The first major exhibition devoted to the work of the legendary British photographer Brian Duffy (1933-2010) will open the exhibition program MNAF 2012. This exhibition will be brought to Italy after its great success at Idea Generation Gallery in London.

Famous author of many images of Swinging London, and well known for his photographs of musicians, actors and models.

At the peak of his career, in 1979, Duffy left the photograph. He took most of his photographic work and set it on fire in the backyard of his house. Laboriously, after years of searching for files and publications around the world, his son Chris came to recover 160 photos. This representative, rare and unpublished set of images, provide a real cultural iconographic catalog of the 60’s and 70’s: the legendary Hollywood starring Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, the great rock stars, John Lennon, David Bowie and Debbie Harry, the beauty of those years, Jean Shrimpton and Joanna Lumley, the literary legend William Burroughs, and many others.

A selection of photographs from the 80’s, including those recovered by Chris Duffy, are exposed today in Florence, in a show that literally came up from its ashes.

The collection of exhibited works, consolidate and establish the role of Duffy in British photography. He was also a member of the famous “Black Trinity” (with David Bailey and Terence Donovan), the trio that defined the visual language of Swinging London during the sixties.

From “Harper’s Bazaar” to “Vogue”, his memorable photos immortalized the sixties. During his career, Duffy worked with the magazine “Glamour”, “Esquire”, “Town Magazine”, “Queen Magazine”, “Elle”, “The Observer”, “The Times” and “The Daily Telegraph.” Many music stars were photographed by him, The Shadows, The Hollies, Jane Birkin, Black Sabbath, Frankie Miller, Marianne Faithfull, Blondie, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Since 1957, when he began working for British Vogue, as a fashion photographer, Duffy made numerous portraits of many artists, moving between film, music, advertising, fashion and literature. He photographed the album “Aladdin Sane” (1973) that shows David Bowie with the storm thunder makeup, which suddenly became a pop icon. As well as the cover of “The Lodger” (1979) and “Scary Monsters” (1980).

In 2009, encouraged by his son, Duffy, for a short period, returned to photograph portraits and topics from his early years of career. In 2010 the BBC made a documentary dedicated to him: “The man who shot the Sixties”.

The museum is open daily from 10 am to 7:30 pm, closed on Wednesdays. It is located in Piazza Santa Maria Novella 14A rosso, Florence.

For more information visit the official website of the sample: http://www.mnaf.it/mostre.php

Cornejo

If you want to travel to the ’60s and enjoy this unique exhibition, rent apartments in Florence Italian Spring awaits for you.

Contact Me 

• The route that we propose is situated around the central Piazza della Repubblica and its surroundings. At number 39, you will find the elegant Caffè Gilli, the oldest of Florence, which opened in 1733. During the period of Futurism, the city’s intellectuals and literati held passionate political gatherings in Gilli. Artists and Hollywood stars and other famous individuals have also frequented the café. Its Liberty-style décor, frescoes and Murano glass lamps will transport you to another era. They serve the best cocktails in Florence and a superb Viennese coffee. For more information: http://www.gilli.it/

• Next door you’ll find the Caffè Concerto Paszkowski, which was inaugurated by a Polish general in 1846 and declared a national monument in 1991. This was the preferred literary café amongst writers and has been a favorite stop for the city’s intellectuals for more than 100 years. Today, the café is a restaurant and concert venue which offers live music every night. Go after dinner and you will see couples dancing to the music between the tables on the terrace. For more information: http://www.paszkowski.it/

• At number 13 of the square is the Caffè Giubbe Rosse, one of the most famous literary cafes in Italy, which was founded in 1897. Its walls are covered with pictures of Italian painters and poets, artists and intellectuals who frequented here during the first half of the 20th century. Today it is the favorite haunt of Florentine artists and boasts an interesting cultural program. Their coffees, and especially the cappuccino, are among the best you’ll find in Florence. For more information and to take a virtual tour: http://www.giubberosse.it/

• To end the tour, we arrive at the Piazza della Signoria. At number 5, you will find the Caffè Rivoire. Here, you will have excellent views of the Palazzo della Signoria, Neptune Fountain, and the Michelangelo Lodge from your table. They have been specializing in chocolate since 1872 and are the best in the city. Do not leave Florence without trying their specialty, cioccolata con panna (hot chocolate with whipped cream), and one of their marvelous cakes. You can find more information here: http://www.rivoire.it/

Elena Alvarez

Remember that in Florence, like in the rest of Italy, prices change if you order at the bar, at interior tables or those on the terrace. A price on the terrace might be double what you would pay at the bar. Now, you only need to rent apartments in Florence to be able to enjoy the city’s historic cafes.

Contact Me 

With so much climate change and abuse of the planet, it is no wonder that the end of the world is not far away. The lack of energy resources, mainly oil, continues to promote wars and tensions in theMiddle East. Entire forests are felled in the Amazon. The large amount of toxic gases that are spewed out from our means of transport and production continue to destroy the oxygen we need to live. The list is horrifyingly long. And as part of the struggle for survival many go to war or want to continue ruling over less fortunate people, and military and police control is spread worldwide.

This year there’s a new film that will help us forget about the end of the world and the global chaos we live in. When “Iron Sky” hits the big screen it will make us laugh at the crisis, fascism and governments. This entertaining sci-fi dark comedy is set in the year 2018, when an American astronaut reaches the moon and inadvertently discovers a Nazi moon base. Apparently, shortly before the fall of the Third Reich the Nazis had a space program and managed to escape to the dark side of the moon, where they create a base to wait for the right time to return and invade Earth. The arrival of the American astronaut before their planned invasion and the aftermath that unfolds after this event play host to moments of hilarity as the moon-dwellers attempt to reinstate the Third Reich in today’s world.

“Iron Sky” is a film directed by Timo Vuorensola. It was first screened in Berlinat the last edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received rave reviews from specialized critics and the audience. This is not your standard film about Nazis. Instead you can expect a comedy that questions the fascist policies that were and are striving to return, the general cynicism of modern governments, and of course the end of the world. For more information: http://www.ironsky.net/

Alexa Ray

Rent apartments in Florence and enjoy the lovely, traditional streets and avenues. Florence is a formidable place to discover the best in cinema as well as live events, concerts, and a lively nightlife.

Contact Me 

What can you visit in the palace?

On the ground floor of the building we can find the Palatine Gallery and the Royal Apartments. The gallery holds private art collections of the Medici family, and you can see works of artists such as Rafael, Caravaggio and Rubens. The paintings are placed following the decorative style of the 17th century and not like they are in the museums. In the apartments, that have no fewer than 14 rooms, you can see the characteristic decorations from the 16th century until the 19th.

With the entry to the Palatine Gallery, you can also visit the Modern Art Gallery, located on the second floor of the palace, in what used to be the residence of the Great Dukes of Lorraine. It has neoclassic works by mostly Italian artists, including the Macchiaioli movement, a precursor of impressionism. 

The Costume Gallery is an exhibition of clothes that were used since the 17th century until today. It has 6000 items and it’s one of the most important fashion museums in the world. It’s located on the Palazzina della Meridiana wing o the palace and it organizes various temporary exhibitions.

In the summer residence of the Medici, in part of the ground floor and the first floor of the palace you can find the original Silver Museum. There you can see the collection of jewels of the Medici, cameos, jewellery and other valuable and beautiful silver objects. Don’t forget to admire the frescos that decorate its walls and the collection of miniature portraits.

The curious Porcelain Museum is located in the Casino del Cavaliere, inside the Boboli Gardens, and it shows the most beautiful porcelain items in Europe. Many of them were presents by foreign monarchs and the exhibited collections are divided in the ones that came from Italy and in the ones that came from France, Germany and Austria. The view of Florence from this place is spectacular.

Another unique museum in the Palazzo Pitti is the Carriages Museum, where they exhibit carriages used by the courts of Savoy and Lorraine during the 19th century, although the oldest one in the museum is from the 17th century.

You cannot finish your visit without stopping by the famous Boboli Gardens, a wonderful example of the Italian garden model, copied by many European courts. 

Address: Piazza de Pitti, 1, 50125.

Prices: 8.50€ and 4.25€ concession for entry to the Palatine Gallery and the Modern Art Gallery. 7€ and 3.50€ concession for entry to the Porcelain Museum, the Carriages Museum, the Silver Museum and the Boboli Gardens. You can check the timetables of each museum and buy the tickets online: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/orari/

Elena Alvarez

For your visit to the wonderful Palazzo Pitti, choose one of our apartments in Florence the best way of having an unforgettable stay in the Tuscan capital.

Contact Me 

According to these, for example, Madrid would be suited to hedonistic and/or extroverted people who live for the party, the night and personal relations. It would be a city for spontaneous, energetic, vibrant and not very formal people who don’t care much for courtesy, as well as any form of etiquette, a reason why it’s enjoyed by Americans, Brazilians and Chinese people but not so much by Koreans and Japanese. This fear, and a certain feeling of latent danger, of death stalking in the shadows, perfectly illustrated by bullfights, would also be enjoyed by those people with an adventurous nature. Of course, the research omits secrecy, wanting to hide, surprise and the underground parts, something which is also an essential part of the city.

If Barcelona was a person it would be, according to the research, someone into design and avant-garde, more interesting in living aesthetically on a surface of things than venturing into the middle of the night, someone who values perhaps the modern things than the genuine things, and for whom living is trying to escape from all forms of sordidness.

Paris would be for people with a sense of grandeur and eternity, someone who loves absolute shapes that believe to find in their rotund beauty the proof of existence of an essence outside any form of contingency. Also, ironically perhaps, it’s for those who are in love with luck and adamant, like Walter Benjamin, that the city itself is the surrealist object par excellence, expressing its eternal truth in the shape of a protean oracle without interruption.

Venice, explains the research, would be the ideal city for dreamers and escapists of the melancholic kind, for those who feel that they’d be better off somewhere else than where they are now, and the mix of worlds, realities and elements confers in them the pleasant feeling of being suspended hypnotically outside of time.  

Paul Oilzum

Lastly, the candidates that are more apt to rent apartments in Florence would be those who aspire to an ideal of art and life expressed through a certain ritualization of existence as the only way to make life tolerable and to give the world any value.

Contact Me 

The site chosen is due to the fact that the consulted historians believed that Dante was born in the vicinity of the medieval house, near the Piazza dei Donati. A reconstruction of the building, which was led by the architect Giuseppe Castelluci was necessary. During its first period, it served as municipal office and did not become a museum until 1965. Since then it has undergone several restorations to achieve the current look, being reopened in 2005.

The building has 3 floors and an adjacent tower, which have been organized according to stages of the life of Dante. Downstairs is where temporary exhibitions are held.

Upstairs, you will find items related to the early years of the writer, to his youth. His baptism, his appointment as prior of the city and his former political and military actions. Special attention is paid to his family and shown through drawings and other documents you can learn about life in medieval Florence. There is a thorough and interesting diorama of the Battle of Campaldino, where Dante fought, and in the next room is a map of the neighborhoods in which Florence was divided in the Middle Ages.

The second floor takes you on a tour of the times where he was condemned to exile and his years in exile until his death in 1321 in Ravenna.

The third floor is his maturity and success as an author where reproductions of famous works of art dedicated to him, art works from Michelangelo, Raphael and Signorelli, among other prominent Italian artists.

On your journey, you will also see a replica of a medieval room, instrumental used by physicians and apothecaries of the time (Dante was an apothecary) and an audiovisual presentation on the Divine Comedy.

You can visit the rooms of the house freely or take a guided tour, but you must reserve it in advance. It lasts about 40 minutes and is limited to a maximum of 25 people. If you do not know much about Dante, we recommend the guided tour.

Address: Via Santa Margherita 1 (accessible on foot)

Price: 4 euros normal rate 2 euros reduced.

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10-17 am in the months of October to March. From April to September, it opens daily from 10 to 18 hours.

Web: http://www.museocasadidante.it/

Elena Alvarez

To visit the Dante Museum and learn more about the cultural side of Florence, nothing is better to book any of our apartments in Florence s historical nearby center . You will not have to be aware of schedules and you can easily access the most interesting places of the city.

Contact Me 

A must-see event for both Florentines and visitors alike, the fair takes place in a Renaissance fort commissioned by Alejandro de Medici. The fort is situated in the historic center of the city.

Florence is fertile ground for artists and artisans. You can simply walk and view the construction of the city by looking at these precedents. During the Renaissance dozens of silversmiths, carpenters, blacksmiths, metal forgers emerged to construct great monuments such as the Florence Cathedral, whose dome took some 20 years to complete. Today Florence’s artisanal workshops are famous for their specialization in antique restoration. These can be found in the Oltrarno neighborhood.

This year the International Salon is an ideal showcase for young artisans and will have the same format as the previous editions. Various sections will cover the different artisanal fields: interior decoration, world settings, design and fashion, costume jewelry, and silver works, where they will present their wares according to the general specifications of the products.

Participating in this trade fair gives demonstrators access to 170 million visitors and 6 million buyers during the 9 days it runs. It is also a chance to network with national and international businesses that search for novelties as well as high-quality work. In short, it is a place of commercial exchange.

Handicrafts are defined as the mid point between art and design; for some, they offer the sophistication of traditional trades, in which aesthetics plays a very important role. In accordance with the etymology of the root words artis manus, it means “art with the hands.”

The Bauhaus School rescued the meaning of handicraft. It proposed that the artists and artisans could create a movement that could change the world. In their manifest they discarded the notion that there were professional artists but rather that the artist was an “exalted artisan”. They called for the barriers between classes to be broken down and created a guild of artisans without arrogant barriers. Maybe the only difference between traditional handicrafts and that which the Bauhaus proposed is that they advocated for handicrafts without a function and the traditional artisans search for a function to apply aesthetic content.

In this show, you are able to see and understand the important role of the artisan. This is the reason it one of the most prestigious events at the international level.

For more information: http://www.mostraartigianato.it/it/

Nancy Guzman

Spring is a beautiful time to rent apartments in Florence where you can enjoy things like the Mostra Internazionale Dell’Artigianato.

Contact Me 

“Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists” is the title of the exhibition which intends to bring you closer and demonstrate the indubitable connection that existed and even endured between North American artists and intellectuals and this beautiful and inspirational region of Italy.

Having been one of the hot spots of the commemorative activities being held in honor of the 500^th anniversary of the death of Amerigo Vespucci, the exhibition has awakened an unusual interest and is guaranteed to be a success. United States’ Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was even present to open the exhibition.

Francesca Bardazzi and Sisi Carlo curated the exhibition which allows visitors to view works by more than thirty artists. The works of John Singer Sargent and William Merrit Chase especially stand out, but there are also works by Vedder, Frederick Childe Hassam, Lilla Cabot Perry and Frank Duveneck, among others, which one may enjoy in the exhibition. They, like so many other artists from the United States, remained impressionists once they arrived in Florence and the surrounding area. The light and the landscapes of Tuscany were an inexhaustible source of inspiration for these artists who were drawn to recreate the beauty of this region in northern Italy in their works. This generation of prolific artists that lived in Florence were guests of their wealthy compatriots and frequently changed their residence, which gave them different perspectives of the region and the surrounding areas. The decadent air of the old city, the architecture of the streets, the light of the countryside, the colors and sensations with which they could experiment were completely different than those that they knew up until that time. Now, thanks to this fantastic exhibition, Florentines and visitors to the city are able to be participants in this legacy that has been neglected by an entire generation of young people. The works in this exhibition have been selected from the most prestigious art galleries of the world.

The exhibition shares space with “American Dreamers”, a selection of works by contemporary North American artists, some well-known others less so.

The location was selected as venue for the very special collection is none other than the Palazzo Strozzi, a magnificent example of Italian Renaissance architecture that was commissioned by the merchant Filippo Strozzi. The Strozzi were traditionally the rivals of the Medici, the other great Florentine faction. The scale of is not frivilous; the palace was built to surpass the size and beauty of the Medici residence.

Pedro Paterna

Renting apartments in Florence is without a doubt one of the most comfortable ways to travel. Visit the city while and all of its various parts while doing something you will enjoy. The comfort and intimacy of having your own place to call home during your vacation is worth it.

Contact Me 

- The antipasti or entremeses: There is no a good dish in Italy that does not begin with some antipasti. The most traditional is Affetatti misti, which is a plate of sausages with salad that sometimes includes cheese. The fettunta are thick slices of bread with olive oil, lightly toasted. It is typical in November when the olives are harvested and the oil is produced, to enjoy the distinctive taste of fresh oil. In summer, they usually add sliced tomatoes and winter they are part of Lumbarda soup. The Bacelli e pecorino is a simple beans salad with delicious dice pecorino cheese, dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper.

- The main course: The Pappardelle sulla Lepre is a delicious dish made with a kind of thick strips of fresh pasta on a hare sauce. The Stracciatella is a beef soup with almonds, eggs, bread and Parmesan cheese. Serve very hot, garnished with fresh parsley.

- The second main: The famous Bistecca alla fiorentina is a thick grilled steak, toasted on the outside but tender and tasty inside. The arista is a roasted pork tenderloin with a nice sauce of basil, garlic, sage and red wine. Chicken alla fiorentina are crunchy pieces of chicken breast coated with a mixture of spinach, Parmesan cheese, onion, garlic and parsley. Fish lovers can try the calamari in zimino, very fresh squid cooked with spinach and tomatoes.

- Desserts: The schiaccata alla fiorentina is a thick cake of sweet bread typical of Carnival. The sweet teeth have it filled with cream or chocolate. There is a very nice variation made with rich red wine grapes dipped in sugar. The fritelle are donuts made with ricotta cheese that are eaten on the feast of San José. Eat them with Vin Santo sweet wine, delicious! The castagnaccio is pie made by chestnut flour, olive oil, raisins and pine nuts. Chestnuts are one of the regional products that are used in many recipes. Make sure to try some.

Finally, following the Italian custom, you should try some local cheeses like ricotta di pecora fresca and the pecorino. Florentines like to eat as a snack or light lunch panini di trippa, which are snacks of some kind of tripe. Not suitable for the most sophisticated stomachs, but you are welcome to try them.

Elena Alvarez

Enjoy the delicious Florentine cuisine and stay in one of our apartments in Florence Visit a local market and buy yourself the ingredients to cook dishes we suggested.

Contact Me 

This exhibition curated by Bartholomew F. Bland, analyzes whether the current economical situation in the U.S. allows Americans to still believe in the American dream, especially when the promise of prosperity and equality seems to have disappeared.

To analyze from an artistic point of view the vanished from American way of life, eleven American artists, through fantasy, imagination and dreams transmit their particular points of views on the crisis in American society. Furthermore, since their creations, they built those symbolic worlds that are required to transform the look of the contemporary, often oblivious to the greatest problems, and the same that sometimes return to be processing utopias.

The eleven artists invited to this exhibition are: Adrien Broom, Nick Cave, Adam Cvijanovic, Laura Ball, Will Cotton, Thomas Doyle, Richard Deon, Christy Rupp, Kirsten Hassenfeld, Mandy Greer y Patrick Jacobs.

Will Cotton was born in Melrose, Massachusetts in 1965. Study at the School of Fine Arts in Rouen, France, and at the New York Academy of Art. He is a painter; draftsman and sculptor who work with surreal dream images appealing to the concept of pleasure.

Kirsten Hassenfeld does interesting sculptures, usually very delicate, with an air of decorative art for the beauty that give the spaces. She works on paper sculptures that look like Chinese lanterns, giving the space a dreamlike, unreal.

Laura Ball is a painter that works with watercolors, creating a chaotic structure that constantly changes. Birds flying between tangled trunks and snakes intermingle with countless unidentifiable things are part of her jobs. Her work is very beautiful and with a feminine nature.

Adrien Broom is a self-taught photographer who has specialized in fantastic photography, while creating fictional worlds. In his images of women wrapped in fabrics that float, women with butterfly wings or children in a landscape of leaning trees, is the permanent movement that seeks Broom in their work.

Mandy Greer creates installations with fabrics, which add buttons, beads, plastic and small bright objects to give her work a sense of nature. Her works are a delicate architecture where various fibers intertwine installed on people to give shape and meaning to the work.

Patrick Jacobs creates small dioramas (3 inches) enclosed in magnifying glasses that are embedded in the walls of the exhibition spaces. It is painstaking work that takes several weeks to achieve stunning realism.

Christy Rupp is a sculptor and works with glass to build functional sculptures for public spaces. Her concern for the ecology is clearly expressed on her works.

For more information http://www.strozzina.org/exhibitions/american-dreamers/

Nancy Guzman

If you’re planning to stay in apartments in Florence during your holiday, do not miss this excellent exhibition at the Palazzo Stozzino.

Contact Me