more…)

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La Fiorita in Florence

On the 23 of May in Palazzo Vecchio, at 10 o’clock, there will be the the Mass to commemorate the death of Father Girolamo Savonarola, which happened on the 23 of May in 1498.
After the worship in the Cappella dei Priori, the city, civic and religious authorities toghether with the city dwellers will go in procession to Piazza della Signoria, where the “Fiorita” will take place with music accompanist and waving of flags.

Here flowers and twigs of palm will be strewed in the exact point on which Savonarola was hung and burned toghether with his brothers Domenico Buonvicini da Pescia and Silvestro Maruffi da FIrenze. The Historical Procession of the Florence Republic will go then on Ponte Vecchio and there, flower-petals will be simbolically thrown in the river Arno by the side of the Cellini’s bust.

Today’s Fiorita ceremony is the commemoration of a true deed. The day after the death of Savonarola, the place he was burnt in appeared full of flowers, rose-petals and twigs of palm. During the night, many people had spontaneously paid homage to the memory of the preacher. In this way they began a tradition that still today is going on. (more…)

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Science seen through “Galileo’s telescope”

A unique special event which honors one of the men who changed history: “Galileo’s Telescope” is on view at Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence from 4th March to 31st December 2008.

The exhibition’s aim is to emphasize the evolution of scientific researches made by Galileo, and his genial intuitions which lead him to the construction of the first telescope (inspired by simple objects made up of two tubes endowed with lenses which at the time were sold on the streets of Venice), which were followed by important astronomic discoveries, which still today cover our astronomy books pages.

The exhibition, made up of five sections, is dedicated to the researches and experimentations which helped the Tuscan scientist to become one of the most important personages in the world scientific environment, and it gives all visitors the chance to watch closely really important objects, as the objective lens and the only two Galileo’s telescopes existing in the world. (more…)

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Art 2008: international crafts in Florence

ART 2008, the market exhibition of international Crafts, comes back to Florence at Fortezza da Basso from 25th April to 4th May.
It is now a habitual appointment between the city of Florence and Art, the most famous craft fair in the world, which every year gathers the best craft creations exhibited along an itinerary characterized by inspiration and originality.
Art, to which this year about 800 among Italian and foreign exhibitors take part, represents a real match point between demand and offer, between the craft businesses and the most affectionate consumers, who, absorbed in a scenary of innovation and steady evolution, will have the chance to choose between several craft products, from typical food, to special gifts and jewels.
The market exhibition of international Crafts (more…)

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A Musical May in Florence

The “71° Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - Donne Contro” (”71st edition of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - Women against “) will start on 26th April, and it’s Florence music festival which until 1st July will give us as a gift a season rich of art and music.

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is one of the most ancient concerts in Europe and its fame and prestige is due to its cultural choices which characterize every edition of this musical event.

This music festival presents a long and interesting calendar with theatre performances and dance shows in collaboration with some of the greatest masters of international opera, and also set designers, painters and sculptors who created the wonderful scenographies of the plays.

The Teatro Comunale (Town Theatre) host this magnificent Florence event which can host up to 2003 spectators, and every year it’s dedicated to an elaboration of a historic and cultural period, most of all of music, as for example the editions dedicated to Esxpressionism or Romanticism.

The name “Music Festival of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” is due to its origins. In fact the festival, founded in 1933, descends from the ancient spring celebrations which were made in Florence and Tuscany, called “Calendimaggio”.

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino will start (more…)

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Easter time: the “Brindellone” tradition in Florence

The Burst of the Cart is an ancient celebration which dates back to the first crusade, and which Florence inhabitants love.

This manifestation takes place every year in Piazza Duomo (Dome Square), where there is the “Brindellone”, that is the wonderful three-floor cart which is the celebration’s protagonist.

At this point, a rocket formed as a dove, Easter peace’s symbol, comes down hanging on a thread which goes from the main choir of the Dome to the cart, and if the celebration is successfull, it burns and emits a wonderful play of lights, colours, smoke and outbreaks.

The story of the Burst of the Cart is rich of religious and historic details, a beautiful story, rich of turns of events, and it’s a really important chapter in Florence and its inhabitants history.

The tradition tells that, in the end of the first crusade, which ended with (more…)

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