Blog

The “Cimitero dei Inglesi” (English cemetary) is a living witness to the Florentine 19th century. For the sake of truth, what is known and called “English cemetary” is in fact the property of the Swiss Reformed Church to which it still belongs today. Its...

Guests of Villa le Barone might not be aware that the tableware in which they are eating, the “Antico Doccia”, is coming from Richard Ginori, a manufacture established in 1735 by marchese Carlo Ginori in Sesto Fiorentino, close to Florence. Quite an interesting business...

And if you took the time to practice "slow tourism", another way of traveling, not in consumption but in contemplation, in quality and not in quantity?  It is in the 16th and 17th century that traveling became an important phenomenon in Europe. It is part of the instruction,...

The Bardini gardens, adjacent to the Boboli gardens, between the Arno River and the medieval walls of Florence, are magnificent, whatever the season. Composed of 3 gardens of different periods and style, they offer stupendous views on Florence. If you enter by the Costa san Giorgio’s...

The ancestral art of dry-stone walling, of which you can see a testimony in Villa le Barone in Panzano in Chianti, has been recently inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. This rural art has shaped numerous and diverse landscapes, in all parts of the world, but...

Florence, at the heart of the Italian Renaissance, looks like an open air museum. Its cathedral, churches and many palaces that you can admire when you wander in the streets of the city, were designed, built and decorated by many of the most illustrious of artists of the time. Palazzo...

Not to be missed in Florence is the exhibition “Verrocchio, il Maestro di Leonardo” that is held in Palazzo Strozzi on Via Tornabuoni until 14th July, As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death, Palazzo Strozzi has chosen to put the spotlight...

Tuscan historic gardens and Villas, in both the countryside and cities, from the medieval times as well as from the Renaissance, or recently designed, are a unique heritage.  The Medieval gardens were first constructed as medicinal herb gardens, where plants with medicinal...

Panzano in Chianti is a charming Tuscan medieval village to be visited, with its churches, its vineyards and cellars, its market, its typical shops, its festivals, its craftsmen, its protected environment and the beauty of its landscapes. Part of the small town of Greve in Chianti...

On one of the highest points in Florence stands the Basilica “San Miniato al Monte”, named after St Minias and built between the 11th and 13th century by Bishop Hildebrand. It was financed by the Florentine wool and Clolth Merchant Guild (Arte di Calimala, as evidenced...