Sandro Botticelli, a Florentine painter

Did you know that the " birth of Venus " of Sandro Botticelli is at the Uffizi gallery?And that Sandro Botticelli is from Florence?
He was born in 1445 in Florence, Italy, the son of a tanner (one who converts animal skins into leather). Not much is known about his childhood or early life. In 1460 he began training with Fra Filippo Lippi (c. 1406–1469), one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. Botticelli's first works followed the current version of the popular style in Florence used by artists such as Andrea del Verrocchio (1435–1488).
Thus his first training, like that of Ghirlandaio and many of the best artists of the time, was in jewellery and metal working. He showed talent and fancy, and was presently transferred from the school of Botticello the goldsmith to that of Lippo Lippi the Carmelite brother, then in the height of his practice and reputation as a painter. Under that master Sandro acquired a perfect proficiency, and on his death in 1468 appears to have begun independent practice.Of all the Florentine school, Botticelli is the richest and most fanciful colourist, -- often using gold to enrich the lights on hair, tissues, and foliage, with a very exquisite effect.
In the Uffizi is an Adoration of the Magi, in which Botticelli has introduced the portraits of Cosimo, Guiliano, and Giovanni de’ Medici.
By that house he, like all the artists of his time, was much befriended; and for Lorenzo’s villa at Castello he painted the most beautiful of his pictures of classical mythology, the Birth of Venus now at the Uffizi, and the Venus with the Graces now with the Florence Academy.
When you'll come to Florence you could visit Uffizi gallery and other beautiful churches where you can see the art of this great master: SANDRO BOTTICELLI

March, crazy month, but in 1985...

Today, coming here at the Hotel Mario's to work like every single day, it started to snow, a light snow,but a real cold March snow.In Italy we use to say March is the craziest month of the year, because it usually rain one day and the day after is sunny and hot. The differences are given from the clouds and the water, but not for the SNOW.Firenze is a beautiful city, romantic too and if you are just visitors could be nice to stay in Florence when is white.
The last big snowfall was before last Christmas, but the biggest one was in 1985, more than 25 years ago.What did it happen?The Arno river froze solid that year,for the first time since 1929.The Tuscan spring is often lazy, taking its time in arriving. Though by mid-March the days are longer, so we have to wait only for a little bit and we'll have, im sure, a very very hot Spring and of course Summer.I invite everybody to come in Florence during April and May, that in my opionion, are the most fantastic months of the year.

Florence and Science. The 19th-century collections

Florence is not only Uffizi or Accademia. There are so many things to see that is impossible to be informed of all that we have here.Today we would like to talk about Florence and Science, that is also the name of an exhibition of three institutions in the centre of the city containing the richest and most important scientific collections in Europe: Museum of the History of Science, “La Specola” Museum of Natural History, and the Physics Cabinet of the Science and Technology Foundation.The exhbition will be until 9th of May 2010. The Itinerary displays thousands of objects, instruments, and artefacts as well as paintings, drawings, and sculptures of especial value and rarity.
The aim is to commemorate the extraordinary period before the unification of Italy when Florence was its intellectual capital and one of the European centres of scientific knowledge, as well as the city in which, among others, the first telegraph, teletypewriter and even piston engine were invented, and experiments on the telephone carried out.




The Museums and the Exhibitions





Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Florence, 1829. Art, Science and Society
curated by Silvestra Bietoletti


Museum of Natural History - “La Specola” Zoology Section
Tribune of Galileo and the Florentine Specola
curated by Fausto Barbagli

Museum of the History of Science (Galileo Museum)
Physics in 19th-century Florence. Functioning Machines and Models
curated by Mara Miniati and Simone Contardi

Science and Technology Foundation – Physics Cabinet
Educational Methods for Science in the 19th Century
curated by Paolo Brenni, Anna Giatti and Guido Gori


The Firenze Scienza Card


The Firenze Scienza Card is the ticket valid for all the various seats of the exhibitions and entitles you to special discounts and services from the moment you buy it till May 9th, 2010

Full-price Card € 10

Reduced-price Card € 7
Visitors over 65, groups of minimum 15 people, as well as ACI, Coop, Touring Club, CTS, Lions and Rotary members, holders of single or season ATAF tickets, holders of tickets for theatres of the Associazione Firenze dei Teatri, holders of Orchestra della Toscana tickets, clients and employees of Banca CR Firenze and Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo, soldiers, holders of admission tickets to one of the Florentine museums listed below

Special ticket for families
Two adults with children are entitled to the reduced-price Card

Special Card for Schools € 4.50
It is valid for 7 to 18 year olds.
Valid for students of schools of all levels and types, as well as for university students.
The special card for schools entitles the holders to free guided visits
and workshops!

Free of charge
Children under the age of 6, those escorting the disabled, group leaders, journalists with a press card, tourist guides of Florence, teachers with Edumusei Card, ICOM and ANMS members

Magritte,Max Ernst at Palazzo Strozzi

A new great exhibition that we already visited.It's at Palazzo Strozzi and is been named A LOOK INTO THE INVISIBLE and is on from 26th of February to 18th of July 2010.The foundation of Palazzo Strozzi is making such a good job that all in Florence should be glad to have this organization that is producing a change in Florence.Art is the base here.Florence is a stylish city that lost a lot in the past 50 years and must change.Not only looking the back to its glorious past, but mostly to the future.
"Few Italian artists had such an important impact on 20th century art as Giorgio de Chirico" said James M. Bradburne, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi,"As the century hurtled towards World War I, this experience
of alienation prompted De Chirico—long before his peers—to paint what he called the ‘great silence’.
This exhibition doesn't show only the painting of De Chirico, but also Balthus,Morandi,Ernst,Magritte,Carrà and Nathan.All great artists that made the history.
Only this exhibition should be a good reason to visit Florence during this Spring 2010.