What to do in Tuscany: Events in July-August 2011

Dear Friends,
Today I want to highlight some interesting shows and events taking place this summer in Tuscany, geared to both adults and children, especially for those who are just about to set off on their holidays in the coming weeks.

- The first event I´d like to mention is the classical music concerts taking place in Siena in the beautiful Accademia Chigiana in one of the most beautiful theatres of the Italian Renaissance. For the concert program see the following link: http://www.chigiana.it/

- Another popular event in Tuscany is the prestigious Festival de la Música de Radicondoli which begins on the 29th of July and continues until the 7th August. Here you will be able to enjoy pleasant evenings with music. Please visit the following site for more information: http://www.radicondoliarte.org/


- Another interesting festival is the Teatro Povero di Montichiello, where actors and musicians improvise to create a typically Tuscan scene. See the official website: http://www.teatropovero.it/

- I´d also like to recommend another interesting music festival, at San Galgano (see the above photo), an impressive roofless church situated in a spectacular enclave in Tuscany. Over the next weeks in this unique place various musical performances and operas will take place. A couple which particularly stand out are Carmina Burana and Swan Lake. For more information you can see the following webpage: http://www.festivalopera.it

- For something a bit different, from the 24th of July up until the 7th of August, in Siena, the jazz concerts are taking place. The Jazz school of Siena is one of the most important in the whole of Italy. For more information and the concert program visit the official website: http://www.sienajazz.it/


- Other notable musical events include: the Music festival of the Valdorcia (1st-16th August), the festival of the Crete Senesi from the 14th to the 22nd August and the Sarteano Jazz Festival from the 24th to the 26th August.

There are also events not exclusively devoted to music and particularly appropriate for children as well as adults.

- The Pontassieve: Summer in the Park festival overflowing with concerts, cinema, musical theatre, children’s events and dance takes place from 26th July until 13th September (Florence Province). See the following link: http://www.estatealparco.it/default.asp

- Finally, a 10 day festival of music, food, dance, markets, entertainment and shows to celebrate the Patron Saint of Borgo, San Lorenzo, will take place in the Borgo itself (Florence Province) from the 7th to the 15th August. Tel: 055 845 6230 / 84966229.

As always, I hope that this information is useful to those planning their upcoming holidays and that you enjoy any of the events you go to.

Emma.

One day excursion to Florence

As many of you who travel to Tuscany have only a few days to explore the area, I’d like to suggest an itinerary so you won’t miss the most important and outstanding places in a one day excursion to Florence.

Our first piece of advice is to reach the city by coach or train (there are many, and with high frequency from almost every town in Tuscany) so as not to waste any of your precious time as parking in Florence is not easy at all, I can assure you.

Arriving in the morning at the station you’ll find yourself practically in the city center.
The first stop could be the stunning Basilic of Santa Maria Novella. 10 to 15 minutes should be enough to get an overall view of the church. Then you could head directly to the Cathedral (or Duomo, as we call them in Italy) better known as Santa Maria in Fiore, which is only 5 minutes’ walk from the basilic.


The visit to the Cathedral obviously demands more time due to both its beauty and magnitude. Those who have the courage can go up Brunelleschi’s grandiose dome, from which, after a few minutes’ climb up a narrow stairway, you’ll be overwhelmed by one of the most beautiful and spectacular sights in Florence.( advice: not for claustrophobics)

Once the visit to the Duomo is over, you have two options: either to visit the Galleria degli Uffizi or the Galleria dell’Accademia. Going to both of them in one day could be really stressing, so I recommend choosing just one of them. The former is home to Michelangelo’s David, among other works, while the latter hosts the best Renaissance works of art in the world.

The next stop, I suggest should be lunch at Mario (for further information you can click the link), a very good and very cheap restaurant I never get tired of mentioning in this blog. This eating spot is not more than 15 minutes’ walk from any of the two sights you have just visited.

After eating and drinking a good Tuscan wine, it’s worth spending some time at the San Lorenzo Market (which is next to the restaurant), a typical city market, which is open every day and is a typical place in the city.

Following our itinerary, you should go back to the center, along Via Tornabuoni (with its extremely exclusive stores) as far as the river Arno. On the left, you’ll find the stunning Ponte Vecchio, where Jew Jewelers have been exhibiting their precious works for centuries.

Passing the Ponte Vecchio, and walking straight on for 200 meters is the famous Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace) with its wonderful Boboli Gardens. The visit to the gardens demands quite a lot of time and that will depend on you and the energy you’ve got left. As many of you will have just a few hours left to catch your train or bus back from the outing, my advice is you should go back on your steps towards the amazing Piazza della Signoria and keep on going heading for Santa Croce Church, right behind it. In my opinion, the church demands time to visit as it keeps the sepulchers of many illustrious protagonists in the history of Florence and the World such as: Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Maquiavelo, as well as unmatchable works of art by Giotto, Donatello and Cimabue.

After the visit you’ll have the exact time to get back to the bus or train… So you know… Dart to Santa Maria Novella. (20 minutes’ walk.)

Well, friends, I hope you’ll find all this information useful when planning your trip.

For more information about Florence I recommend this free guide I have found in the Internet, which you can find in the following link: Florence

Regards,

Giovanni.

Florence -- Haggling in the Synagogue

Florence Synagogue. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

I had an experience last week that threw into even sharper relief the contradictions of caricature and irony found in the insider vs outsider use of Jewish stereotypes.

I was in Florence for a very interesting and wide-ranging conference on representations of Jews in European popular culture, organized by young scholars at the European University Institute in nearby Fiesole.

Before the official start of the conference, a group of us visited Florence's synagogue and the Jewish museum housed in its women's gallery. The synagogue is a stately Moorish-style structure with an ornate interior and towering green dome. A grandiose symbol of Jewish emancipation, it was designed by the architects Marco Treves, Mariano Falcini and Vincenzo Micheli and inaugurated in 1882.

The Jewish museum is on two levels -- the lower level is mainly a display of Judaica. The upper level was revamped and reopened last year as a multi-media history exhibit using objects, panels, sound and projected images to tell the story of the Jewish community in Florence.

Florence Jewish Museum. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

After visiting the museum, I stopped in the gift shop (I love museum gift shops.) It's small, but has a lot on offer -- jewelry, ritual objects, stationery, etc. All seemed rather expensive, but, with Hanukkah gifts on my mind, I found a nice little pair of earrings for €15.

I wanted to get another piece, apparently made by the same designer. The saleswoman showed me a pendant -- for €20.

I didn't want to spend that much, I told her. Her response was immediate. "What would you like to pay? How much do you want to spend?"

Well, the earrings were only €15 -- I didn't want to spend more than that.

"OK -- €15 -- the pendant is yours!"

Damn, I thought. She gave me 1/4 off, just like that. I could have got it for less!

Then I thought about the last place I had come into contact with a reference to bargaining in a Jewish context -- the "At the Golden Rose" cafe in L'viv, where no prices were put on the menu so that patrons could haggle ("like Jews") as to what they would pay...

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As for the conference -- I will try to write something on it later. For now, you can see the program by clicking HERE.

THE LEGEND OF THE REVERSED BALCONY

Florence, like all the medieval towns have a lot of legends about curious and strange events that have occurred in the past times.
Florence, like all the historical towns, has many charming and unknown little corners.
Sometimes those little corners are the subject of the ancient legends, like in the case of the legend of The Reversed Balcony, that show the irriverent character of the Florentines and the Tuscany people in general.
In the centre of Florence in via Borgo Ognissanti number 12 there is a balcony, at the first floor, that was built with all the classical elements, the supporting corbels, the volutes and the balustrades ... that are assembled all counter wise.
The building with this balcony is dated to the 16th century, and seems to have been built in that curious way on a request of the stable's builder, for a revenge with the Duke Alessandro De' Medici. Seems, in fact, that the Duke at the moment of the project proposal, rejected the project cause of the prominents of the balcony, at the time there was a law that forbade the contruction of balconies all over the city. It is said that the builder presented the project more times with only few things modified between one time to another, leaving the balcony almost unchanged, and it is said that at least the Duke wrote on one of his responses: "yes on the contrary". The builder, it is said, applying the answer of the Duke, ordered to his architect to build the balcony upside down. Finally when the Duke saw the balcony, it is said, would liked to punish the constructor .... but as Florentine .... probably .... apprecciated and approved his presence of mind ....

Putting context back into travel, OR why contextualizing travel is cool

Now, you know I'm not a fan of guides (see this post) and my recent observation of a tour guide who stopped at each key sight at the Roman Forum to read passages from a guidebook to her bored tour group only reaffirmed many of my beliefs on guides and guided tours. Yet Context Travel is on an altogether different level. For starters, they prefer to call their guides 'docents', an American term for university professors or lecturers, reflecting the qualifications and expertise of their guides, many of whom are scholars who moved to Italy to complete doctorates on the subjects they're leading tours on. And they come from a wide variety of disciplines, including archaeologists, chefs, architects, artists, authors, and historians. While some of their walks involve stimulating strolls through Rome's long history, other offerings range from a literary discussion about Dante as you wander Florence's streets to an introduction to Roman cuisine while exploring lively local markets, along with lighter activities from drawing workshops at Castel Sant' Angelo to jogging tours through Rome's city streets. We did an inspiring and enlightening Italian language workshop in a buzzy local enoteca, an engaging walk through ancient Rome, a fun bar-hopping introduction to Italian wine, and an exclusive private shopping tour to visit some of Rome's best bespoke artisans. Context's owner Paul Bennett says: "Our walking seminars are, on some levels, love songs, paeans, and odes to a place that fascinates us day by day. Like Cupid with his arrows, Context events are designed to make you fall in love with Rome." We certainly came away from each and every engaging and eye-opening experience feeling like somehow had helped us gently scrape away a layer or two of the city so that we knew and loved it better than we had before. Don't you love it when that happens?

Mario in Florence

Lunch in Florence - Trattoria da Mario!

So I had gone round and round Florence visiting Uffizi (in line for 4 hours!!!) then strolled around the center to get in touch with the contemporary world again. It was a nice June day and small place filled with people sitting at their table and apparently enjoying each other in conversations like I had rarely seen in other Italian restaurants.

So I gave my name and was asked how many people. I said "one" and thought I would be told "sorry sir, you're gonna have to wait a long time!" Not at all! I was sitted right away ahead of a lot of people in groups. Puzzled, I was looking for my lone table set for one. To my surprise I was sitted at a table with total strangers (which I thought were friends) and given a brown paper placemat, a paper towel, , and I saw myself as the other people I saw at the other tables and understood that here everyone sits with anyone. Good idea, I've never seen anyone enjoy a homemade meal like this.
Yes because here Tuscan food is at its most original of all Tuscany. To compare you have to eat at an old Tuscan lady house.
The Fiorentina steak, oh so delicious, thick, tender, jucy, big, with a healthy bone, cut and cooked at the moment at your shoulders (you can check if you want, the kitchen is right there, enclosed only by glass walls. You can talk to the chef and negociate with him the dimensions and the weight. The rest of the food is just a s good. The menu changes everyday (as I returned here four days in a row before leaving Florence!) and you have the choice of three four dishes for each course and side dish. But be early! The best dishes go fast! And they delete them from the chalk black board.



After the lunch was over I greeted my acquaintances, and after exchanging emails, I paid the very inexpensive check (20 Euro without steak, 50 Euro with a two pound steak), and went on my way to discover Florence some more. Good choice!

Trattoria da Mario
Via Rosina 23r, Piazza del Mercato
Firenze