Blog (in English) (85)

Wine in the art and the art of wine

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“And yet I believe that much happiness belongs to men, born where good wines are found.” Leonardo Da Vinci Everything we say about wine, we can say about art, and if we talk about the art of making wine, that is the skill of winemakers, cellarmen and oenologists, who with their experience give life to…

“Florentia”, city meant to flourish

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Primavera Firenze

Spring, life, flowers, rebirth, renewal… these are the concepts behind the “flower” and it is no coincidence that Florence is the city of flowers… the lily of its coat of arms which until 1251 was white on a red field, and therefore to the very name of the city: “Florentia” ie “city meant to flourish“.…

Lucrezia Borgia’s Tagliatelle

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The modern kitchen was born between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for the news that came from the New World that changed and enriched popular traditions. Soups prepared with broth or milk, rice and cereals appeared, the “Italian” pasta: macaroni and vermicelli, then tomato also appeared on the tables. The tagliatelle would have been inspired…

Brodo di Giuggiole (Jujube Broth)

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A “bag” as a snack to go… in jujube broth! How many have heard of “going into jujube soup” (is a way of saying typical of Tuscan people)? In Florence it was often used in the figurative sense of “going overwhelmed, going out of one’s mind from contentment” with the meaning, that is, of being…

The First Digital Clock, the one of Santa Maria Novella Station

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It can be seen from afar, as it should be for public clocks, and as it has always been for the clocks that we see on bell towers and municipal buildings. What we want to talk about is in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, on the wall at the entrance to Florence Station. A truly curious watch, and avant-garde…

Alchermes, a florentine liqueur

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A name that has little or nothing of Florentine, yet the recipe for this liqueur was born in Florence. The origin of the name is Arabic and is linked to the red color obtained from “Cochineal”, from which a red powder is obtained that dyes and characterizes the liqueur, now replaced by food dyes. Liqueur…

The inventor of Cinema: from Florence to Cinecittà

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No one would doubt, who invented cinema? The Lumière Brothers! But when it comes to inventions, let’s rummage in the heart of Florence… and, in this case, a name and a surname will emerge: Filoteo Alberini. A great lover of photography, thanks to his apprenticeship with an itinerant photographer, Filoteo, after his military service, was…

Sgraffiti, the street art of 15th Century

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“Time is a gentleman” says a proverb, but the action of time doesn’t always help certain forms of art to survive. Once again a new form of art was born in Florence: the fashion of decorated facades (at least 70 remain in the city), which dates back to the 1400s. A sort of “street art”…

Saffron, the flower that raised the towers

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A truly precious spice, because to get it one gram takes one hundred and fifty flowers … The saffron harvest is repeated every morning at dawn, before the sunlight makes the flowers open, for the entire flowering period, between the second half of October and the first of November. The work is done by hand…