![]() ![]() His next endeavour is Gucci Garden 25, a cocktail bar and cafe with peacock-blue leather banquets in an adjacent florist, headed up by mixologist Martina Bonci who shakes up floral cocktails.Īddress: P.za della Signoria, 10, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy Website: Īt Manifattura, Fabiano Buffolino brings Made in Italy to his cocktail list, a witty – and very wordy – post-modern celebration of Italianness – from forgotten labels once emblems of sprezzatura to “miscugli ardimentosi” dedicated to the Italian greats from Gabriele d’Annunzio to Neapolitan singer Renato Carosone.Īddress: Piazza di S. Some credit must go to Gucci’s Alessandro Michele for rebooting Florentine cool when he inaugurated the Gucci Garden in Palazzo della Mercanzia in 2018, a collaboration with then-Italian number one chef Massimo Bottura. Meanwhile, things are hotting up with the gardens opening and virtual exhibitions online. Set to re-open in 2025, it will be a cult classic: the museum of Richard Ginori in Sesto Fiorentino, with 8,000 pieces of porcelain by the company founded in 1735, art directed mid-century by Gio’ Ponti and bought by Gucci’s Kering in 2013, set in the 1965 rationalist building designed by the architect of Santa Maria Novella station. Marini’s monolithic equestrian sculptures are shown in this under-the-radar ex-tobacco factory once a chapel designed by Leon Battista Alberti. One of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century. Henry Moore visited Florence in his youth, went on to sculpt the same marble as Michelangelo, showed in Florence in 1972 and donated works to the city – all the while cross-fertilising with Tuscan primitivist sculptor Marino Marini. Meanwhile, the iconic Odeon cinema in Palazzo Strozzino across the road is to become a new multifunctional cultural centre. Since then it has become a major Florentine institution showing the works of Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović and Jeff Koon as well as co-hosting the likes of the Donatello exhibition. With so much art it’s easy to forget Florence’s proximity to nature both in its glorious hilly surround and its superstar Renaissance gardens – manicured works of art, too grand to be classed as mere “green spaces.” Most magical are the gardens of the Bardini Villa above the city where one can walk through boughs of wisteria, and further on – the terraced Rose and Iris Gardens in the new UNESCO extension – before watching the sun set into the great bowl of Florence from romantic working monastery San Miniato al Monte.Ī dialogue between Renaissance and the contemporary art age housed in the palace of the Medici's nemesis, the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation upped its game when it hired Arturo Galansino formerly of London's Royal Academy in 2015. ![]() Most wondrous are the works at the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine church, where scaffolding forms viewing platforms from which to see Masolino and Masaccio’s restored frescoes masterpieces – often cited as the genesis of the Renaissance. The new €1.8 million re-haul of the Bargello Museum, which was kicked off by a major Donatello exhibition in 2022, is one of a number of recent renovation projects polishing up the city’s greatest hits. There's so much more to explore but where to begin? These are all the very best things to do in Florence. Italy's most enchanting city is going through a sparkly revival, with iconoclastic art, edgy architecture and quirky twists on regional food popping up everywhere. The city’s former granary and army barracks are now a co-working hub and Manifattura Tabacchi, a disused tobacco factory near Piazza Puccini undergoing a progressive €250 million transformation, is destined to be Florence’s new dynamic creative and fashion hub. Since architect Paolo Desideri’s €175-million conversion of the Teatro Comunale into a multifunctional music space and opera house, urban regeneration projects go from strength to strength. And a generation of artisans is breathing sustainability and diversity into Florence’s ancient arts and crafts. A new hotel landscape brings playful visions of the contemporary city an energetic dining scene embraces New York-style glamour and the multi-cultural – from Neapolitan pizza sensations to Tuscan-Chinese dim sum and vegan fare (notably Amza Zahouani’s Oltrarno ventures) – alongside its traditional trattoria dishes. Meanwhile, a refreshing breeze has swept across Florence’s airless traditions. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |