As the second lecture of a three-part lecture series held at CEA Study Center (third floor of Piazza della Repubblica, 6), Elisabetta Gnignera will present: Under the Veils of the Mona Lisa: Undressing a Portrait and an Allegory, the joint findings of her and Pascal Cotte tonight, Oct. 2 at 6 pm. Cotte, in 2012, discovered after 10 years of research, a second Mona Lisa hidden under the surface of Mona Lisa. [...]
This weekend, Andrea Tacchi, longtime principal violin for the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT), will be honored and remembered at a special day long tribute entitled “Caro Andrea.” The late virtuoso with the silver curls helped found the orchestra in 1980 and was a passionate cultivator of chamber music, initiating many prestigious ensembles over the years until his death in 2016. Friends, colleagues, family members and many great names of classical music will gather [...]
The hidden, hilltop beauty of basilica di San Miniato can be experienced during this week’s musical celebrations of the church and monastery’s 1,000th birthday. On Thursday, Sept. 27 and Friday, Sept. 28 at 9 pm free of entrance, the Orchestra della Toscana will be concluding their summer season with free performances: the world premier of Tigran Mansurian’s Seven Prayers. The works of a contemporary Armenian composer were selected in view of the fact that San [...]
Florida State University International Program and the Golden View Open Bar (Via de’ Bardi 58/r) will join forces to raise money for Florence’s Meyer Pediatric Hospital with an evening of aperitivo (a cocktail and finger food) on Monday, September 24 at 7:30 pm. Since the International Program of FSU was launched in Florence in 1966, the college has taken pride in its active and supportive presence in the Tuscan region. Every six months, [...]
The second edition of FIRENZE LIBRO APERTO, a festival that will host over 500 publishing houses in the Fortezza da Basso from September 28 – 30, invites students on their semester or year abroad in Florence to join in a writing contest on the theme of bridging cultures. Three prizes will be awarded in the literary competition and entries need to be submitted no later than Sept. 20 to the following address: literarycontest@firenzelibroaperto2018.it. HOW TO [...]
On Sunday, September 2, no admission will be charged at Florence’s state-run museums, while city-run museums are accessible at no cost to residents of the greater metropolitan area. So, take the opportunity to visit, for free: the Accademia, the Uffizi Gallery and the Archeological Museum; the Palatine Gallery, the Porcelain Museum, the Costume Gallery and the Silver Museum in the Pitti Palace; the Boboli Gardens; the Bargello (National Sculpture Museum), the Archeological Museum; [...]
Friday the 13th is something to celebrate with this year’s Bastille Day festivities in Piazza Ognissanti. Offering free admission, the French holiday moves to Italy with an evening of dancing, dining, and drinking, commemorating 229 years of French democracy. Bastille Day honors July 14th, 1789: a day demarcating the end of absolute monarchy during the French Revolution. On this day, Parisians stormed the Bastille military fortress in a showdown against the traditional regime. [...]
All month: FLORENCE YOUTH ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL. Free admission Youth orchestras from across the world will come to Florence and Tuscany, with countries such as the USA, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and the Netherlands represented. The festival, which organizes 50 to 70 concerts every July, was founded in Florence in 1999 with the intention of fostering the international musical community in Tuscany. The main venue is Loggia dei Lanzi, located in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, but [...]
A free concert will be hosted under Brunelleschi’s Dome on Thursday, July 5 at 9:15 pm, featuring the Tuscan premiere of the well-regarded St. Ephraim Men’s Choir. The performance will bring eastern sounds to a western venue in a pan-religious and pan-cultural program that demonstrates the versatility choral music across time and genre. Hailing from Budapest, the group spotlights a distinctly Eastern European religious repertoire, ranging from ancient to modern. Voices from various [...]
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert Kennedy Students of Florida State University and Texas A&M will be making [...]