Published on Monday, March 6, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Today, Michelangelo’s birthday, the Accademia in Florence will is launching its new membership card, called the Friends of David after the sculptor’s most famous piece. The card is aimed at Florentines or frequent visitors, including foreigners. For those under age 28, the card will cost 30€ per year, while other price tiers come at 50€ and 100€ per year. ...

Published on Sunday, January 15, 2017 by Kathy McCabe Following several powerful earthquakes in 2016, Italian art experts and scientists are concerning themselves with how to protect Florence’s treasured artwork, particularly Michelangelo’s David. While scientists, engineers, and art historians have studied David’s vulnerability for years, the issue is coming back into focus due to growing fears that it and other i...

Published on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Inferno, the latest Dan Brown thriller movie based on the novel of the same name is now in theaters and is sure to draw extra tourists to Florence, where it was primarily filmed. The movie and novel are sequels to The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. In the Ron Howard-directed movie, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks, reprising his role from the fi...

Published on Saturday, September 10, 2016 by Kathy McCabe As part of an ongoing facelift to Florence’s Piazza Santa Maria Novella, the piazza’s two, 500-year-old marble obelisks have been restored. The project, which cost 95,000€, began in December 2015 and was funded by the Florence I Care project, a collaboration between the city government and private groups that helps promote and protect the artistic, social and sc...

Published on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 by Kathy McCabe As part of a three-year initiative to promote the culture of contemporary fashion, Florence’s Pitti Palace will feature a collection of more than 200 photos shot by German fashion designer and photographer Karl Lagerfeld. Called Visions of Fashion, the exhibit is an anthology of Lagerfeld’s work, including a self-portrait, unpublished works, photos published in fa...

Published on Sunday, May 1, 2016 by Kathy McCabe A new law requires that all new restaurants and food shops in Florence’s history city center must guarantee within the next three years that at least 70 percent of their products are “made in Tuscany.” While existing restaurants would not be affected, even their owners are concerned about how this ruling will affect their lives and bottom lines. As one propri...

Published on Friday, March 18, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Florence’s famous Vasari Corridor, which connects the Palazzo Pitti to the Palazzo Vecchio, is currently only accessible through private tours. However, that may change, says the director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, who hopes to open the corridor to the public. “My aim is to eliminate privileges and offer the possibility, not the obligation, of passing through...

Published on Sunday, February 21, 2016 by Kathy McCabe Florence is one of those cities you must see at least once in your lifetime and then even once you have been there, you yearn to go back again and again. We love Florence so much that we are giving away a trip to the city of art in our Florence Facebook Sweepstakes. In the meantime, here are five, fun Florence facts that you might not know: 1. Be sure to stop by...

Published on Monday, February 15, 2016 by Kathy McCabe The museum at Florence’s Misericordia – which originally opened in 2005 – reopened after two years of renovation. The new museum chronicles nearly 800 years of the charitable institution’s history with 14 rooms of art, everyday items, furniture and manuscripts. Among prominent paintings on display are St. Jerome the Penitent by Pietro Annigoni, St. John the Ba...

Published on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Around and about the city of Florence, worn-down walls are covered with text—but it’s not careless graffiti, it’s carefully written poetry, typed on sheets of white paper taped into small galleries. These instances of “poetry on the wall,” as they’re often called, are crafted and hung by the Movimento per l’Emancipazione della Poesia, or the Movement for...