FIRENZE: CAPPELLA BRANCACCI

The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias by Masaccio

The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian, "Cappella dei Brancacci") is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Pietro Brancacci and begun in 1386. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.

The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel. Masolino's associate, 21 year old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27. Portions of the chapel were completed later by Filippino Lippi. Unfortunately during the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.

Stay at Hotel Mario's: we help you to enjoy Florentine culture.

HOTEL MARIO'S

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50123 Firenze

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Appuntamento domenica 27 novembre 2011 con la 28^ edizione della classica internazionale di corsa su strada

E’ il fascino avvolgente di secoli di arte, storia e cultura che ti accompagna, passo dopo passo, lungo i 42 chilometri e 195 metri della Firenze Marathon. Un’emozione unica che solo chi ha corso a Firenze può raccontare e che ha trasformato la classica della città del giglio in un appuntamento irrinunciabile per migliaia di sportivi e appassionati provenienti da tutto il mondo, puntuale ogni anno, l’ultima domenica di novembre.

L’evento fiorentino è cresciuto in maniera esponenziale in questi ultimi anni, tanto che lo scorso 28 novembre in occasione della XXVII edizione è stato centrato il nuovo record di iscritti, con 10200  podisti provenienti da 62  paesi. Numeri impressionanti, a testimonianza di una crescita che non è solo numerica, ma anche qualitativa, che hanno trasformato la Firenze Marathon nella seconda maratona italiana, alle spalle soltanto di Roma.

Una manifestazione che non è solo un evento sportivo, ma anche un fatto di costume e di cultura davanti a cui non si può che restare incantati. E’ questa la sensazione che ha accomunato migliaia di podisti e che hanno potuto provare anche i tanti spettatori collegati suRaisport1, per seguire le tre ore di diretta riservate alla XXVII Firenze Marathon dalla Tgs-Raisport. E’ il settimo anno consecutivo che la Rai dedica la diretta alla manifestazione fiorentina, a giusto riconoscimento della crescente importanza assunta dall’evento in questi anni. Parlare solo di numeri, però, non renderebbe il giusto merito ad una maratona che ha raggiunto ormai un livello organizzativo di assoluta eccellenza e che può vantare un palcoscenico eccezionale come Firenze, una città unica al mondo per la sua bellezza e per la sua atmosfera.

La Firenze Marathon è il principale evento di corsa su strada che si svolge in Toscana e, insieme a Roma, è ormai di diritto la maratona internazionale più importante d'Italia e tra le prime 20 al mondo per numero di partecipanti e per qualità.

Il percorso fiorentino si muove attraverso scorci paesaggistici e monumenti di una bellezza unica, che hanno reso famosa la città nel mondo. Un nuovo tracciato che tocca i luoghi più affascinanti di Firenze, come piazza del  Duomo, piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio e tante altre strade e piazze ricche di storia e di cultura, prima di concludersi nella solenne maestosità di piazza Santa Croce. Il percorso è senza dislivelli, come previsto dalle norme IAAF, e sempre su strade asfaltate, caratteristiche che lo rendono particolarmente scorrevole e apprezzato da tutti gli atleti. La Firenze Marathon è inserita nel calendario ufficiale delle maratone internazionali, certificata AIMS e riconosciuta dalla IAAF.

PER IL TUO SOGGIORNO A FIRENZE, HOTEL MARIO'S

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NOVEMBER 27, 2011: fIRENZE MARATHON

Sunday, 27th November 2011, is the date of the 2011 edition of the international classic road race, the 28th Florence Marathon. Step by step all along its 42 kilometers and 195 meters you are surrounded by centuries of art, history and culture, a unique emotion that can only be experienced by those who run in Florence. Year after year, thousands of sportspeople and enthusiasts from all over the world come to participate in this classic race on the last Sunday in November. This great event in Florence has increased immeasurably recently so much so that we expect more than 11.500 participants in 2011.

This extraordinary increase in participation also testifies to the constant attention given to the organization of the race. Florence Marathon is now the second Italian marathon (after Rome), and among the 20 most important marathons in the world. The route takes you by all those landmarks of singular beauty that have made Florence famous worldwide: views over the enchanting hills and countryside, and passing right by the Cathedral Square, Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio (to mention only just a few of historical importance), before entering the majestic Piazza Santa Croce.  The road is entirely asphalted and ramp-free, except for the short, slightly sloping stretch of road at the start, and these characteristics make it a particularly fast route appreciated by runners.

ENJOY THE MARATHON AND STAY AT HOTEL MARIO'S

HOTEL MARIO'S
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03/11 DECEMBER 2011: Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea

The Florence Biennale was founded in 1997 as a global convocation of artists with all their diversity. It was the right time for an idea like this. By the late 1990s, contemporary art was at a cross road. The old assumptions – that art came in waves, each named with an ‘ism’ by the end, that auction prices equal the value received, that painting was ‘dead’ and so on – those assumptions were collapsing. Suddenly it was obvious that art was alive, thriving, and as varied as humanity. Artists are everywhere. Around that time, in the old Florence, something new was stirring. A committee of Italian artists and curators proposed a biennial where talented and recognized artists could exhibit their latest work. The artists would decide the way of exhibiting their work. The risks were enormous: there had never been a show on this scale with a direct connection between artists’ studios and the exhibition walls. The evaluation of unfiltered results would be assigned to an International Jury. In 1997, with hardly any publicity, the invitations were sent. The response was impressive: 317 artists from 17 different countries.
By 2003, the 4th Florence Biennale had grown into the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary art, showing more than 800 artists from 70 different countries. This year’s 7th Biennale builds on those numbers and broadens its horizons.

Those expecting a single curatorial vision will be astonished by its polyglot multiplicity. The only curator is who visits the show. Here are 3000 paintings, sculptures, prints and installations. Make your ‘short list’ – there aren’t going to be two lists alike.
Artists at every stage of their careers, including the most eminent artists, play key roles at the Biennale. Their presence is the confirmation that the garden of art yields wondrous fruit when tilled by many hands. Past distinguished recipients of the "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Award for Career Achievement include Chen Cheng-Hsiung (2001, the first Chinese abstract expressionist painter), David Hockney (2003), Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Anuskiewicz (Optical Art in the '60) and Gilbert and George in the 2007. This year Career Awards will be bestowed on Marina Abramovic, and Shu Yong.

The Biennale believes in promoting respect and tolerance among the world’s artists. In 2001, the Biennale was recognized by the United Nations as an official partner in its program, Dialogue among Civilizations. In 2005 features its collaborative association with the Triennale of India, the most important contemporary art exhibition in Asia, and in 2003 with the Turku Biennale in Finland. The interaction of art and science is an ongoing theme of the Biennale. FB03 presented exhibitions of the Vatican Museums Conservation Laboratory and historic Ferrari racing cars. Streamlined speed was again seen in this 2005 show of classic motorcycles by Harley Davidson.
The 7th Edition of Florence Biennale confirm the role of this exhibition in the world of contemporary art, with its 650 artists, 84 nations represented and more than 2500 artworks exhibited. 

 

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BEATO ANGELICO: San Marco, Florence, 1436–1445

Posthumous portrait of Fra Angelico by Luca Signorelli

Fra Angelico (c. 1395 – February 18, 1455), born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John from Fiesole) and by Vasari as Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother John the Angelic One).

Fra Angelico is known in Italy as il Beato Angelico, the term "Il Beato" ("Blessed One") being already in use during his lifetime or shortly thereafter, in reference to his skills in painting religious subjects. In 1982 Pope John Paul II conferred beatification, in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making this title official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from other Fra Giovannis. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, nicknamed Angelico".

Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico:

But it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety.

In 1436 Fra Angelico was one of a number of the friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly-built Friary of San Marco in Florence. This was an important move which put him in the centre of artistic activity of the region and brought about the patronage of one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's Signoria, Cosimo de' Medici, who had a large cell (later occupied by Savonarola) reserved for himself at the friary in order that he might retreat from the world. It was, according to Vasari, at Cosimo's urging that Fra Angelico set about the task of decorating the monastery, including the magnificent Chapter House fresco, the often-reproduced Annunciation at the top of the stairs to the cells, the Maesta with Saints and the many smaller devotional frescoes depicting aspects of the Life of Christ that adorn the walls of each cell.

The Maestà (Madonna enthroned) with Saints; San Marco, Florence

In 1439 he completed one of his most famous works, the Altarpiece for St. Marco's, Florence. The result was unusual for its times. Images of the enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by saints were common, but they usually depicted a setting that was clearly heavenlike, in which saints and angels hovered about as divine presences rather than people. But in this instance, the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if they were able to converse about the shared experience of witnessing the Virgin in glory. Paintings such as this, known as Sacred Conversations, were to become the major commissions of Giovanni Bellini, Perugino and Raphael.

 

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HOTEL MARIO'S

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LITERATURE IN FLORENCE

Decameron (1350–1353) by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Despite Latin being the main language of the courts and the Church, writers such as Dante Alighieri and many others used their own language, the Florentine dialect, in composing their works. The oldest literary pieces written in vernacular language go as far back as the 13th century. Florence's literature fully blossomed in the 14th century, when not only Dante with his Divine Comedy (1306–1321) and Petrarch, but also poets such as Guido Cavalcanti and Lapo Gianni composed their most important works. Dante's masterpiece is the Divine Comedy, which mainly deals with the poet himself taking an allegoric and moral tour of Hell, Purgatory and finally Heaven, during which he meets numerous mythological or real characters of his age or before. He is first guided by the Roman poet Virgil, whose non-Christian beliefs damned him to Hell. Later on he is joined by Beatrice, who guides him through Heaven.

In the 14th century, Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio led the literary scene in Florence after Dante's death in 1321. Petrarch was an all-rounder writer, author and poet, but was particularly known for his Canzoniere, or the Book of Songs, where he conveyed his unremitting love for Laura. His style of writing has since become known as Petrarchism. Boccaccio was better known for his Decameron, a slightly grim story of Florence during the 1350s bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, when some people fled the ravaged city to an isolated country mansion, and spent their time there recounting stories and novellas taken from the medieval and contemporary tradition. All of this is written in a series of 100 distinct novellas.

In the 16th century, during the Renaissance, Florence was the hometown of political writer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, whose ideas on how rulers should govern the land, detailed in The Prince, spread across European courts and enjoyed enduring popularity for centuries. These principles became known as Machiavellianism.

Visit Florence and stay at Hotel Mario's.

Hotel Mario's

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze - Italy

Tel. 0039 055 216 801

Fax 0039 055 212039

E-mail: hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com

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ART IN FLORENCE

Florence has a legendary artistic heritage. Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, forefathers of the Renaissance, Ghiberti and the Della Robbias, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Their works, together with those of many other generations of artists, are gathered in the several museums of the town: the Uffizi Gallery, the Palatina gallery with the paintings of the "Golden Ages" the Bargello with the sculptures of the Renaissance, the museum of San Marco with Fra Angelico's works, the Academy, the chapels of the Medicis Buonarroti' s house with the sculptures of Michelangelo, the following museums: Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano, Corsini, The Gallery of Modern Art, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, the museum of Silverware and the museum of Precious Stones. Great monuments are the landmarks of Florentine artistic culture: the Florence Baptistery with its mosaics; the Cathedral with its sculptures, the medieval churches with bands of frescoes; public as well as private palaces: Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Davanzati; monasteries, cloisters, refectories; the "Certosa". In the archeological museum includes documents of Etruscan civilization. In fact the city is so rich in art that some first time visitors experience the Stendhal syndrome as they encounter its art for the first time.

Uffizi hallway

Florentine architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1466) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) were among the fathers of both Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture,

The cathedral, topped by Brunelleschi's dome, dominates the Florentine skyline. The Florentines decided to start building it – late in the 13th century, without a design for the dome. The project proposed by Brunelleschi in the 14th century was the largest ever built at the time, and the first major dome built in Europe since the two great domes of Roman times – the Pantheon in Rome, and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore remains the largest brick construction of its kind in the world. In front of it is the medieval Baptistery. The two buildings incorporate in their decoration the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In recent years, most of the important works of art from the two buildings – and from the nearby Giotto's Campanile, have been removed and replaced by copies. The originals are now housed in the Museum dell'Opera del Duomo, just to the east of the Cathedral.

Florence has large numbers of art-filled churches, such as San Miniato al Monte, San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Trinita, Santa Maria del Carmine, Santa Croce, Santo Spirito, the Annunziata, Ognissanti and numerous others.

Palazzo della Signoria

Artists associated with Florence range from Arnolfo di Cambio and Cimabue to Giotto, Nanni di Banco, and Paolo Uccello; through Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Donatello and Massaccio and the della Robbia family; through Fra Angelico and Botticelli and Piero della Francesca, and on to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Others include Benvenuto Cellini, Andrea del Sarto, Benozzo Gozzoli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Filippo Lippi, Bernardo Buontalenti, Orcagna, Pollaiuolo, Filippino Lippi, Verrocchio, Bronzino, Desiderio da Settignano, Michelozzo, the Rossellis, the Sangallos, and Pontormo. Artists from other regions who worked in Florence include Raphael, Andrea Pisano, Giambologna, Il Sodoma and Peter Paul Rubens.

Brunelleschi's dome

The Uffizi and the Pitti Palace are two of the most famous picture galleries in the world. Two superb collections of sculpture are in the Bargello and the Museum of the Works of the Duomo. They are filled with the creations of Donatello, Verrochio, Desiderio da Settignano, Michelangelo and others. The Accademia has Michelangelo's David – perhaps the most well-known work of art anywhere, plus the unfinished statues of the slaves Michelangelo created for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

Other sights include the medieval city hall, the Palazzo della Signoria (alsdo known as the Palazzo Vecchio), the Archeological Museum, the Museum of the History of Science, the Palazzo Davanzatti, the Stibbert Museum, St. Marks, the Medici Chapels, the Museum of the Works of Santa Croce, the Museum of the Cloister of Santa Maria Novella, the Zoological Museum ("La Specola"), the Bardini, and the Museo Horne. There is also a collection of works by the modern sculptor, Marino Marini, in a museum named after him. The Strozzi Palace is the site of special exhibits.

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FASHION DESIGNERS OF FLORENCE

Luxury boutiques along Florence's prestigious Via de' Tornabuoni.

Florence being historically the first home of Italian fashion (the 1951–1953 soirées held by Giovanni Battista Giorgini are generally regarded as the birth of the Italian school as opposed to French haute couture) is also home to the Italian fashion establishment Salvatore Ferragamo. Gucci, Enrico Coveri, Emilio Pucci, Patrizia Pepe, Ermanno Scervino and many others are founded and located in Florence. Prada, Roberto Cavalli, and Chanel have large offices and stores in Florence or its outskirts. Florence's main upscale shopping street is Via de' Tornabuoni, where major luxury fashion houses and jewelry labels, such as Armani, Ferragamo and Bulgari, have their boutiques.

The San Lorenzo market is now largely for tourists. Great places to walk include along the Arno and across any of its bridges, through narrow, medieval back streets in the Santa Croce area and in the Oltr'Arno – on the south side of the river, in many ways like Rome's Trastevere or Paris's Left Bank – but far smaller. There are also superb shopping streets, such as the Via Tornabuoni, the Via del Parione, and the Via Maggio.

Visit Florence and stay at Hotel Mario's.

Hotel Mario's
Via Faenza, 89
50123 Florence - Italy
Tel. 0039 055 216 801
Fax 0039 055 212039
E-mail: hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com
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FORTE DI BELVEDERE

Fortification

The Forte di Belvedere or Fortezza di Santa Maria in San Giorgio del Belvedere (often called simply Belvedere) is a fortification in Florence, Italy. It was built by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici during the period 1590–1595, with Bernardo Buontalenti as the designer, to protect the city and its rule by the Medici family.

On the same side of the river as the Grand Ducal palace, the Pitti Palace in the Oltrarno district of the city, today the grounds provide spectacular outlooks over Florence; the buildings are used to hold works of art, and as a venue for exhibitions of contemporary sculpture.

The design and construction of the Fort were entrusted to architect Bernardo Buontalenti, the chief architect for both Cosimo I and his son, Ferdinando. The Fort served many purposes: to protect the center of government in Florence, the Pitti Palace; to protect the south end of the city of Florence and the Oltrarno district; to demonstrate the power of the Medici family; hold the treasury of the Medici; and finally to provide a shelter for the Grand Duke if the city came under attack. The fort was connected to Palazzo Vecchio via the Vasari Corridor over Ponte Vecchio, passages in the Pitti Palace and paths through Boboli Gardens.

Buontalenti applied contemporary fortification principles when he designed the Fort. The walls are designed at angles that allow for all the walls to be seen by another wall, allowing for cross fire to assist in protecting the other walls. The location where the fort was placed had long been considered of strategic importance since the time of Michelangelo, then head engineer of fortifications. An earlier version of the fort was built of earth and stone gabions as seen in frescoes in Palazzo Vecchio.

In addition to being a fortification, the Belvedere was meant to be a sign of Medici prestige. The villa inside the fortress was designed to be elegant and did not adhere to the military purposes of the rest of the fort. Since the villa was meant to be used as the residence of the Grand Duke during times of unrest or epidemic, it was built as a comfortable, luxurious palace, another sign of Medici domination in Florence.

The Fort served as a garrison for troops for over 100 hundred years after its completion.

Visit Florence and stay at our hotel:

HOTEL MARIO'S

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50123 Firenze - Italy

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OSPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI

The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a historical building in Florence, central Italy. Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419, it was originally a children's orphanage. It is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture. The hospital, which features a nine bay loggia facing the Piazza SS. Annunziata, was built and managed by the "Arte della Seta" or Silk Guild of Florence. That guild was one of the wealthiest in the city and, like most guilds, took upon itself philanthropic duties.

The façade is made up of nine semicircular arches springing from columns of the Composite order. The semicircular windows brings the building down, earthbound and is a revival of the classical style, no longer a pointed arch. In the spandrels of the arches there are glazed blue terracotta roundels with reliefs of babies suggesting the function of the building. There is an emphasis on the horizontal because the building is longer than it is tall. Above each semicircular arch is a tabernacle window (a rectangular window with a triangular pediment on the top).

The clean and clear sense of proportion is reflected in the building. The height of the columns is the same width of the intercolumniation and the width of the arcade is equal to the height of the column, making each bay a cube. The simple proportions of the building reflect a new age, of secular education and a sense of great order and clarity. Also half the height of the column is the height of the entablature, which is appropriate for a clear minded society.

Ospedale degli Innocenti

Children were sometimes abandoned in a basin which was located at the front portico. However, this basin was removed in 1660 and replaced by a wheel for secret refuge. There was a door with a special rotating horizontal wheel that brought the baby into the building without the parent being seen. This allowed people to leave their babies, anonymously, to be cared for by the orphanage. This system was in operation until the hospital's closure in 1875. Today the building houses a small museum of Renaissance art.

Visit Florence and stay at our hotel:

HOTEL MARIO'S
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50123 Florence - Italy 

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Roman origins of Florence

A wooden model of Florence

Florence was established by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 80 BC as a settlement for his veteran soldiers and was named originally Fluentia, owing the fact that it was built between two rivers, which was later corrupted to Florentia. It was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated at the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. The Emperor Diocletian is said to have made Florentia the seat of a bishopric around the beginning of the 4th century AD, but this seems impossible in that Diocletian was a notable persecutor of Christians.

In the ensuing two centuries, the city experienced turbulent periods of Ostrogothic rule, during which the city was often troubled by warfare between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines, which may have caused the population to fall to as few as 1,000 people. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century. Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to grow again and commerce prospered. In 854, Florence and Fiesole were united in one county.

HOUSE OF MEDICI

The House of Medici or Casa de' Medici  was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to found the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained simply citizens, rather than monarchs. The Medici produced four Popes of the Catholic Church and in 1531 the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de' Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families they dominated their city's government. They were able to bring Florence under their family's power, allowing for an environment where art and humanism could flourish. They fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua.

The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe. There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a period of time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy and Europe. A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. This system was first used by accountants working for the Medici family in Florence.

FLORENTINE CUISINE

Florentine food grows out of a tradition of peasant eating rather than rarefied high cooking. The majority of dishes are based on meat. The whole animal was traditionally eaten; tripe, (trippa) and (lampredotto) were once regularly on the menu and still are sold at the food carts stationed throughout the city. Antipasti include crostini toscani, sliced bread rounds topped with a chicken liver-based pâté, and sliced meats (mainly prosciutto and salame, often served with melon when in season). The typically saltless Tuscan bread, obtained with natural levain frequently features in Florentine courses, especially in its famous soups, ribollita and pappa al pomodoro, or in the salad of bread and fresh vegetables called panzanella that is served in summer. The most famous main course is the bistecca alla fiorentina, a large (the customary size should weigh around 1200 grams – "40 oz.") – the "date" steak – T-bone steak of Chianina beef cooked over hot charcoal and served very rare with its more recently derived version, the tagliata, sliced rare beef served on a bed of arugula, often with slices of Parmesan cheese on top. Most of these courses are generally served with local olive oil, also a prime product enjoying a worldwide reputation.

Historic Florentine Football

Calcio Storico Fiorentino ("Historic Florentine Football"), sometimes called Calcio in costume, is a traditional sport, regarded as a forerunner of soccer, though the actual gameplay most closely resembles rugby. The event originates from the Middle Ages, when the most important Florentine nobles amused themselves playing while wearing magnificent costumes. The most important match was played on 17 February 1530, during the siege of Florence. That day Papal troops besiged the city while the Florentines, with contempt of the enemies, decided to play the game notwithstanding the situation. The game is played in the Piazza di Santa Croce. A temporary arena is constructed, with bleachers and a sand-covered playing field. A series of matches are held between four teams representing each quartiere (quarter) of Florence during late June and early July. There are four teams: Azzurri (light blue), Bianchi (white), Rossi (red) and Verdi (green). The Azzurri are from the quarter of Santa Croce, Bianchi from the quarter of Santo Spirito, Verdi are from San Giovanni and Rossi from Santa Maria Novella.

SUMMER IN FLORENCE

During the summer, Florence became a big open air stage where they are often tourists, visitors to play the part of the protagonists. With its squares, its churches and monuments to admire without getting bored, Firenze is ideal for young couples, families and groups of friends.

First we start with some advice. Florence in the summer is a very hot city, then try to limit your outputs to the cooler hours, preferring perhaps visiting museums and places indoors during the time when the sun is strongest. Of course this advicehas to be applied  to European tourists, because those Americans are certainly more accustomed to high temperatures. Ultimately the climate of Florence is still a Mediterranean climate.

We start from the center. Just a few months ago the entire area around the Piazza del Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with Giotto‘s frescoes, the famous dome of Brunelleschi and the Baptistery, had been pedestrianized. This is a great scene, one of the marvels of humanity, even more enjoyable now breathing cleaner air and less noise.

From here I awant to create two paths. The first takes you through the Via dei Calzaioli, where are boutiques of fashion: Gucci, Prada, Valentino and so on. A pause in Piazza della Repubblica, sipping a coffee at one of the famous bars, where the artists of the vanguard of primo novecento The second route takes you from the Duomo to Borgo San Lorenzo, where it is to be  visited the Church designed by Michelangelo and the museums of the Medici Chapels. Spread around a small market of leather handicrafts made by Florentine artisans. Bags, shoes, girdles, jackets. Here is a must to visit the Central Market, where you’ll find the authentic flavors of Tuscan cuisine and especially the Florentine. It starts primarily from meat, queen of the tables in the restaurants. The famous Fiorentina Cut, a cut of rib eye steak, cooked on the outside and rare inside.

You eat natural, or with oil and pepper, served with arugula and shavings of Parmesan cheese or perhaps with a beautiful chapel of fresh porcini mushrooms. At Central Market of San Lorenzo, a small restaurant offers some of the best specialty of Florence, at really low prices.

Try the sandwich with Lampredotto, or the one with the Bollito, tripe, Peposa and other dishes prepared daily. Then in the market you will find spices, cheese, bread and cake for all tastes. 

Many special exhibitions are also organized this year in Florence. Four hundred years after his death, Michelangelo Merisi in the Uffizi, along with Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Then the largest collection by many artists of the Reinassance period.

HOTEL MARIO' S
Via Faenza, 89
50123 Firenze
tel +39055216801
fax +39055212039
hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com
www.hotelmarios.com   

How to get to Florence

Florence is well-connected with the rest of Italy and with Europe, and is easy to get to by air or land. In the last few years there has been a significant increase in traffic in and out of Florence's Vespucci Airport, and the infrastructure and facilities are constantly being upgraded.
Florence is also a key node on the Italian railway network. It has good connections with the main cities in the north, while to the south Rome is only about an hour and a half away. Work on the Bologna-Florence stretch of the high-speed railway line (TAV, Treni Alta Velocità) is at an advanced stage, and a new station is due to be built in Florence.
The A1 motorway, the main road artery linking the north and south of the country, runs past Florence, which has four exits. A third lane is currently being built on the Barberino-Incisa stretch of the A1. The A11 motorway and the Florence-Pisa-Livorno (FI-PI-LI) dual carriageway link the city with the west (Tyrrhenian Sea) coast.

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, in either June or July out of wedlock to Boccaccino di Chellino and an unknown woman. In 1319 Boccaccino di Chellino marries and Boccaccio's stepbrother, Francesco is born.

The work he is perhaps most known for is the Decameron (which means "Work of Ten Days") 100 stories told over 10 days by 10 people escaping from the plague. It was one of the final stories The Tale of Griselda which Petrarch read and then translated into Latin. It was composed between 1349 and 1353.

Although he is first exposed to Petrarch's works in 1333, it isn't until 1350 that the two of them first meet face to face, in Rome. By that time Boccaccio was the undisputed leader of Florentine literary culture.

Under Petrarch's influence, he turned increasingly away from vernacular fiction (Italian fiction) in favor of Latin scholary works. He took lessons in Greek, solicited translations from Greek texts, and in 1360 successfully worked to establish at Florence the first chair of Greek in non-Byzantine Europe. In 1373 the citizens of Florence chose him to give the world's first lecturae Dantis, probably the first lecture series ever dedicated to the exposition of a European vernacular text.

The two formed a friendship which lasted their entire lives, so much so that Boccaccio is the recipient of a large number of letters which appear in Petrarch's collections.

There are many unknowns in history, and one of those unknowns when it comes to Petrarch is how much is real. Although Petrarch tells us he was crowned poet lauriet in Rome, there is no other account for this in history, except in the writings of Boccaccio.

Boccaccio died on December 21, 1375. Together Petrarch and Boccaccio could be called the founders of Humanism. Besides the time they lived in and their contributions to the world they also shared many similarieties. They both fed of each other for inspiration and support through the years as both lost many friends during the plague. They both had loves which they lost to the plague as well, Petrarch's Laura de Noves and Boccaccio's Maria d'Aquino. 

TRL Awards 2011: Firenze, 20 aprile 2011

TRL Awards 2011: Firenze, 20 aprile 2011

Anche nel 2011 tornano i TRL Awards, un maxi evento che porterà a Firenze i personaggi più amati dal mondo della musica, del cinema e della televisione per una sfida a colpi di voti che premierà i più amati dal pubblico! 

Preparati alla serata finale dei TRL Awards 2011, un maxi-evento nel cuore di Firenze con tutte le premiazioni dei vincitori nelle varie categorie, tanti ospiti e performance dal vivo. Comincia a segnarti la data: 20 aprile 2011. 

Hotel Mario's

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com

ART 75° Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell’Artigianato: Fortezza da Basso, Firenze, dal 30 Aprile all' 8 Maggio - ART International Arts and Crafts exhibition: Fortezza da Basso, Florenze, from Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 8, 2011

Dal 30 Aprile all' 8 Maggio 2011 nei suggestivi spazi espositivi della Fortezza da Basso torna l’appuntamento con ART - Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell’Artigianato, giunta alla 75^ edizione.
Nove giorni interi per valorizzare e commercializzare le culture innovative e le produzioni tradizionali a cui si legano i diversi comparti artigiani nell’ottica di un proficuo incontro e scambio fra il made in Italy (con la sua innata creatività e originalità) e la multiculturalità. A Firenze, capitale per antonomasia, dell’arte e della raffinata e secolare esperienza del ‘fatto a mano’.
La mostra sarà aperta al pubblico con il seguente orario: tutti i giorni dalle ore 10,00 alle ore 23,00 (ultimo giorno: chiusura alle ore 20,00).
Una serie di iniziative collaterali, workshop e convegni, promossi ed organizzati in collaborazione con Artex e le principali associazioni di categoria, con la partecipazione di opinion leader e personalità di spicco del comparto artigiano, affiancheranno la kermesse commerciale con il fine di rafforzare il ruolo di ART quale osservatorio annuale permanente di riferimento per il mondo dell’artigianato e test di mercato unico per il prodotto esposto. 

Identico il format delle edizione passate che prevede la suddivisione in sei grandi aree tematiche: TERRITORI - SCENE D’INTERNI - IL GUSTO - SCENARI DAL MONDO - SCENARI DI MODA & PREZIOSI - VISIONI, nelle quali gli espositori potranno presentarsi sulla base delle specifiche caratteristiche merceologiche dei loro prodotti a coprire l’intero mondo artigiano, colto nel suo costante cambiamento ed innovazione.
Un’occasione da non perdere dunque come punto di incontro fra produttori e consumatori: artigiani, piccole e medie aziende, interior designer, arredatori, architetti, titolari di negozi e gallerie specializzate. Questo e altro ancora è ART, lo storico salone internazionale dell’artigianato di Firenze, che da sempre premia la creatività, l’estro e l’abilità manuale di tanti maestri artigiani, suscitando intorno, sempre e comunque, nuove emozioni e desiderio di bellezza.

Art breasts the tape of 75 years of history, a period in which it has been able to develop and to keep pace with change, thus becoming one of the most prestigious shop-window of high quality artistic handicraft, both on a national and international level. Creating is an art. It is not by chance that ART, the International Handicraft Fair, was born and developed in Florence, and it is now housed
at the Fortezza da Basso, in the appealing exhibition areas of FirenzeFiera.
A top level location where to show and enjoy the creativeness and art of artisans from all over the world, who meet Florence’s and Tuscany’s history and tradition.
Artistic handicraft is an important richness of our culture and economy, one of the sectors which made the ingeniousness of “Made in Italy” products known and well-regarded all over the world.
ART 2011 is a unique meeting place for people who love that which is beautiful, for those who regard creativeness as valuable. A shop-window of innovating ideas and projects for professionals working in this field, and for consumers, whose tastes and needs are continuously changing.

The 75th Fair will be characterised by a very peculiar flavour: a look to the past, but mainly to the future, aiming at new shapes, new materials, new colours, taking into account, at the same time, the traditional refinement and taste that are peculiar to products which are never out-of-date.
ART 2011, the International Handicraft Fair, is not only a trade show, with over 700 exhibitors; it is a cultural event as well, which crosses Florence’s and Tuscany’s history.
And it is also the quality of exhibitors, the quality of side exhibitions, meetings and workshops: an irrevocable choice, that is well-regarded by artisans and visitors, both end-consumers and professionals such as architects, interior designers, shop owners and specialised galleries.

HOTEL MARIO'S Via Faenza, 89 50123 Firenze Tel. 0039 055 216801 Fax. 0039 055 212039 www.hotelmarios.com info@hotelmarios.com

BACI 2011 XX° Balloon Arts Convention International: Fortezza da Basso, March 24, 2011 - March 29, 2011

24 / 25 MARCH 2011 - Large Sculptures Competitions
If you’re not yet ready to be a team captain we can assign you to a team,
a truly unique and invaluable learning experience!
Se non sei ancora pronto per essere un capitano sarai assegnato ad una squadra,
un'esperienza di apprendimento unica e preziosa!

26 MARCH 2011 - Florence BACI Tour
Choose your favorite activities, detailed information will be sent to all delegates:
- tour the city, the museums, the shops and the trattorias
- visit fashion outlets
- participate in special event décor classes
Scegli le attività che preferisci,
- visita la città, i musei, i negozi e le trattorie
- visita gli outlet- partecipa a lezioni ed eventi speciali

27 / 29 MARCH 2011 - Courses
Inauguration March 27th, 16:00.
CBA examination March 27th , 09:00.
Inaugurazione il 27 Marzo alle ore 16:00.
Esami CBA il 27 Marzo alle ore 09:00.

28 MARCH 2011 - Gala Theme Party
Bring or make your best ISLAND theme costume for an unforgettable party!
Prepara il tuo costume (tema l'isola) per una festa indimenticabile!

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com