GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 10

SILVIA NESTI, MAKER OF FINE JEWELRY 

Silvia Nesti has a fabulous little ateller on the ground floor of an ancient building on Via Dei Velluti, just east of Via Toscanella in the Oltrarno.

A stone's throw from the famed goldsmiths, silver smiths and jewelers of the Ponte Vecchio, her stunning creations are 100 times more interesting and a fraction of a cost of the old bridge's shops.

She is interested in folded jewelery -- a kind of Florentine origami -- and sells handmade pieces for as low as 40 euro.

Nesti has exhibited her jewellery in Italy, at Inhorgenta; in Munich, Germany and in Aura2007 at Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire. 

She completed her Jewellery education at Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School in Florence, Italy in 2005.

"At the moment I am developing my personal research in contemporary jewellery, working with materials like silver, gold, precious stones, and Japanese paper for Origami.

My research is based on the concept of folding, using a very important quality of metal, flexibility," she notes on her website.

Nesti, who designs and makes her own jewels, was awarded a recognized diploma as a goldsmith.

She also practices with soft and hard wax and enamelling.

Nesti attended a metal-forging workshop with Giovanni Corvaja, a renowned Italian goldsmith.

To see Silvia Nesti's latest collection, visit her website at:

www.silvianesti.com

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 9

GIAMPIERO M. GALLO & THE FLORENTINE

When we were in Florence, we had the great pleasure of meeting Giampiero Gallo inside the historic Palazzo Vecchio.

Palazzo Vecchio has been the home of Florentine government for centuries and it also has priceless art treasures displayed throughout.

Mr. Gallo welcomed us to the city as a consigliere of the comunale -- basically, an elected city council member.

He is part of forward-thinking Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi's majority party, Gruppo Consiliare Partito Democratico.

We noticed that our new friend Giampiero was wearing a pin shaped like a bicycle.

It sparked a long conversation about walkability, bikeability and our favorite -- wheelchair accessibility.

A brilliant professor of economics, he speaks flawless English and understands that urban areas depend on being able to move people around without being car-dependent.

We found a great interview with him in The Florentine, the online site of the great English language newspaper of Firenze.

The article is here:

http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=7522

Gallo's academic website is here:

http://unifi.academia.edu/GiampieroMGallo

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 8

PALAZZO MEDICI RICCARDI -- FIRENZE

In the words of its operators:

Medici Riccardi Palace is one the most important monuments in Florence, a prototype of Renaissance and Baroque architecture. 

Medici Riccardi Palace hosts temporary exhibitions and experimental virtual environment for museums and galleries.

As an added bonus, courtesy of PBS's outstanding Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance series, here is a reading list of excellent books about Florence, the Medici and the Renaissance period:

• April Blood - Florence and the Plot against the Medici - Lauro Martines
• Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King
• Catherine de'Medici - Leonie Frieda
• Cosimo de'Medici and the Florentine Renaissance - Dale Kent
• Dynasty and Destiny in Medici Art - Janet Cox Rearick
• Florence and the Medici - J.R Hale
• Florentine politics 1502 - 1515 - Humfrey Butters
• Galileo - Courtier - Mario Biagioli
• Galileo's Daughter - Dava Sobel
• Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling - Ross King
• Patronage - Art and Society in Renaissance Italy - F.W. Kent
• The French wars of Religion - R. J. Knecht
• The Last of the Medici - Harold Acton
• The Lives of the Artists - Giorgio Vasari
• The Pope's Elephant - Silvio Bedini
• The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Renaissance Bazaar - Jerry Brotton
• The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank - Raymond de Roover
• The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici - Christopher Hibbert
• The Rise of the Medici - Faction in Florence 1426-1434 - Dale Kent

 http://www.palazzo-medici.it

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 7

THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT

In the website's own words:

Since its foundation in the early 1990s, the Medici Archive Project (MAP) has been innovating new strategies for research in the Humanities. 

During the early stages of its existence, MAP’s mission was to merge archival research with technological innovations for data management. 

A pioneering group of scholars began to catalog in a rudimentary electronic database the letters of one of the most exhaustive and complete courtly archives of early modern Europe: the Medici Granducal Archival Collection (Mediceo del Principato).

This archival collection ― comprising over four-million letters distributed in 6,429 volumes and occupying a mile of shelf space ― covers a chronological span of two hundred years, from 1537 to 1743. 

It documents the political, diplomatic, gastronomic, economic, artistic, scientific, military and medical culture of early modern Tuscany and Europe.

http://www.medici.org/

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 6

MUSEO GALILEO

Formerly the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, this museum rightfully honors the name of one of Florence's most enlightened mind.

We all remember from school that Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.

The Medicis not only were patrons to the great artists of Florence.

They also sponsored a great many scientists seeking enlightenment.

Galileo perfected the telescope and greatly advanced the study of gravity and buoyancy under the wing of the Medici.

Unfortunately, he was so enlightened, that he figured out that the earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa.

This ran afoul of the Catholic Church and he was silenced by the Roman Inquisition.

The Medicis could have gone out on a limb to protect him, but they needed the support of the Vatican to maintain their vast wealth -- so the great Galileo died a broken and silenced man.

Much of his works, along with collections of the Medici, are on display at his museum.

Located on the bank of the River Arno in the 11th century Palazzo Castellani, the Galileo museum is wheelchair-accessible.

http://www.museogalileo.it/en/index.html

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 5

TOSCANA PROMOZIONE -- PROMOTING TUSCANY

You could spend a month in the City Center of Florence and never tire of visiting endless museums, cathedrals, restaurants, plazas, shops, neighborhoods and more.

But Tuscany is so much more than the City of Florence.

The great walled city of Lucca -- Tuscany.

The great medieval town of Sienna -- Tuscany.

Maybe you've heard of the great hill town of Arezzo?, the seaside splendor of Via Reggio?, or a town with a faulty tower by the name of Pisa?

All of these and hundreds of other fabulous countryside villages are in Tuscany.

Toscana Promozione can help you find out where to stay, how to locate an authentic winery, where to eat with the locals and whether your perfect spot under the Tuscan sun can be reached by train or bus -- so you can leave the driving to someone else.

The organization also promotes Tuscany beyond tourism.

It can help you take the first step toward opening a business or buying a home in the famed region of Italy.

But we used it for visitor information, and the great folks at  Toscana Promozione linked us up with Tiziana Bacchioni.

Tiziana, pictured above in Plaza Michelangelo, knows the Uffizi galleries like she was raised in its hollowed halls.

She can plan for perfect wheelchair-access even in the hilly historic town of Fiesole.

http://www.toscanapromozione.com/

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 4

TURISMO SENZA BARRIERE (TOURISM WITHOUT BARRIERS)

On the day we celebrate our American Independence, this is the perfect time to heap praise on a group in Central Italy that is working tirelessly to break down barriers to travel by wheelchair in Tuscany and beyond.

Lamberto Tozzi and others at Turismo Senza Barriere have tips on transportation, accommodations and museums.

They don't just give a vague wheelchair symbol to a place to say it has some level of access.

They actually tell you what is the best route to get to the entrance by wheelchair.

The Pitti Palace, for example, has very steep passageways and more gently-graded routes to its various museums filled with Medici treasures.

Taking the gentler slope can make all the difference in the world in terms of safety and mobility for a wheeler.

The organization helped us find an English-speaking driver with a lift-equipped van to meet us at the tiny Florence airport.

The driver navigated throw Florence's maze of one-way streets and narrow alleys to bring us right to the doorstep of our accessible apartment in the Oltrarno.

This website is entirely in Italian -- but you do plan on brushing up on a little Italiano before traveling to Tuscany, right?

Surely, you don't expect every mom and restaurant and off the beaten path shop to speak perfect English? 

You don't want to come off like an Ugly American, so you're at least buying a Rick Steves phrase book, yes?

For what it's worth, Turismo Senza Barriere is in the process of translating its materials to English.

When you contact the group, it does have some brochures and other printed matter in English.

The more you support them, the more they'll be able to deliver their priceless information in multiple languages.

www,turismosenzabarriere.it 

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 3

THE DUOMO

The Duomo -- technically The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church in Florence.

Its fabulous brick dome, architecturally designed ad engineered by the great Filippo Brunelleschi, has dominated the Firenze skyline for more than 500 years.

The Duomo sounds like the English word Dome, don't be fooled.

Duomo is the name for every Catholic Church in Italy -- whether it has a triumphant dome or not.

The word likely comes from Domus, Latin for home -- as in the church is the house of God.

The Duomo plays heavily in PBS' excellent four-part documentary: THE MEDICI -- GODFATHERS OF THE RENAISSANCE, as th Medici were patrons of Brunelleschi's daring attempt to creat the giant dome.

  

It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

The Duomo was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style.

Its Gothic Revival facade of marble in various shades of green and pink bordered by white dates only back to the 19th century.

The cathedral complex includes the Giotto's Campanile, the striking bell tower begun by late middle ages Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone.

The Baptistry includes grand doors modeled and cast by Lorenzo Ghibertia based on scenes from the Old Testament.

The complex also includes a museum about the construction of the Duomo.

The museum and main floor of the Basilica are wheelchair-accessible.

http://www.duomofirenze.it/storia/storia_eng.htm 

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GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 2

THE UFFIZI

The Uffizi has the greatest collection of Renaissance art on earth.

Housed in ancient Florentine government office buildings constructed by the Medicis, the Uffizi museum contains works by Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli, Giotto, Raphael, Caravaggio and Durer -- to name a few of the hundreds of artistic legends showcased there.

The most popular museum in Florence also has a series of ramps, elevators, lifts and barrier-free restrooms to ease the access for wheelchair-using visitors.

It also has a touch tour tactile experience for visually-impaired visitors.

Visually impaired folks are allowed to put on protective gloves and touch rare marbles and other three-dimensional works usually off-limits, tactile speaking, to visitors.

The Uffizi's exhaustive website, with an English version, is at:

http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/en/index.php

GREAT FLORENCE WEBSITES -- PART 1

THE MEDICI -- GODFATHERS OF THE RENAISSANCE 

Before we ever went to Florence, we watched this amazing 4-part series on PBS.

When we got home, we again watched the vivid story telling and visuals of each one-hour segment.

Only, this time, it was more fun because the No. 1 authority -- quoted throughout the fabulous documentary about the Medici family's control on Firenze for multiple centuries -- was our new friend, Marcello Fantoni,

Fantoni directs Kent State University's program in Florence.

Both of us are Kent grads, so it was gratifying to be hosted by Fantoni when we visited Florence and it is gratifying to see he was the top expert for the Medici program (though at the time, he worked for a different university, so Kent is not credited in the program.

You can find THE MEDICI -- GODFATHERS OF THE RENAISSANCE on youtube.

Check out its site at PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici

THE OLTRARNO -- IT'S WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

An Artisan Walk Through the Oltrarno Quarter

We strongly recommended staying in the Oltrarno (the district south of the River Arno) when visiting Florence

You can pick an apartment close to the Pitti Palace, Ponte Vecchio and Santo Spirito, but you can still shop at local groceries, dine at less touristy trattorias, shop at the workshops of true artisans and people watch in small piazas populated by locals.

The brilliant folks at EveryTrail.com have come up with an exquisite 0.5 KM, one- to three-our stroll "through the narrow streets of this neighborhood that feature unique studios."

In the words of EveryTrail:

"Overview: Florence’s Oltrarno district is known for its artisans—"artigiani" in Italian—a dying breed of creative hands that carry on centuries' worth of Florentine traditions. 

From bookbinders to sculptors to metalworkers and gold-gilders, the little maze of streets between the Ponte Vecchio and Santo Spirito are quietly off the beaten track, overlooked by most visitors.

It’s a wonderful neighborhood to explore and get a peek into another era.

Some of these workshops look like something straight out of the Renaissance. 

While you are here, visit some of the great little cafes in the area. 

Also in this neighborhood are the Pitti Palace’s beautiful galleries—a visit here would complement this artisan trail that looks at the decorative arts in Florence.

Tips: Note that Florence has a unique address system! Any street number with an "r" after it means "red." 

Look for red-colored numbers, which usually signify a business. 

Any numbers written in blue or black are usually a residence.

This means any street could have two separate places with the same number, one black, one red and they are not always near each other!

The best time for this walk is morning, from 9am to 12:30pm or the afternoon up until 7:30pm. 

Artisans usually have a schedule much like office hours—that is, Monday to Friday, but some will probably also be open on a Saturday morning. 

Try not to do this walk around lunchtime, as most will be closed from 12:30 to 3:30pm.

The Pitti Palace is also a wonderful place to explore and if you wanted to beef up this trail, visit the Silver Museum, the Costume Gallery or the Palatina Gallery of the Pitti Palace for more."

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/an-artisan-walk-through-the-oltrarno-quarter