Here we are, this horrible year 2020 is finally over. What awaits us next year? “We will discover it only by living” as Lucio Battisti sang with the words of Mogol: … Who knows, who knows who you are Who knows who you will be Who knows what will become of us We will find…
Here, it happened again, almost as suddenly as it happened to “that honest brigade” of the Decameron, we find ourselves closed at home, safe from the disease, and committed to inventing a way to manage time and learn from this moment too . Not being able to take a plane, a train or a car…
“Malcontenti” (malcontenti means discontent) and “Allegri” (Allegri means happy) are two ancient streets of Florence that cross in the Santa Croce district. Via dei Malcontenti, formerly Via della Giustizia, recalls the state of mind of those who walked it before being executed. Those condemned to death were escorted in chains from the Bargello towards Piazza…
Justice at the top of the Column The eastern granite column of the Terme di Caracalla arrived in Piazza Santa Trinita on September 26, 1563. Cosimo I de ‘Medici had wanted it precisely in that spot, at the crossroads between via Tornabuoni, via delle Terme, and Borgo SS. Apostoli, on 2nd August 1554 he learned…
The Arno is the heart, soul and damnation of Florence. It is at the same time a place of separation and union, of games and shows. It carries whispers and threats, wealth and death, furiously embraces it and devastates it with its silty entry into the city. It is the waterway that intimately links the…
Who doesn’t remember the colored pencils kept in the case of the school folder and in the wooden box of the home desk? A flash: a child who draws a sheep on a rock observed by an adult … It was the little shepherd Giotto, discovered by Cimabue, the teacher who from the country of…
Chi non ricorda le matite colorate custodite nell’astuccio della cartella di scuola e nella scatola di legno della scrivania di casa? Un flash: un bambino che disegna una pecora su una roccia osservato da un adulto… Era il piccolo pastore Giotto, scoperto da Cimabue, il maestro che dai prati del Mugello, lo avrebbe portato a…
Everyone says “Let’s start again”, we prefer to say “LET’S START AGAIN and start WITH BEAUTY”. To put it in Dante’s words: Ye were not form’d to live the life of brutes, But virtue to pursue and knowledge high. (Dante’s Inferno – Canto XXVI) Let us then follow our virtue and our knowledge. Let’s start…
Even and perhaps especially in times like this, our fridge is populated with small and large quantities of advanced food but also with foods that generate “leftovers” for the sole reason that to cook them, they are peeled. Have you ever thought that you can cook carrot peels or artichoke leaves and make delicious dishes?…
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in the Little Prince: It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important. So no fear, let’s quietly spend the time it takes to change things, to improve them. And we learn to measure time. Florence has repeatedly “measured” time both with culture, philosophy, literature,…
