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In the early morning of November 4th 1966, the Arno River broke over its banks and flooded Florence, devastating the Renaissance city’s artistic and historical treasures. Approximately 600,000 tons of mud, rubble and sewage submerged Florence. It is estimated that 14,000 movable works of art and 4 million books and manuscripts were damaged. Churches, museums [...]

At the corner of Via dei Servi and Piazza Santissima Annunziata, stands a red brick Palace facing the square, Palazzo Grifoni - Budini Gattai. Looking at the Palace from the square, on the right side of the building, you may notice a window which is always kept open. According to a 16th century legend, a [...]

Walking around the centre of Florence, it’s easy to get lost admiring the masterpieces of the Renaissance and to overlook the tiny “Buchette del vino”. The buchette del vino (wine windows) are small windows emerging from the façades of ancient palaces in the centre of Florence. Through them, over the course of three centuries, millions [...]

Behind the unassuming facades of Via de' Serragli lies a vast and secret garden, the Giardino Torrigiani. With nearly seventeen acres (7 hectares) hidden in the heart of Florence, this is the largest privately-owned garden in Europe situated within a historic centre. Designed at the height of the Romantic movement in the early 19th century, [...]

You might have been to Florence many times but most likely never experienced a boat trip on the Arno river with the “Renaioli”. The “Renaioli” (sand digger) take their name from rena, sand in Italian and, until the Second World War, they were used to carry sand on their boats along the Arno river. Over [...]

The "Scoppio del Carro” or the Explosion of the Cart is a traditional ceremony held on Easter morning in Piazza del Duomo, right between the Cathedral and the Baptistery. This ritual goes back to the First Crusades of 1099 when the Florentine Pazzino de' Pazzi, the first to raise the Christian banner above Jerusalem, was [...]

The "bistecca alla fiorentina" or simply “fiorentina” is a traditional and worldwide famous dish from Florence. It is a thickly cut and very large Tuscan T-bone steak cooked on a charcoal grill. It is always served rare ("al sangue"). There is no specific etymology for the word "Bistecca" in Italian, in fact, according to many [...]

On the 11th of May 1589, the de' Medici family and an exclusive group of International guests, gathered to assist to a unique event: a naval battle (Naumachia) in the courtyard of Pitti Palace. The show was part of the celebrations for the wedding of Ferdinando I de' Medici, the ruling family of Florence, and [...]

The Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (Duomo) is surely one of the most important and famous monuments in Florence and Italy. The construction works began in 1294 on the project of Arnolfo di Cambio and it was structurally completed only in 1436 with the dome by Filippo Brunelleschi. The building is characterised by its incredible [...]

The Vasari Corridor "Corridoio Vasariano", was commissioned in 1565 by Grand Duke Cosimo de' Medici to celebrate the wedding of his son Francesco I with Joanna of Austria. It took Giorgio Vasari only 5 months to complete this incredible project that links up the Pitti Palace, at that times the residence of the Medici family, [...]