Liberation Day in Florence

April 25 is a legal holiday, marking the liberation of Italy from Nazi occupation and the end of the Fascist regime thanks to the combined efforts of the Allied armies and Italian Resistance partisan fighters.

The night before, on April 24, the Museo del Novecento 20th Century Art Museum is open beyond normal visiting hours, until 11 pm with FREE admission.

The morning of April 25, a wreath will be placed at the base of the Fallen Soldiers Monument (Piazza dell’Unità, 9:30 am), and a procession of military and political dignitaries will walk to Palazzo Vecchio where mayor Nardella and former British member of Parliament Dennis Warren will give speeches (Salone de’ Cinquecento, 10:30 am). A site-specific sculpture installation by Alfredo Garuti will be inaugurated in Piazza Santa Maria Novella at 1 pm. The G. Rossini Philharmonic Band will perform a concert in Piazza Signoria (5:30 pm, free admission).

Florence’s Iris Garden will open today for the brief three-week season of irises in bloom. Piazzale Michelangelo, 10 am – 12:30, 3 – 7 pm. Free admission.

The Pratolino Park will also re-open for the season on April 25. A monumental sculpture, the chief attraction in a park commissioned for a princess, is once again visible to the public after restoration. Finally free of scaffolding, the sixteenth century “Gigante dell’Appeninno” (The Giant of the Apennines) was created by Giambologna for the new home of Tuscany’s rulers, Francesco I de’ Medici and his second wife and longtime mistress, Bianca Cappello, at Pratolino.

Admission to the park is free of charge. Pratolino is open Friday 10 am – 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 7 pm. Additional trails have been opened, illumination and Wi-Fi have been added.