Italy's favourite son, finally moving out - The Florentine

Anno 2 numero 39 - Firenze Thursday 7 September 2006 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fires box in 

city quarters 

Venice goes 

Holliwood 

UP CLOSE & 

PERSONAL 

with 

Alessandro Frigiola 

Hills and 

heavens of 

Mugello 

by Laura Robertson 

see pg. 4 see pg. 6 

see pg. 14 see pg. 16 

Italy’s favourite son, 

finally moving out 

Da Vinci painting leaves 

home despite protests 

Leonardo da Vinci just can’t 

seem to stay out of the news 

these days. The latest controversy 

surrounding the Renaissance 

genius concerns borrowing and 

loaning. Should Leonardo be loaned 

abroad? Should priceless works of 

art be forced to abandon their native 

cities, and be packed up and shipped 

off to the four corners of the globe? 

This is the question on the minds of 

Florentine art lovers, experts and 

novices alike, as they weigh the 

pros and cons of world-wide art 

exchange. 

Culture Minister Rutelli has taken 

a stand to quiet reports that Florence’s 

Uffizi Gallery allegedly nixed 

plans to loan one of Leonardo’s 

masterpieces, The Annunciation, to 

a major Italian cultural showcase in 

Japan. On a recent visit to the Cortina 

event Cortina In-con-tra, Rutelli 

tried to still a debate originally set 

off by art expert Vittorio Sgarbi after 

the Academia di Brera refused to 

loan Mantegna’s Dead Christ to an 

exhibit in Mantova. Even Florentine 

mayor Leonardo Domenici entered 

into the controversy. In a recent 

meeting with the Minister of Culture, 

Domenici admitted that loaning 

The Annunciation was in fact ‘a 

sacrifice.’ 

The Annunciation, an early Leonardo 

painting, is one of the top 

attractions at Florence’s Uffizi gallery, 

which boasts the world’s most 

complete collection of works from 

the Florentine Renaissance. An 

early masterpiece, The Annunciation 

was probably painted in 1472- 

75, when Leonardo was barely out 

of his teens. Despite this, experts 

say the work has an impact similar 

to mature masterpieces, such as 

the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. 

It will be the first Leonardo work 

loaned abroad. 

‘There are works that, per se, 

exclude themselves from loans,’ Uffizi 

Director Antonio Natali reportedly 

argued after press reports that the 

painting would be the centrepiece of 

‘Primavera Italiana 2007,’ the exhibit 

scheduled for next year in Tokyo. 

‘I’m talking about paintings like The 

Annunciation, Michelangelo’s Holy 

Family, or the great Botticelli works 

that form the nucleus of the Uffizi.’ 

The Culture Minister apparently 

disagrees: ‘The Japanese government 

has asked to borrow Leonardo’s painting 

for display at the largest exhibit 

Japan has ever seen. It is a sacrifice 

that we need to make.’ Rutelli underlined 

the importance of this loan for 

Italy’s image, and what it could mean 

for Italian brands and tourism. ‘The 

decision has already been made,’ 

Rutelli told the press, ‘and an understanding 

has been reached between 

myself and the Superintendent of the 

Polo Museale Fiorentino, Antonio 

Paolucci.’ 

see pg. 3 

FLORENTINES TURN 

UP THEIR NOSES 

Fragrance fair features long 

tradition of perfumerie 

While thousands flock to Florence 

every summer to see its 

sights, this September Florence’s 

smells will draw both locals and 

visitors, specifically to the gardens 

of Palazzo Corsini sul Prato, where 

the fourth edition of Fragranze, a 

unique trade fair dedicated to the 

best in artistic perfumery, will take 

place. Organized by Pitti Immagine, 

this prestigious fair was once 

available only to those with ‘expert 

noses.’ In other words, those with 

a stock in the perfume business. 

This year, however, after a first day 

reserved for members of the trade 

and the press, the fair will open its 

doors to the public, to fragrance 

enthusiasts or the merely curious, 

to browse and purchase as they 

wish. 

see pg. 3 

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2 

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News 


finally moving out 

continued from pg. 1 

Leonardo da Vinci just can’t seem to stay out of the news these days. 

The latest controversy surrounding the Renaissance genius concerns 

borrowing and loaning. Should Leonardo be loaned abroad? Should 

priceless works of art be forced to abandon their native cities, and be packed 

up and shipped off to the four corners of the globe? This is the question on 

the minds of Florentine art lovers, experts and novices alike, as they weigh 

the pros and cons of world-wide art exchange. 

Culture Minister Rutelli has taken a stand to quiet reports that Florence’s 

Uffizi Gallery allegedly nixed plans to loan one of Leonardo’s masterpieces, 

The Annunciation, to a major Italian cultural showcase in Japan. On a 

recent visit to the Cortina event Cortina In-con-tra, Rutelli tried to still a 

debate originally set off by art expert Vittorio Sgarbi after the Academia di 

Brera refused to loan Mantegna’s Dead Christ to an exhibit in Mantova. 

Some 100 brands will be present at the Fragranze exhibition, which features 

products of outstanding artisan quality. Perfume lovers should watch 

for producers such as Erno Laszlo, Fragonard, Laura Tonatto, L’Artisan 

Parfumeur, and Lorenzo Villoresi, creator of the Academia dell’Arte del 

Profumo. On Saturday and Sunday, interactive booths devoted to a wide 

variety of fragrance-related sectors, including spas and wellness centres, 

will be set up inside the Corsini gardens, allowing visitors to participate in 

activities and experience the world of fragrance. The style-conscious can 

also take advantage of an interactive booth showcasing the Italian barbering 

tradition. 

Additionally, Sept. 15 will see the long-awaited offi cial opening of the 

Museo della Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella. The Santa Maria Novella 

fragrance-pharmaceutical ‘factory,’ offi cially founded in 1612, is the oldest 

such fi rm in the world. Its fragrances have captured the imagination of stars 

such as Roberto Benigni, Catherine Zeta Jones and royal ladies like Queen 

Elizabeth II and Sarah Ferguson. 

Florence is the perfect home for Fragranze. Here, in this historical homeland 

of modern perfumery, Florentines have long valued the aromatics tradition. 

It’s a tradition refl ected in the city’s numerous monumental and botanical 

gardens—the Giardino dei Semplici, the Orto Botanico, the Giardino 

dell’Orticoltura, Parco Bardini, and the park surrounding Villa Peyron—as 

well as its museum collections. The Museo della Scienza, for instance, 

exhibits a series of unique perfume-related instruments. These ancient 

accessories, vials and fl acons bear witness to the traditional techniques 

developed and used for centuries by artisans in Florentine workshops and 

laboratories. 

History buffs will recall how Catherine de’ Medici brought the art of 

perfumerie to France during her reign. The Medici sovereign exported this 

art, typical of the Italian court in those years, and travelled with professional 

chemists and aroma-experts, such as the fi rst modern profumiere Renato 

Bianco, known as ‘Renè le Florentin.’ 

And even today, the Tuscan region still grows many of Italy’s most coveted 

medicinal and cooking herbs. 

Caffeteria 

Pasticceria 

Recognized in many travel guides 

as one of Florence’s finest cafe’s. 

Robiglio offers daily lunch and 

dinner menus, as well as serving 

a‘true’ American breakfast! 

Steps away from the duomo, 

at Robiglio, you will find elegant 

pastries, candies, and beautiful 

gifts to take away. 

continued from pg. 1 

FLORENTINES TURN UP THEIR NOSES 

Cafe & Pastry Shop 

Via Tosinghi 11/R 

Daily 8:00 to 20:00 

Ristorante 

Gelateria 

Restaurant 

Via de Medici 

Daily 12:00/15:00 19:30/23:00 

Typical Tuscan Menu, 

specializing in Vegetarian dishes. 

3 


Florence NEWS 

Table of CONTENTS 

1 

4 

5 

6 

7 

9 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

FLORENCE NEWS 


fi nally moving out 

Florentines turn up 

their noses 

City wants to attack violence 

Mafi a’s loss r 

edeemed by youth 

Savings on aisle 5 

Friendlier Tuscan skies 

Flood of fakes can’t 

be damned 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Venice goes Hollywood 

Troops backed 

By both sides 

For name’s sake 

SPORT NEWS 

A slow start for Italy? 

Spain grabs the gold 

TOP PICKS & 

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 

Events Highlights 

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL 

An interview with 

Alessandro Frigiola 

CULTURE & CUSTOMS 

ITALIAN VOICES: 

A Window on Language 

and Customs in Italy 

THE ARTS 

Hills and heavens of Mugello 

HOW TO DO... 

Sinking your feet into 

Italian soil 

TRAVEL & LEISURE 

SLOW TRAVEL along the 

highways and byways of Italy 

Stop, Lock and Roll 

STYLE & FASHION 

A blast from the past 

FOOD & WINE 

Where wine is pleasure 

BOOK REVIEW 

Travels with Intent 

What was Florence 

like in 1764? 

USEFUL NUMBERS 

CLASSIFIED ADS

4 

Thursday 7 September 2006 News 

Florence NEWS 


News in BRIEF 

Florentine architects create 

energy with every turn 

A skyscraper that’s 59 fl oors 

and 250 meters high is an architectural 

feat in and of itself. But 

more can be said about the project 

recently designed and presented 

by Florentine architects 

at the Fortezza da Basso’s X 

World Congress of Renewable 

Energy, organized by the University 

of Florence. According to its 

ecologically magnifi cent building 

plan, each fl oor of the ‘Florentine’ 

sky-scraper will continually 

rotate slowly—as to not disturb its 

inhabitants—and use the strength 

of the wind to produce electrical 

energy. The tower will be built in 

Dubai over the next 30 months, 

and will produce, thanks to its 

built-in ‘wind-mill’ style building 

structure, up to 190 million kilowatts 

(7 million euro’s worth) of 

energy annually. 

The grass is always greener 

The turf at Fiorentina’s Artemio 

Franchi stadium has been 

painted green to look good in 

time for the team’s game to take 

place in October. Stadium staff 

coated the ground with a green 

varnish to combat the effects of 

a disease that has ravaged the 

turf over the summer. 

Seniors with sticks 

and stones 

A 92-year-old man was handcuffed 

and arrested by police 

after attacking an 80-year-old 

female neighbour and her daughter. 

The two women were taken 

to the hospital after their elderly 

neighbour assaulted them with 

a fl ick knife and a stick. The 

trio had argued after a blackout 

on their apartment block in 

Pontassieve, a town infamous 

for its vicious verbal arguments 

between neighbours. 

Driver’s Mis-ed 

New survey showcases the 

behind-the-wheel know-how of 

1,100 Italian drivers. According 

to a questionnaire sponsored by 

Directline Insurance, numerous 

Florentines confessed confusion 

about basic rules of the road. 

More than 50 percent admitted 

ignorance about speed laws and 

point-based driving licenses. 

Only 70 percent of those surveyed 

knew how many points 

they were initially assigned—even 

fewer knew how many they held 

at the moment. Florentines worry 

about their licence status less 

than the other 8 Italian provinces 

interviewed, in which 82 percent 

of the drivers keep licenses in 

constant check. 

City wants to attack violence 

Woman’s safety emerges as critical concern 

Graziano Cioni 

Episodes of violence against 

woman throughout Italy have 

multiplied considerably during 

the summer months. From north 

to south, Bergamo to Agrigento, 

reported rape cases have risen in 

the past few weeks, and Florence 

has proved no exception. The recent 

rape of an American university student 

in the centre of Florence—the 

second rape case reported in a twoweek 

period—has prompted both citizens 

and city officials to finally start 

asking serious questions regarding 

the safety of women along the banks 

of the Arno. 

In a recent interview, Florentine 

Safety Councillor Graziano Cioni 

affirmed, ‘Even if there are already 

100 surveillance cameras operating 

within the city, women continue to 

be unsafe. We need to act urgently. I 

have requested a new plan to guarantee 

better lighting in the city’s 

streets.’ Politicians from both sides of 

the political spectrum have started to 

draw up much-needed public safety 

proposals, which include tax-breaks 

Fires box in 

city quarter 

Investigators search 

for arson’s pattern 

for shops that keep their windows 

lit after hours and for businesses 

that postpone closing time to 11pm. 

Many city representatives argue in 

favour of a stronger circuit of surveillance 

cameras that communicate 

directly with police stations and the 

installation of an electronic alarm 

system at traffic lights. Other ideas 

include facilitating night-time transport 

for women by making ATAF 

buses available for on-call service. 

Taxi drivers operating in Florence 

are already obliged to provide a discount 

to women travelling alone at 

night, although said discounts are 

not always applied. 

According to recent official data 

supplied by the Italian statistics 

agency Istat and the association Telefono 

Rosa, rape ranks high in the topten 

of Italian crimes. Reported cases 

tripled in 2005, and this trend shows 

signs of continuing in 2006. Over 

the past 12 months, more than 2,500 

cases of sexual assault were reported 

in Italy. Even more worrisome is that 

three out of four rape cases occur 

within the domestic sphere. Ninetyone 

percent of victims do not report 

rape to the police. Only 18 percent of 

rape cases reported nation-wide happen 

with a stranger, while 27 percent 

happen on the street. 

Associazione Artemisia – Centro 

donne contro la violenza, is a local 

volunteer association providing services 

to women and children who 

have been victims of sexual violence 

and physical or psychological mistreatment. 

Located in Via Mezzetta 1/int., 

Associazione Artemisia has Englishspeaking 

volunteers and is open Monday-Friday 

from 10 am to 6 pm. For 

more information call 055 602311. 

For over a month now, sudden flames have ravaged Florentine 

summer nights. During August, no less than four abandoned 

buildings fell prey to intentionally-set fires. The first occurred 

Aug. 6, destroying an old railway deposit located on the edge of the 

Campo di Marte train station. The end of the month, saw the destruction 

of several rooms of Lungarno Colombo’s ex-villa, Kasar. Converted 

into a discothèque for the Florentine ‘in-crowd’ of the 1990’s, 

the abandoned building had become home to many of the city’s homeless 

immigrant community. In both cases, no one was hurt. In late 

August, another fire-related emergency destroyed the asphalt corridor 

that splits the characteristic antiques market Mercato dei Ciompi 

in half, causing controversy among merchants, locals and politicians 

regarding the safety of public structures. The last episode took place at 

the ASL office in Via del Salviatino, damaging an abandoned building 

that had become a homeless shelter. These four sites form an almost 

perfect square when seen on a city map; three out of four occurred in 

Florence’s Quartiere 2 neighbourhood. Police and official investigators 

discard the possibility that these episodes are unrelated. 

MAFIA’S LOSS 

REDEEMED 

BY YOUTH 

Confi scated land 

hosts activism 

an old view of Canicattì 

U 

nder the banner Liberaci 

dale spine, or ‘Free us from 

thorns,’ more than eighty Tuscan 

volunteers between the ages of 

18 and 30 left for Sicily between 

Aug. 21 and Sept. 3 to complete 

their second week of agricultural 

work on ex-Mafi a lands near Canicatti, 

Nomreale and Corteleone, all 

recently confi scated by the Italian 

government. 

The project, organized by various 

volunteer organizations and 

government offi ces in Florence, 

Palermo and Agrigento, had volunteers 

working to uproot old vineyards 

and prepare soil for re-planting. 

They also gathered tomatoes 

for the production of tomato paste 

and started reaping in the harvest 

of wheat. But in addition to a bit 

of healthy manual labour, these 

volunteers also had the chance to 

participate in various seminars and 

workshops on topics ranging from 

‘Anti-mafi a Initiatives’ to ‘Crime and 

Legality.’ They were introduced to 

several famous anti-Mafi a spokespeople, 

including Rita Boresellino, 

widow of magistrate Paolo Borsellino, 

who was assassinated by the 

Mafi a in the early 1990’s. Visits to 

various localities marked by Mafi a 

violence such as the house in 

which young Di Matteo was murdered 

in San Giuseppe Jato, were 

part of the project. 

Several local political fi gures, 

including Province President Matteo 

Renzi, Pontassieve’s mayor 

Marco Mairaghi, Calenzano’s 

mayor Beppe Carovani and 

Certaldo’s mayor Andrea Campionti, 

visited the six southern Italian 

work-camps. ‘We are convinced,’ 

said Province President Renzi, 

‘that the presence of these young 

people on confi scated lands and 

their efforts to offer their labour as 

a permanent social stance against 

the Mafi a will become a cultural 

investment for their communities. 

They will be powerful examples of 

social commitment.’


News 

5 


Florence NEWS 

Savings on aisle 5 

Florence on top when it comes to low prices 

Supermarket queues are set 

to grow even longer with 

the news that Florence is 

the cheapest city in Italy for shopping. 

Florentine families save more 

than 1,200 euro on food, personal 

hygiene and household products 

compared with the rest of the country, 

a new survey has found. Consumers 

in Reggio Calabria, Messina 

and Catania could pay between 25 

and 30 percent more in supermarkets 

and discount stores. 

Shop owners have declared war on fake Fendis 

and rip-off RayBans, as police battle to contain 

a 40-percent boom in the black market. In the 

first four months of this year alone, police seized 

more than 50,000 counterfeit goods from the city’s 

street corners and market stalls, an increase of 39.73 

percent. In 2005, the total number of confiscations of 

fake handbags, sunglasses, clothes and jewellery was 

126,000, a figure that has more than doubled in the 

past seven years. 

Across the region, there has been an ‘unstoppable’ 

surge in the sale of fake goods, said Antonio Catanese, 

president of Confartigianato Imprese Firenze, 

a business interest group. In 2004, police seized more 

than 3.6 million items in the region compared with 

640,000 in 2003 and 478,000 in 2002. Counterfeits 

$$$ 

Altroconsumo, an independent 

consumer group, found that shoppers 

could spend 1,000 euro less 

per year at the supermarket by buying 

cheaper products in big cities 

such as Florence, Bologna, Milan, 

Palma, Pisa, Rome and Verona, 

where there is greater competition 

between businesses for consumers. 

For items such as a 500-gram 

packet of Lavazza coffee, for example, 

shoppers in smaller cities could 

pay up to 34 percent more than at 

Esselunga or Coop supermarkets in 

Florence. 

Altroconsumo surveyed the 

cost of food, personal hygiene and 

household products in 559 supermarkets, 

95 hypermarkets and 

77 discount stores across 39 cities. 

An average Florentine family 

spent less than 5,000 euro a year 

on cheap brand products compared 

with more than 6,500 euro in Reggio 

Calabria, Messina and Catania. 

Pisa was the second cheapest city 

in Italy for shopping. Altroconsumo 

will publish the findings in its 18 th 

annual ‘convenience map.’ 

The pamper scam 

Immigrants falsify 

citizenship to obtain subsidy 

New-born babies charged with 

fraud? No, only their parents. 

The Province of Florence’s judicial 

authorities recently charged 266 

immigrants with ‘ideological falsity.’ 

The crime? Having illegally 

applied for and received the Italian 

state’s Bonus Bebè, the grant 

offered by the Italian government 

to babies born in 2006. Only couples 

with an annual income of 

less than 50,000 euro per family 

unit are allowed the benefit. Further, 

according to national fiscal 

regulations, only Italian citizens 

or resident EU citizens are considered 

eligible for the 1,000 euro 

of ‘nappy’ money. In order to beat 

the system, the 266 immigrants in 

question, primarily Moroccans, 

Chinese and Albanians, presented 

fraudulent self-declarations of citizenship 

to their neighbourhood 

post office. The military police of 

the Florentine Provincial Offices 

are currently handling the case. 

As of yet, no diapers have been 

repossessed. 

Flood of fakes can’t be damned 

Zero tolerance towards booming black market 

hurt local businesses and cost the economy 1.5 billion 

in lost taxes, Catanese told the Agenzia Giornalistica 

Italia. 

Confartigianato, in cooperation with Florentine 

shop owners, craftsmen, businessmen and consumers, 

has launched a ‘zero tolerance’ campaign to contain 

the booming black market. But businesses need 

greater powers to combat the problem, Catanese said. 

He said that large notices warning tourists against 

counterfeits, such as those posted in the San Lorenzo 

market, were not containing the problem. ‘The crisis 

is difficult to face with only flyers and posters written 

in many languages alerting tourists on the illegality 

of buying faked products, especially if sanctions continue 

to be paid not by the sellers, but only by the 

buyers,’ he said. 

FRIENDLIER 

TUSCAN SKIES 

Ryanair increases fl ights to Pisa 

Ryanair, the number one lowcost 

airline in Europe, is 

strengthening its presence in 

Tuscany, a region quickly becoming 

one of the most readily served 

areas in the European fl ight circuit. 

The Agenzia per il Turismo 

of Florence and Ryanair have 

recently become bed-fellows for 

tourist promotion in Florence, 

with the common goal of launching 

six new Ryanair destinations 

serving the Pisa/Florence Airport. 

(Ryanair currently promotes Pisa 

as the connection, Florence as 

the destination.) 

Starting Sept. 14, new routes 

from Tuscany to Oslo, Doncaster 

(UK), Valencia, Trapani, Friedrichshafen, 

and Karlsruhe-Baden will 

be added to the company’s 11 

pre-existing destinations: Alghero, 

Hamburg, Bournemouth, Brussels, 

Dublin, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, 

Barcelona, Glasgow, Liverpool, 

and London-Stansted. 

Considered great news for 

regional tourism, the new destinations 

are expected to increase the 

arrival of an additional 410,000 

visitors yearly. ‘Tuscany has always 

been a very important destination 

for Ryanair,’ says Alessia Viviani, 

the company’s marketing manager 

for Italy. In October 2005, 

Pisa/Florence became Ryanair’s 

14 th destination. Since then 4.5 

million travellers have passed 

through the Pisa/Florence gates. 

WHO IS THE 

ANIMAL HERE? 

Cruelty to pets causes concern 

deadly trend for this nation’s animals 

has not abated. Within the 

A 

last year the Florentine branch of Animal 

Protection Services has recorded 

ever-increasing levels of pet mistreatment 

in the city and throughout the 

province. Recently published data 

denounces a new alarming trend: pet 

poisonings. Since last July, Florentine 

animal protection has recorded no 

less than 1,800 cases of animals poisoned 

by pesticides, rat poison and 

strychnine. The victims are primarily 

cats and dogs. 

Italy is no stranger to animal cruelty. 

The infamous practice of summertime 

pet abandonment has increased 10 

percent since just last year. Of the 

59.5 million pets throughout Italy, 

huge numbers of them are abandoned— 

literally thrown away—each 

summer when their owners fi nd them 

a hindrance to their vacation plans. 

According to reports from animal protection 

services in Trentino, Puglia and 

Sardegna, Florentines are succumbing 

to the new trend of abandoning 

their animals near holiday resorts. 

There’s even more shocking data 

regarding ‘domestic abandonment.’ In 

90 percent of the reported violations, 

holiday-bound pet owners chose to 

abandon Fido on the terrace, or lock 

him up in the cellar. If you believe an 

animal to be abandoned or mistreated, 

the advice from Lega Pro Animale, a 

local charity working for animal welfare, 

is to get in contact with the local 

veterinary services (ASL – Azienda 

Sanitaria Locale) or any other authority 

– call the polizia, carabinieri or 

vigili urbani. Local animal protection 

organisations work together with the 

public veterinary services, who must 

provide free spaying and neutering 

for stray animals. For more information 

on the subject, please visit the 

web sites: 

www.fondazionemondoanimale. 

com or www.geocities.com/fondazionemondoanimale.

6 

Thursday 7 September 2006 News 


National NEWS 

News in BRIEF 

Left extends a humane 

hand to Immigration 

The broad outline of new immigration 

legislation has emerged, designed to 

reform laws introduced by the previous 

centre-right government. The 

measures approved by Silvio Berlusconi’s 

administration in 2002 in a 

bid to crack down on illegal immigration 

have proved highly controversial, 

drawing criticism from unions, immigrant 

rights groups and the Catholic 

Church. Even the centre left says the 

tough legal limits put on numbers have 

simply not worked. The United Nations 

Refugee Agency and Amnesty International 

has also expressed reservations 

over provisions for refugees and 

asylum-seekers. 

According to Minister of the Interior 

Giuliano Amato, Prodi’s administration 

is currently considering new 

immigration legislation that would 

provide two main channels through 

which workers from outside the EU 

could enter Italy. The fi rst would 

be reserved for qualifi ed personnel 

from abroad, such as doctors or 

engineers, who could be requested 

specifi cally by Italian fi rms or institutions. 

The second channel would 

involve people who want to come to 

Italy to work as domestic or manual 

labourers. These people would apply 

to Italian diplomatic missions abroad 

and receive minimum training before 

being able to enter Italy and look for 

work. This idea contrasts with the key 

provision of existing laws that insist 

on an applicant having a job contract 

before a residency permit is issued. 

Can nuke power tread softly? 

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo 

D’Alema stated recently that Iran’s 

desire to develop nuclear energy is 

‘legitimate,’ provided the goal of the 

program is for ‘peaceful purposes.’ 

‘We must work so that Iran does not 

build a nuclear weapon,’ he said. The 

comments by Italy’s top diplomat 

came one day before a deadline set 

by the UN Security Council for Iran to 

halt its uranium enrichment work. If it 

does not meet this deadline, Iran will 

face possible sanctions. The group 

of six major powers negotiating the 

Iranian nuclear standoff – the United 

States, France, Britain, Russia, China 

and Germany – have made the suspension 

of uranium enrichment work 

a pre-condition for opening talks on 

expanding cooperation with Iran. 

When in Rome 

The once majestic mausoleum of 

Roman Emperor Augustus is to be 

spruced up and opened to the public 

in a bid to add a new ‘must-see’ to 

the Eternal City’s tourist itinerary. The 

burial site, one of the most sacred 

monuments in ancient Rome, is the 

biggest circular mausoleum known to 

exist. Rome council offi cials say that 

the area surrounding the mausoleum 

must be revamped as well, with an 

underpass removing car traffi c so that 

visitors can walk through gardens to 

a balcony overlooking the Tiber river. 

An international competition for plans 

to renovate the monument and its 

surroundings is already under way. 

The winner, who will oversee the 

20-million-euro project, is due to be 

announced in November. 

Venice goes Hollywood 

Film festival now has to outshine Roman stars 

The world’s oldest 

cinema festival 

is well underway 

in Venice. This 

year it has dropped 

its traditional ‘artsy’ 

cloak and brought 

Hollywood hot-shots 

into the main competition, 

rather than 

relegating them to 

other sections or midnight 

showings. Films 

include Brian De Palma’s 

Black Dahlia, 

from the acclaimed 

James Ellroy novel. It kicked off the 

festival with a gala opening Wednesday 

night graced by jury chief, Catherine 

Deneuve and Dahlia star 

Scarlet Johanssen, among others. 

Murder, mystery, Hollywoodland, 

about the suicide of 1950s Superman 

star George Reeves (played by 

Ben Affleck), will vie with Dahlia 

for the Golden Lion award. 

For the first time, all 21 of the 

Lion-bidders are world premieres. 

Gianni Amelio’s La Stella Che Non 

C’è and Emanuele Crialese’s Nuovomondo 

(‘The Golden Door’) are two 

Italian films up against heavy hitters 

like Oliver Stone’s World Trade 

Center, Alain Resnais’s long-awaited 

return, Private Fears in Public 

Places, Alfonso Cuaron’s Children 

of Men and Stephen Frears’s The 

Queen. Venice has long seen itself 

as a laidback alternative to highstrung 

Cannes, pundits say, but it 

has upped its game recently with 

Rome’s fall festival breathing down 

its neck. ‘We had 23 

Oscar nominees last 

year and we expect 

to have many more 

this time around,’ said 

Venice festival director 

Marco Mueller as 

the curtain quivered 

over 60 treats like 

David Lynch’s Inland 

Empire, Manoel de 

Oliveira’s Belle Toujours 

- an updating 

of the Bunuel classic 

Belle de Jour - and 

Spike Lee’s When The 

Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four 

Acts. 

Buffs are also slavering over Kenneth 

Branagh’s The Magic Flute, 

Ethan Hawke’s The Hottest Stage 

and Douglas McGrath’s star-studded 

Truman Capote biopic Infamous 

(starring Sigourney Weaver, 

Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, 

Daniel Craig, Sandra Bullock 

and Peter Bogdanovich . 

Mueller viewed more than 1,400 

films in all - 300 more than last 

year - before settling on 60 picks 

from 27 countries, including Thailand 

and Chad, in competition for 

the first time. Film industry experts 

think the Venice festival, which runs 

from August 30 to September 10, 

has turned up the wattage in a bid 

to outshine the first edition of the 

Rome event, which will feature 80 

films - its focus on the paying public 

- and three premieres. (ANSA) 

For name’s sake 

New battles for feminist law-makers 

Women parliamentarians have recently presented 13 different 

bills—ten to the House and three to the Senate—to change a law 

that blocks children from taking their mother’s name unless the father 

is unknown. Parliament is slated to discuss the issue when it opens 

after the summer recess. The bills feature a wide range of possible 

ways of breaking with hundreds of years of tradition. Some propose 

that parents choose which family name to give their child at birth, as 

in Britain. Others suggest a dual-surname system be adopted, with 

children taking one surname from both parents, as in Spain. 

Female lawmakers are confident that enough bipartisan support 

can be garnered to overcome conservative opposition, which has 

blocked change in the past, especially since the April elections won 

by the centre left saw the number of women in parliament increase 

sharply. Italy’s parliament now contains a record 148 female senators 

and deputies, up from 95 in the last legislature. 

Italy’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Court have both criticized 

the current system and called on parliament for reform. In February, 

the Constitutional Court described it as a ‘dated legacy of a 

patriarchal concept of the family that is no longer consistent with the 

constitutional principle of equality between men and women.’ It also 

pointed out that the current legislation goes against several international 

conventions and recommendations by the European Council. 

The Constitutional Court made its call for reform after deciding that 

the law left a no scope to overrule Milan city council’s refusal to allow 

a couple to give their daughter her mother’s surname. 

TROOPS BACKED 

BY BOTH SIDES 

Italians lead UN 

mission in Lebanon 

Romano Prodi 

An advance contingent of 

some 1,000 Italian soldiers 

has left for Lebanon to take part 

in a United Nations peacekeeping 

mission which the government 

said will be among the 

most diffi cult since the end of 

the Second World War. The 

fl agship of the Italian fl eet and 

four other Navy ships arrived in 

Lebanon last week after a farewell 

ceremony off the southern 

port of Brindisi also attended by 

Premier Romano Prodi. ‘This mission 

has helped create a moment 

of profound unity in the country,’ 

said the premier, stressing that 

‘all political parties, without distinction, 

the majority as well as 

the opposition’ supported Italian 

participation in the multinational 

force. 

The Italian contingent has 

been deployed to cover an area 

measuring 15 by 20 kilometres 

between the Litani river on the 

north and the western coasts. 

The peacekeeping force will enter 

southern Lebanon under UN 

Resolution 1701, which requires 

the militant group Hezbollah and 

Israel to end their military operations 

and obliges Israel to withdraw 

its troops as soon as the 

UN troops arrive. UN Secretary- 

General Kofi Annan recently told 

a meeting of European Union foreign 

ministers, called to decide 

on European participation, that 

France will lead the multinational 

force until February 2007, after 

which command will pass to Italy. 

Italy has offered to deploy up to 

3,000 soldiers, while France has 

promised to bring the number of 

its troops up to 2,000. The Italian 

government has earmarked 186.8 

million euros for the mission until 

the end of the year, with 30 million 

euros allotted to humanitarian aid 

and reconstruction efforts.


Sports 

7 


Sports NEWS 

Calcio EURO 2008 

A slow start for Italy: 

waiting for “not just a simple match”with France 

Italy’s coach Roberto 

Dona doni said there 

was still plenty of room 

for improvement after his 

team was held to a surprise 

1-1 draw by lowly Lithuania 

in their opening Euro 2008 

qualifier on Saturday. The 

Group B game, attended by 

60,000 fans who had come 

to welcome the Azzurri on 

their first competitive outing 

since they lifted the World 

Cup in July, ended in stalemate. 

First-half goals by Filippo Inzaghi 

and Lithuania striker Tomas Danilevicius 

cancelled each other. ‘There 

was good spirit on the team. With 

this spirit we can move forward.’ 

The match was Donadoni’s second 

since taking over from Marcello 

Lippi a few days after the World 

Cup final. The new coach lost his 

Basketball World Championship 

Spain grabs the gold 

Spain claimed their first-ever international 

basketball title with a 

dominant 70-47 victory over Greece 

to win the gold medal at the 2006 

World Championships. Playing without 

their injured superstar centre, Pau 

Gasol, Spain put together an inspired 

performance to defeat Greece, reigning 

European champions. Juan Carlos 

Navarro and Jorge Garbajosa each 

scored 20 points -- including 10 threepointers 

-- to lead Spain to the crown. 

Felipe Reyes chipped in with 10 points 

as the replacement for Gasol in the 

starting line-up. The star’s younger 

brother, Marc Gasol, added two points 

and seven rebounds off the bench. 

Half of the team’s roster—Pau Gasol, 

Reyes, Navarro, Jose Manuel Calderon, 

Benna Rodriguez, Carlos Cabezas—were 

on the Spanish team which 

captured the junior world championship 

title in 1999 in Portugal. 

The Greeks were held to the second 

fewest points in the tournament’s 

56-year history. Only Brazil scored 

first match in mid-August 

when his second-string 

team were beaten 2-0 by 

Croatia in a friendly. The 

start to Italy’s domestic 

season, has been delayed 

until Sept. 9 due to legal 

wrangling surrounding 

the Serie A match-fixing 

scandal. Accordingly, 

Donadoni decided to use 

several players who he 

felt needed more conditioning. 

Donadoni insisted the 

draw would not prey on the Azzurri’s 

minds as they prepare for their 

next qualifier—a re-run of the World 

Cup final against France in Paris on 

Wednesday, the 6th. ‘France is definitely 

a team that is in better physical 

condition, but I’m optimistic 

our condition will improve between 

now and Wednesday.’ 

fewer in a 62-41 loss to the 

US in 1954. Mihalis Kakiouzis 

led the Greeks with 17 points 

while Theodoros Papaloukas 

added 10 points. Before the 

game started, the Spaniards 

made a very public display 

of unity, entering the arena 

wearing “Pau tambien juega” 

(“Pau plays with us”) T-shirts 

-- a show of support for their 

injured center who suffered 

a foot injury in the semi-final 

victory against Argentina. The 

Greeks started the game by 

passing to Lazaros Papadopolous, 

trying to take advantage of Reyes. 

But the Spaniard held his own, with 

defensive help from Garbajosa. Reyes 

scored three of Spain’s first four baskets. 

Calderon and Navarro followed 

with back-to-back three-pointers to 

give Spain a 16-10 lead. Then Span 

led 18-12 after the first period. Garbajosa 

knocked down three consecutive 

baskets and Navarro hit two jumpers 

ALONSO OUT TO UPSTAGE FERRARI 

Fernando Alonso would love nothing 

more than to upstage Ferrari by winning 

this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The 

Renault driver has failed to win any of the 

last fi ve races and is keen to get back to his 

winning ways and reaffi rm himself as the 

favourite to win this year’s drivers’ championship. 

However, in order to do that, Alonso needs to beat 

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari this weekend, something 

he believes he can do and would really enjoy doing. ‘I want 

to win Monza. It is one of the legendary circuits, so it would 

be incredible to win there, and even more so to beat Ferrari 

on their home track. We know how important the championship 

is, but this is a big race as well. There is only one 

target for the Renault team at the moment: to fi nish in front 

Schumi’s 

lips are 

sealed 

Michael Schumacher is now on 

the same page as the Ferrari 

chiefs who insist that the red team 

will reveal its 2007 driver lineup 

at Monza this Sunday. Although, 

at a team event at Nurburgring on 

Sunday, the 37-year-old German 

remained tight-lipped about his 

future, he no longer pleaded for more 

time to make up his mind. ‘You will 

find out at Monza,’ La Gazzetta dello 

Sport quoted Schumacher as answering 

in Germany when asked about his 

looming decision. His spokeswoman, 

Sabine Kehm, denied that the Monza 

deadline had been imposed on 

Schumacher, insisting that the timing 

of the announcement had been mutually 

decided. Newspaper Bild, meanwhile, 

revealed that it was denied an 

interview with Schumacher at the 

Nurburgring. The German publication 

said that only TV broadcaster 

RTL’s Kai Ebel was able to talk with 

the seven-time champion. 

as Spain opened 

the second quarter 

with a 10-0 

run for a 16-point 

advantage. 

A Papaloukas 

three-pointer 

was Greece’s first 

basket in more 

than four minutes 

and trimmed the 

deficit to 28-16. 

Jimenez answered 

with three baskets 

to push the lead 

to 19 points. Spain’s coach Pepu Hernandez 

rested his starters but Greece 

was unable to cut the lead. Instead, 

Reyes got an offensive rebound and 

was fouled. He missed the foul shot, 

but grabbed the rebound and scored a 

lay-up. Spain increased their lead to 20 

points at half-time—43-23. Greece tried 

to get back into the game, but could 

pull no closer than 17 points in the second 

half. 

of Ferrari,’ he added. ‘They have been quite 

dominant in the last races, so beating them 

means winning races. That is our focus.’ 

His team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella is just 

as determined to beat Ferrari’s number two 

driver, Felipe Massa, who is currently third 

in the standings, ten points ahead of ‘Fisi’. ‘I 

know I can do it,’ the Roman said. ‘I lost ground to Massa at 

the last race, so now I have to do the maximum and catch 

up the 10 points I am missing at the moment.’ Fisichella also 

has a role to play in the constructors’ championship battle. ‘I 

need to score the maximum points, try to get four podiums 

- and win at least one of the races,’ he said. ‘If I can do that, 

then it can help Renault take the championship at the end 

of the year.’ 

AGASSI 

SAYS ADIEU 

Tennis has lost its most cherished 

showman after Andre 

Agassi, tears in his eyes and his 

voice trembling with emotion, took 

his fi nal bow at the U.S. Open on 

Sunday. A capacity crowd stood 

and cheered during match point 

of his 7-5 6-7 6-4 7-5 defeat to 

German qualifi er Benjamin Becker 

in the third round. While Agassi 

is undoubtedly the most popular 

player of his generation with the 

fans, he is also highly regarded by 

his fellow players who gave him a 

retirement send-off straight from 

the heart. ‘When I went into the 

locker room afterwards, they all 

were standing and applauding me,’ 

said the 36-year-old. ‘The greatest 

applause that any person will 

ever receive in his life is that which 

comes from his peers. It’s not like 

we’re a team working together, so 

to have them applaud me is the ultimate 

compliment.’ 

Fans have loved Agassi’s laserlike 

groundstrokes over the last 

two decades but it was his personality—his 

panache—that had 

legions of admirers rooting for the 

racket-wielding magician from Las 

Vegas. ‘We all owe a little debt of 

gratitude for what he’s done for the 

sport. He became an international 

superstar, more so than any other 

tennis player over the last 20 years,’ 

said America’s top player James 

Blake. ‘That’s helped the exposure, 

and we all appreciate that.’ Agassi 

emerged on the tour 21 years ago 

with long hair, a big forehand and 

a chip on his shoulder. He did 

things his own way, whether that 

meant skipping Wimbledon for 

several years because of its strict 

dress code or not playing a match 

in Davis Cup play because the tie 

had already been decided. 

But Agassi mellowed over the 

last decade, appreciating his coveted 

spot in tennis history and his 

obligation to civic causes. The long 

mane of hair was replaced by a 

shaved head. The hot pink shirts 

and denim shorts he wore during 

his teenage years were followed by 

all-white tennis wear. Despite the 

change in attitude and attire, his 

popularity never waned. ‘He’s had 

just such a positive infl uence I think 

on players’ attitudes,’ said double 

U.S. Open champion Serena Williams. 

‘He’s also had a great style. I 

think the game is going to miss him 

more than anyone.’

8 


Movie REVIEWS 


Movies in English showing in Florence 

by James Douglas 

Weeks September 7 - September 21 2006 

Thursday September 14 

Thursday September 21 

ODEON THEATRE 

CARS 

ODEON THEATRE 

THE GEMS MERCHANT 

Monday September 18 

After a fi ve-year absence the Man 

of Steel returns to fi nd Lois Lane 

otherwise engaged, and to face 

yet again the relentless nastiness 

of Lex Luther. Backtracking 

chronologically to third position 

(after Superman and Superman II) 

and neatly sidestepping the disappointing 

III and especially IV, Bryan 

Singer’s Superman Returns 

gives us a new hero (the impossibly 

handsome Brandon Routh) and an 

excellent Kevin Spacey as the arch 

villain. Digital special effects have of 

course moved on since the 1970s, 

and this latest episode does not 

stint on delivering the impressive 

visual marvels Superman is born 

to show off. Plot inconsistencies 

aside, the movie takes itself seriously 

enough to be an engaging 

spectacle that more than does justice 

to the comic book superhero’s 

transition to the screen. 

ODEON THEATRE 

SUPERMAN RETURNS 

It’s all retro nostalgia in Pixar’s latest digital animation 

spectacular Cars. Nostalgia for a time when 

cars were cars and small town values mattered 

and the open road was open. Lightning McQueen 

(voiced by Owen Wilson) is a brash and overconfi - 

dent stock car who disturbs the peace of Hicksville 

Radiator Springs and does community service for his 

sins, coming up against old-timer Doc Hudson (Paul 

Newman) with whom he fi nds he has something in 

common. As usual, the movie is designed to appeal 

to all and so is a hit-and-miss affair, with a pace far 

from racy and not quite up to the Pixar’s standards 

or director Lasseter’s previous efforts, such as Toy 

Story and A Bug’s Life. Great fun, nevertheless. 

Tuesday September 19 

ODEON THEATRE 

QUINCEAÑERA 

Also known in English as Echo 

Park L.A., Quinceañera tells the 

story of fi fteen-year-old Magdalena, 

who, fi nding herself pregnant, is 

expelled from home and takes 

up residence with her gay cousin 

and elderly great uncle. Set in the 

up-market Latino neighbourhood 

of Los Angeles, Quinceañera 

shows a side of American life 

often neglected by the big production 

companies. It has surprised 

many on the independent festival 

circuit with its simplicity, sincerity 

and poignancy, with an inexperienced 

cast giving fi rst rate performances. 

Better known in Italy as Il Mercante 

di Pietre, Renzo Martinelli’s fi lm 

The Gems Merchant (aka The 

Stone Merchant) tells the topical 

story of a an Italian Moslem convert 

who uses the precious stones 

industry in Turkey and Afghanistan 

as a cover for his links with an Al 

Qaeda cell, and whose double life 

inevitably means betrayal for loved 

ones left in the dark by his jihad. 

Based on press cuttings and secret 

service documents and assembled 

with as much contemporary realism 

as possible, the movie aims 

to refl ect one of the most disturbing 

aspects of the world we live in 

today. With Harvey Keitel as the 

merchant and F. Murray Abraham 

as cell leader Shahid, this is a controversial 

contemporary drama that 

will open many eyes.


What’s on & Where to Go 

9 


Events in FLORENCE SEP 8 TO SEP 21 

OUR TOP PICKS 

40th Anniversary 

of Florence Flood 

t t t 

RIFICOLONA (Paper Lantern Festival) - September 7 

Florentines celebrate September 8 as the nativity of the Virgin Mary, on the eve of the feast, 

September 7, natives walk through the city carrying candle-lit paper lanterns. The procession 

starts at Piazza Santa Croce at 8 pm. This tradition dates back to the Renaissance, when pilgrims 

bearing lanterns would gather in front of the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation (Santissima 

Annunziata). The main events of the ‘Rificolona’ are held in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, the 

square facing the church, and include a speech by Florence’s cardinal. In addition, lighted floats 

are placed in the waters of the Arno, to flow downstream. 

NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY - September 8 

Don’t miss this once-a-year opening of the Duomo’s terrace to the public. The cornerstone of the 

present-day Cathedral was laid on September 8, 1296. This year, in commemoration, of its 710th 

anniversary, the terrace around the base of the Cathedral’s cupola welcomes visitors, who are 

invited to stroll around and enjoy the breathtaking view of Florence’s rooftops. From this bird’seye 

perspective, visitors will be able to appreciate how the city is architecturally organized into 

concentric circles. Open 10 am - 4:30 pm. Free admission. 

HOLY RELIC CEREMONY AND HISTORICAL PARADE - Prato - September 8, 9 and 10 

From Donatello’s pulpit in Prato’s Cathedral of San Stefano, the Bishop and mayor will be 

celebrating a ritual that goes back to the 12th century: the presentation of the Virgin Mary’s cincture. 

(10 am to 10:30 pm). Flag ceremonies, games and medieval dances will follow. A historical parade 

will leave at 8:30 pm and tour around the streets of the centre. At the end of the evening, expect a 

pyrotechnical show at the Castello dell’Imperatore and a concert by the band ‘Whiskey Trail’ in 

piazza Duomo. On the 7, 8 and 9 of September, visit the medieval market in Piazza Santa Maria 

in Castello and S. Antonio. 

FLORENCE VINTAGE MARKET - September 10 

Fashion lovers won’t want to miss this unique vintage clothing market, featuring accessories, 

luggage and jewellery from all over the world. The event is organized by Ceri Vintage Canoa 

Club at the Canottieri Comunali Firenze, on the Lungarno Francesco Ferrucci no 4. Free 

entrance from 12.30 pm to 8.00 pm. (See feature article.) 

REGISTER TO VOTE AND REQUEST YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT - September 12 - 26 

Permanent residents abroad, students, temporary visitors, part-time residents, second 

generation and dual citizens can vote for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives 

Midterm elections which will be held on Tuesday Nov. 7, 2006. Register to vote and request 

your absentee ballot now! Voter registration assistance will be available in Florence on 

September 12, 10:30 am -12:30 and Wednesday, September 20, from 5:30-7:30 pm at St. 

James Church in Via Rucellai 9. On Thursday, September 14 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm or 

Monday, September 25 from 2:00-4:00, voters can go to McRae’s Book Shop on Via dei 

Neri, 32r. On Friday, September 22 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm or September 26, 11 am to 1 

pm, voters can visit Paperback Exchange Book Shop, Via delle Oche, 4r. Bring ID: social 

security number, (or valid US driver’s license). Some states require a passport number. 

For further information contact: usvoters@yahoo.it or the U.S. Consulate at 38 Lungarno 

Vespucci (In person: Monday-Friday, 9 am – 12:30 pm or by phone: Monday-Friday, 2 - 4 

pm. Telephone: 055-266-951) 

FRAGRANZE - September 15 to 17 

Artistic Perfumery on Stage. From Friday, September 15 to Sunday, September 17. Gardens 

of Palazzo Corsini. Via Il Prato, 58. (See front page news story) 

NEXTECH FESTIVAL - September 21-23 

Techno and digital music festival 

Stazione Leopolda, Viale Fratelli Rosselli 5, Firenze, Info tel. 055/287347 

The fi rst edition of Nextech festival, an event dedicated to avant-garde electronic sounds, 

will take place in Florence from September 21 to 23. It’s a high-tech festival for fans of 

futuristic music trends, experimental sounds and beat dance. Music and visual images will 

accompany ‘party-goers’ from aperitif hour until the wee hours of the morning. Starting at 6 

pm everyday, the Nextech Festival features concerts, DJ sets, art technology, and music as an 

architectural element. An inter-disciplinary and innovative event that alternates techno beat 

with soothing minimalist tunes. For more information see: www.nextechfestival.com 

Do you have a story to tell about the Flood of 1966? 

Were you a mud angel or do you know one? 

Do you have photos of those days in Florence? 

The Florentine is preparing a special edition 

for the Flood’s 40th anniversary 

Distributed all over the world in September. 

Write to: the_flood@theflorentine.net 

mbership card necessary 

FRIDAY 8 

• DANCE 

Life and dance 

Florence Dance Cultural Center 

Piazza Ghiberti (S. Ambrogio area), www. 

fi renzesummerfest.it, 9 pm, free 

Callas 

MaggioDanza 69° Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 

Teatro Comunale, Corso Italia 16 ,info 199- 

112112, www.maggiofi orentino.com , h 

20:30 

• GUIDED TOURS 

710° anniversario “La Passeggiata sulle 

terrazze” 

Special opening of the Cathedral’s terrace. 

Free admission 

8 Sept., Cattedrale di S.Maria del Fiore info 

0552302885 www.operaduomo.fi renze.it 

• LECTURES & CONFERENCES 

EUSIPCO 2006 - 14 European Conference 

on Signal Processing 

Centro Internazionale Congressi, p.za Adua, 

1 www.eusipco2006.org 

• MARKETS & FESTIVALS 

Fierucolina del Pane 

Longer version of the once-a-month Santo 

Spirito fair linked to Rifi colona festivities 

Sept. 8 and 9 Piazza Santissima Annunziata, 

Open 9 am - 7 pm. 

The little Bread Fair 

Sept. 8, 9 Piazza SS.Annunziata tel. 

055697747 

• MUSIC & CONCERTS 

Animae Voces’ canti etnici del Mediterraneo 

e dell’Africa 

XVII° edition of the Sounds and Colours of 

Tuscany Festival 

Fattoria di Castellonchio (San Donato in 

Collina) info 055 8347833 www.comune. 

rignano-sullarno.fi .itore 21,15, 10 euro 

O flos colende: Sacred Music in Florence 

10th edition 

8 sept. Cattedrale di S. Maria del Fiore info 

0552302885 - www.operaduomo.fi renze.it 

SATURDAY 9 

• CINEMA 

The last Caronte - 40th Anniversary of 

Flood 

Documentary by Cinzia TH Torrini dedicated 

to Berto’ (the worker who ferried 

people and cars to the opposite side of the 

river during the fl ood) 

Sept. 9 at 9p.m. Circolo La Nave - info tel. 

0556585128 - www.comune.fi .it 


Improvvisazione Poetica 

Rampe di Piazza Poggi , San Niccolò, 

www.fi renzestate.com, info 349-2384360, 

10pm 


Wine Championship 

European wine producers, fair and contest; 

Favourite competition for wine tasters 

Teatro Romano di Fiesole, Info: Slow Food 

Firenze 055 684405 

Fierucolina del Pane 

See 8 Sept. 

The little Bread Fair 

See Sept 8 

• SPORTS & ACTIVITIES 

Fiorentina - Inter 

Series A soceer 

Stadio comunale A. Franchi, at 20.30 

Fiorentina Baseball - Redskins Imola 

35th and 36th edition of the A2 Baseball 

Championships - Section B 

Stadio Baseball Cerreti, viale Manfredo 

Fanti, 18 gara 1 h 15.30, gara 2 h 20.30 

• THEATRE (in Italian unless otherwise noted) 

I Pupi di Stac. Puppet shows 

Sept. 9, 10 Parco Mediceo di Pratolino 

Summer at Demidoff Villa info 055409155 

- www.provincia.fi .it 

SUNDAY 10 

• DANCE 

La Taranta 

music and dance 

Sept. 10, Area San Sanvi, via S. Salvi 12, 

tel. 055.6236195, www.chille.it 


Wine Championship 

See Sept. 9 

Mukki Day 

The famous Milk factory opens its gates to 

families, kids and fans, to see Mugello’s 

Cows and shows featuring MukkiFriends 

10 sept, Mukki via dell’Olmatello 20 Firenze, 

info 800 016 773 www.mukki.it, h 9,00- 

13.00 and 15.00/19.00, free entrance 

Florence Vintage Market 

Vintage clothing, accessories, luggage and 

jewellery from all over the world 

Canoa Club presso Canottieri Comunali 

Firenze, on the Lungarno Francesco Ferrucci 

no 4, free entrance from 12.30 pm to 

8.00pm 


Giorgio Gaslini ‘Songs’ music played 

by ‘Contempoartensemble’ 

XVII° edition of the Sounds and Colours of 

Tuscany Festival 

Fattoria di Pagnana (San Donato in Collina) 

info 055 8347833 www.comune.rignanosullarno.fi 

.itore 21,15, 10 euro 

Concert by Rossini Philarmonic for the 

closing 139th concert season 

Sept. 10 at 9.30p.m. Piazza della Signoria - 

tel. 055603407 - www.fi larmonicarossini.it 

II° Festival Firenze Classica 

Concerts of the Chamber Orchestra - 26th 

concert 2006 season 

Chiesa di Orsanmichele, via de’ Calzaiuoli, 

info 055 2625955 www.fi renzeestate.it, 

www.orcafi .it 9pm 

Rossini Philarmonic for the closing 

139th concert season 

Sept. 10 at 9.30p.m. Piazza della Signoria - 

tel. 055603407 - www.fi larmonicarossini.it 

MONDAY 11 


Classical Music Concert Series 

classical music concerts, including a piano 

recital by Lucchesini, a performance by the 

Maggio Musicale chorus, and a chamber 

recital by a string quartet 

Starting Sept 11 and taking place every 

following Monday in Sept., Palazzo Medici 

Riccardi. Free admission 


II° Festival Firenze Classica - orchestra 

da camera fiorentina, dir Piero Bellugi 

See Sept 10 

Concerts of the Chamber Orchestra - 

26th concert season 2007 

See Sept 10 

TUESDAY 12 


Sacrae Harmoniae - L’Homme Armé 

Music and Chorus 

Saloncino del Teatro della Pergola - via della 

Pergola, 12/32 , Firenze info 055-22641 

www.amicimusica.fi .it, h 21 

jazz nights: jam seesion + house band 

Jazz Club, Via Nuova de’ Caccini, 3 – Firenze, 

info 339-5630795 www.jazzclubfi renze. 

com, h 22.15 

WEDNESDAY 13 

• EXHIBITS 

Leonardo: The Lake That Never Was’ 

Opening. See ongoing for details 


From villa to villa: Tour of hidden homes 

in the 5 quartiere of the city. 

Sept. 13, 23 Info Uffi cio Cultura Q.5 - tel. 

0552767045 - www.comune.fi .it 

• MUSIC & CONCERTS

10 





Musical Wednesday by Ente Cassa di 

Risparmio di Firenze - concerts 

Sept. 13, Auditorium Ente Cassa di Risparmio 

di Firenze, via Folco Portinari 5/r - tel. 

05526121 


Everlast Mabo Firenze - Ozzano 

Summer Cup, Basketball championships 

for Series B 

Mandela Forum,viale Pasquale Paoli, 3, h 

21 

THURSDAY 14 

• CINEMA 

Cars (In English) 

Odeon CineHall, piazza Strozzi, tel. 

055.214068, www.cinehall.it, Shows 3.30 

– 5.50 – 8.10 – 10.30 pm 


Guided visits to gardens in Fiesole: 

Villa Montececeri 

Villa Montececeri Firenze, info 800414240 

- www.comune.fi esole.fi .it, h17.00 

The old Duomo of Firenze: la Basilica 

dei SS. Apostoli 

Tour lead by Giovanni Straff, meeting 4 pm 

piazza del Limbo, Associazione Akropolis, 

Info 055461428, http://it.geocites.com/associazione_akropolis 

Cappella dei Principi - Sagrestia Nuova 

di San Lorenzo 

Tour lead by architect Lara Mercanti meeting 

15,30 piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 

Associazione Akropolis, Info 055461428, 

http://it.geocites.com/associazione_akropolis 


Estemporaneo Cool Jazz Trio 



com, h 22.16 

FRIDAY 15 


4^ Fragranze 

Over 100 brands showcased; artistic perfumery, 

candles, objects for the home 

Sept. 15 for busness only, 16 and 17 open 

to public, Giardino di Palazzo Corsini sul 

Prato, Via della Scala 115, info 05536931 

www.pittimmagine.com, 5 euro. During the 

fair will be possible to preview the Museum 

of the Offi cina Santa Maria Novella - only 

with reservation. 


Gotan Project. Tiga, Timo Maas; etc 

Concerts 

15 sept, Stazione Leopolda, Nokia Trends 

Event, www.stazione-leopolda.it, www.ticketone.it, 

15 euro 

Blackmore’s Night 

15 sett, saschall, fi renze, Boxoffi ce 

Sacrae Harmoniae - Orchestra Barocca 

Il Rossignolo 

Classical Music 





4th edition International Baseball 

Tournament Città di Firenze 2006 

Sept. from 15 to 17 A.S.D. Junior Firenze 

Baseball Club - tel. 055607473 

SATURDAY 18 


4^ Fragranze 

See Sept 15 

Fortezza Antiquaria 

Antique market 

Piazza Indipendenza , Firenze info 055- 

3283550 


Quartetto Felix, Sergio Paglicci, clarinet 

music by Mozart, Weber 

Sept. 16 Parco Mediceo di Pratolino 

Sala Rossa Summer at Demidoff Villa info 

055409155 - www.provincia.fi .it 

The Elegant Gypsy quartet 



com, h 22.17 




See Sept. 16 

SUNDAY 17 


4^ Fragranze 

See Sept 15 

The little fair of St. Michael 

Sept. 17 Piazza S.Spirito tel.055697747 

Fortezza Antiquaria 

See Sept 16 


Musical concert: choir Vox Luna, Paolo 

Spennato reading voice, Natalia Prince 

piano, Eva Mabellini mezzosoprano 

Sept. 17 Parco Mediceo di Pratolino Sala 

Rossa Summer at Demidoff Villa info 

055409155 - www.provincia.fi .it 




See Sept. 17 

Una città da giocare - games, music, 

sport, animation, creativity 

Sept. 17 from 10a.m. to 6p.m. Giardini del 

Mezzetta - Info Q.2 - tel. 0552767822 - 

www.comune.fi .it 

NaturaInBici 

Quartiere 4, Associazione Città Ciclabile 

Firenze info 329-1524746, www.fi renzecittaciclabile.org 

XI° Women’s International Tuscan 

Tour, Memorial Michela Fanini 

From 12 to 17 Sept., from Viareggio to Florence, 

Arrival Sunday 17 in Florence, Piazza 

della Repubblica, info www.michelafanini. 

com 

MONDAY 18 

• CINEMA 

Superman Returns (In English) 



– 7.00 – 10.00 pm 


I Cenacoli 

The Last Supper in the Convent of the 

Nuns of Foligno 

Tour lead by Dott.ssa Rita Tambone, meeting 

10 am in via Faenza, 42, Associazione Akropolis, 

Info 055461428, http://it.geocites. 

com/associazione_akropolis 


Quartetto Modigliani 





Quartetto Navarra 





Anastasia Boldyreva, Arcadio Baracchi, 

Riccardo Sandiford 

Opera - Tuscan classics 

Chiesa di Orsanmichele, via de’ Calzaiuoli, 

info 055-210804 boxoffi ce 

TUESDAY 19 

• CINEMA 

Quinceañera (In English) 

Best fi lm and Audience award Sundance 

Film Festival 2006 



– 6.30 – 8.30 – 10.30 pm 


Palle 

Dinner and Theater 

Teatro del Sale, via macci, info 055 

2001492, www.teatrodelsale.com; h 

19.30 

WEDNESDAY 20 


‘Vive per violenza, e more per libertà’: 

violence and its representation in 15thcentury 

Florence 

Scott Nethersole from the Courtauld Institute, 

London, will introduce his research 

about the representation of violence in Renaissance 

Florence. 

20 Sept. at 18.00 at The British Institute of 

Florence, Lungarno Guicciardini 9, tel. 055 

26778270, 18.00, admission free 


Fiorentina - Parma 

Soccer series A 

stadio comunale A. Franchi, at 15.01 


Palle 

See Sept 19 

THURSDAY 21 

• CINEMA 

The Gems Merchant (In English) 



– 6.10 – 8.20 – 10.30 pm 


I Musei 

The most famous mausoleum in the world; 

the Princes’ Chapel and the New Sacresty 

at San Lorenzo. 

Tour lead by arch. Lara Mercanti meeting 

15.30 in piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 


http://it.geocites.com/associazione_akropolis/ 

all year 

Guided visits to gardens in Fiesole: 

Villa Nieuwenkamp 

Villa Nieuwenkamp, Fiesole, info 800414240 

- www.comune.fi esole.fi .it, h17.00 


II° Festival Firenze Classica - dall’aperitivo 

a notte fonda 

stazione leopolda, info 055 2625955 www. 

fi renzeestate.it, 9pm 

NEXTECH FESTIVAL first night 

See Ongoing 

3 soprani in concert 

With Dianne Bailey (Australia) Isabel Barbosa 

(Brazil), Sumiko Okawa (Japan), piano 

prof. Gianni Fabbrini 

Chiesa dei barnabiti (piazza santo spirito) 

(2nd night on 30 Sept), h 20.30 


Palle 

See Sept 20 

ONGOING 

• CINEMA 

Tutti quanti voglion fare il jazz 

Film festival with theme of jazz. For complete 

program see website 

Castello via R. Giuliani, 374, Rifredi www. 

cinetecadifi renze.it The Program: Monday 

11 - 20,00 Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby 

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN with Bing 

Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Madge Evans. 

USA 1936. In English with French subtitles. 

Sunday - 17 18,30 Chet Baker LET’S GET 

LOST; USA 1989. Original sound with Italian 

subtitles, Ray Charles 20,30 PIANO 

BLUES byClint Eastwood; USA 2003. English 

with Italian subtitles. 

• COMPETITION 

RockContest 

Contest for artists and bands 

Ending on 15 Sept Organized by Controradio, 

Comune di Firenze Assessorato alla 

Pubblica Istruzione e alle Politiche Giovanili, 

Comuni di Bagno a Ripoli, Campi Bisenzio, 

Scandicci and Sesto Fiorentino, info 055- 

7399946 www.rockcontest.it/ www.controradio.it 

1ª Ed Concorso “media-letterario” Dalla 

pagina allo schermo 

Organized by the Festival della Creatività 

and the Toscana Film Commission 

until 31 october, info 055-271991 Festival 

della Creatività And Toscana Film Commission 

www.festivaldellacreativita.it 

• EXHIBITS 

Moda e Stile. 

Hidden wealth. An artistic collection of the 

Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova 

Until May 2008 Palazzo Pitti, Galleria del 

Costume - tel. 0552388713 

Painting and photographic exhibitions 

at Villa Pozzolini (Firenzestate 06) 

from June 3 to October 8 Villa Pozzolini, viale 

Guidoni 188 - tel. 0552767045 - www. 

comune.fi .it 

Steven Klein. Case study # 13 Valley of 

the dolls 

from June 22 to October 30 Gallery Hotel 

Art - Vicolo dell’Oro - tel. 05527263 

Santa Maria Nuova e gli Uffizi. 

Hidden wealth. An artistic collection of the 

Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova 

Until 27 Sept, Sala delle Reali Poste Loggiato 

degli Uffi zi, 6 info 055-23885 www. 

polomuseale.fi renze.it/ H 9:00-12:30 e 

16:00-19:00 (mon and tue closet) free entrance 

Afghanistan 1976 - viaggio nella memoria 

photographic exhibition by Donella Bertini 

Sept. from 2 to 13 Parterre - tel. 0552767828 

- www.fi renzestate.com (4p.m.-7.30p.m.) 

Nel segno di diana, Roberto Lemmi 

From 2 to 24 Sept, Palazzo Medici Riccardi , 

Via Cavour 1 (Limonaia) info 055-2760340, 

diana.edolimpia.it www.palazzo-medici.it 

Leonardo: The Lake That Never Was’ 

Andrea Dami Sculptures 

from 7 Sept to 7 Oct at SACI Gallery - Palazzo 

dei Cartelloni, via Sant’Antonino 11 - 

tel. 055289948 - www.saci-fl orence.org 

Firenze nel 1770, l’anno del soggiorno 

fiorentino di W.A. Mozart 

To celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the 

W.A. Mozart’s birth 

from Sept. 15 to October 15 Biblioteca 

Nazionale Centrale di Firenze - tel. 

05524919322 

Elementalia 

From 16 to 29 Sept, Centro Commerciale 

Le Piaggie Via Lombardia 15, Piagge , Firenze 

, Sala Espositiva A.N.R.A.C.h 10:00- 

12:00 e 15:00-19:00 info 055-2767020 

Giovanni Paszkowski: l’ora sospesa 

paintings 

untill 11 Nov, Museo Marino Marini, Piazzo 

San Pancrazio, tel. 055.219432, www.museomarinomarini.it 

Pedalando nel tempo 

An exhibit of antique bicycles in the new 

ground-fl oor exhibition space of the Museum. 

Until December 31, Mon-Sat 9.30-17, Tues 

9.30-13, 2nd Sun of the month 10-13, Museo 

di Storia della Scienza, piazza dei Giudici 

1, tel. 055.265311, www.imss.fi .it 

Incontri Mediterranei 

Until October 10, Museo Archeologico 

Nazionale, via della Colonna 36, tel. 

055.294883, www.fi renzemusei.it/archeologica 

Arte e Manifattura di corte a Firenze. 

Dal tramonto dei Medici all’Impero 

(1732-1815) 

Until November 5, Palazzo Pitti, piazza Pitti 

1, tel. 055.294883, www.artedicorteafi renze2006.it 

Lorenzo Monaco: dalla tradizione giottesca 

al Rinascimento 

Until Sept. 24, 8.15-18.50, Galleria dell’Accademia, 

via Ricasoli 50, tel. 055.294883, 

www.polomuseale.fi renze.it 

The Mind of Leonardo. Universal Genius 

at Work 

Until January 7, 2007, 8.15-19.00, Tues-Sun, 

Galleria degli Uffi zi, Piazzale degli Uffi zi, tel. 

055.2388651, www.uffi zi.fi renze.it 

The Mystery of the Genesis in the Jorge 

Jimenez Deredia’s Sculptures 

Forty sculptures made of Carrara white 

marble and bronze by Jorge Jiménez Deredia 

(Costa Rican). 

Until Sept. 30, closed 1st and last Mon of 

the month, €7, Boboli Gardens, Piazza Pitti, 

tel. 055-2298732, www.ilmisterodellagenesi.com



11 



A Grand Duke and his painter.. Cosimo 

III de’ Medici and the ‘room of paintings’ 

by Giusto Suttermans 

Until October 22, Sala Bianca, Galleria Palatina, 

Palazzo Pitti, www.polomuseale.fi renze.it, 

info 055-2654321 

New Liberalistic Pleasures 

Until Sept. 10, Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Via 

delle Belle Donne 39/r, tel. 055.214757 

Copti Fabrics From Egiptian Museum 

of Firenze 

Until October 22, Museo Casa Siviero, 

Lungarno Serristori 3, www.cultura.toscana.it/musei/primo_piano/siviero.html, 

nfo 

055.2345219 

Prebarocco 

Paintings of Fabrizio Boschi (1572-1642) 

Until Nov.13th, Casa Buonarroti via Ghibellina 

70, www.casabuonarroti.it, info 055 

241752, 9,30 to 16,00 


Guided visits to gardens in Fiesole 

Sept., October on Thursday various placet 

info 800414240 - www.comune.fi esole.fi .it, 

Sept Calendar: 14 sept h17.00 Villa Montececeri; 

21 Sept h17.00 Villa Nieuwenkamp 

Itinerari e Incontri 

Guided visits, book presentations, and conferences 


http://it.geocites.com/associazione_akropolis/ 

all year 

Museo Bandini 

Until October 31, 9.30-19, Fiesole, via Duprè 

1 

Restoration of the cycle of frescoes by 

A. Gaddi in the Cappella Maggiore 

Until December 31, Fri and Sat at 10, 11, 

12, 14, 15, 16; Sun at 14, 15, 16, Chiesa 

di Santa Croce 

Artisans of the Oltrarno, in search of 

artistic craftsmanship 

Genuine Florentine artisan traditions 

Info 055.3036108, www.fi renze-oltrarno. 

net, all year 

Hortibus Collection & Garden tours 

Starting point: piazza S.Trinita, every Thur 

and Sat at 15.00, info 348.9100783, www. 

hortibus.com, € 25, all year 


Things from old times - Antique fair 

every 2nd Sunday of the month Galluzzo - 

Piazza Acciaioli tel. 055219159 

Mercato San Lorenzo 

Florentine crafts, hand-made embroidery, 

paper, leather etc 

Streets around Basilica San Lorenzo, every 

day, all day 

Ciompi Antique fair 

Piazza de’ Ciompi, tel. 055.3283550, every 

week day and last Sunday of the month 

Mercato del Porcellino 

Florentine crafts with straw, hand-made embroidery, 

leather, woodwork,and fl owers 

Logge del Porcellino, every day, all day 


Concerts at St.Mark’s English Church 

until November 30 (at 9.15p.m.) Chiesa 

Anglicana di St. Mark’s - Maggio (Via) tel. 

3408119192 - www.concertoclassico.info 

Happy Birthday CAM 

jazz festival 

4 to 8 sept, piazza della passera, see 

the programme at www.4leoni.com,info. 

055/218562 

XX edition “Settembre Musica” 2006 

Sept. 8, 12, 15, 18, 20 Cattedrale di Santa 

Maria del Fiore; Saloncino del Teatro della 

Pergola - tel. 05522641 - www.amicimusica.fi 

.it 

jazz nights 

see web for program 



com, h 22.15 

Concerts of the Chamber Orchestra 

26th concert season 2006 

Sept. 10, 11 Chiesa di Orsanmichele - tel. 

055783374 - www.orcafi .it 

NEXTECH FESTIVAL 

world of electronic sound 

from 21 to 23 sept, Stazione Leopolda, Viale 

Fratelli Rosselli 5, Firenze, Info tel. 055 

287347 www.nextechfestival.com 

Organ and instrumental concerts 

Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Ricci, via del 

Corso, tel. 055.289367, all year, Mon-Sun 

21.15, Sat 18.00, €11 

Concerts at St. Mark’s English Church 

The “Orpheus Ensemble” presents sacred 

music, Italian opera arias and Neapolitan 

Songs with piano and voice 

St. Mark’s English Church, Via Maggio 16- 

18, tel 340.8119192, every day at 21.15, 

€15, for The Florentine readers € 10 (Mondays 

free piano recital) 


Navigating the Arno River under Ponte 

Vecchio - navigating by rowing boat 

from June to October ( for booking only or 

directly on wharf) Imbarco/Mooring Fiume 

Arno L.no A.M. de’ Medici/L.no Generale 

Diaz - tel. 347 7982 356 - www.renaioli.it 

Flat racing 

Sept. 10, 11, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28 Ippodromo 

Le Mulina - tel. 0554226076 - www.ippocity.com 

writers league 2006 

soccer match played by famous writers and 

other book events 

see program on www.fi renzestate.com, info 

055 2707278 

4° Torneo Internazionale di Baseball 

e Softball Giovanile Città di Firenze - 

Memorial Massimo Rogai 

from 15 to 17 Sept. , Stadio Cerreti, viale 

Manfredo Fanti 18, info www.juniorfi renzebc.it 

Navigating the Arno River under Ponte 

Vecchio 

Rowing on the Arno 

from June to October, starting point: Lungarno 

A.M. de’ Medici and Lungarno Generale 

Diaz, tel. 347 7982 356, www.renaioli.it 

• SUMMER NIGHTS 

Meridiani e Paralleli 

summer family events, area dedicated to 

the children, fair trade 

Until Sept. 10, every day from 17.00 to 1.00, 

Piazza Indipendenza 

Parco e Piscina Le Pavoniere 

Music, dj sessions, live performances, 

fashion, pool, food & aperitivi. Swimming 

from 10pm 

Until Sept. 24, from 20.00, Le Pavoniere, 

parco delle Cascine, on Sunday latin music 

Summerfest2006 

Music, theatre and more 

Until Sept. 9, every evening, Piazza Ghiberti 

(S. Ambrogio area) www.fi renzesummerfest.it 

Parco sud 

Music, cinema, dance, games for children, 

food 

Until Sept. 9, every day all day, Parco dell’Anconella, 

via di Villamagna 

Easy Living in Santo Spirito 

Live Music, Bar, aperitif, free wireless access 

all over the Piazza. 

Until Sept. 10, Piazza Santo Spirito, www. 

fi loconduttore.it, info 3400713410, every 

evening 

Summer nights 2006. La Vasca at the 

Fortezza 

Live music, bar, dj 

Until Sept. 10, Fortezza da Basso, Viale Filippo 

Strozzi, tel. 055-2767621, www.fi renzestate.com, 

free 

Il suono dell’anima 

contemporary, classic and sacred music 

Until Sept., Chiesa di S. Gaetano, Cortile 

del Museo del Bargello, tel. 055.2625955, 

www.fi renzestate.it 

Estate a San Salvi 

Theatre, dance, music, etc. 

Until Sept. 10, every day, Area San Sanvi, 

via S. Salvi 12, tel. 055.6236195, www. 

chille.it 

Zero 

Zero, Via dell’Olmatello 2, www.tea4one. 

com, info 055-2469353, free entrance 

Open City 3 

happenings, theatre, puppets, music in 

Scandicci 

Until 22 sept, Open City 3, various places 

in Scandicci, see programme at www.scandiccicultura.org, 

info 055 757349 

Ballo Liscio e Vernacolo show 

Until 30th Sept. at 9pm, Giardini di Bellariva, 

lungarno Aldo Moro, tel. 055.2767822 

Summer at Demidoff Villa 

Theatre, cinema and music 

from June to Sept., Parco Mediceo di Pratolino, 

Vaglia, tel. 055.409155 


Firenzestate 2006. La Parola al teatro 

Until Sept., info & booking 055.2625955, 

www.fi renzestate.it 

CHILDREN 


I Giorni della Preistoria 

Educational workshops for children 

Sept. 9, 12, 14 and 16 Museo Fiorentino di 

Preistoria “P. Graziosi” info 055295159 

Il Giardino di Archimede, Mathematics 

Sundays 

Guided visits and surprise events at the 

Museum 

Il Giardino di Archimede, Museo per la Matematica, 

via S. Bartolo a Cintoia 19, tel. 

055.7879594, www.archimede.ms, on the 

fi rst Sunday of every month 


The little joiner’s shop 

Workshop to create wooden games. Develops 

creativiy and dexterity. For children 

ages 4 to 10 

Il Cappello di Merlino, via Mazzetta 14r, tel. 

055.264471, every Wed, 17.00 

The amazing circus of Merlin the Wizard 

Workshop to create circus equipment. For 

children ages 4 to 11 


055.264471, every Thur, 17.00 

The world through the senses 

Experimenting with the senses (taste, sight, 

hearing, touch, smell) through games and 

book-readings. For children ages 2 to 5 


055.264471, every Fri, 17.00 


Puppet show 


055.264471, every Sat, 17.00 

OUT OF TOWN 

• CINEMA 

Videominuto Pop Tv 

International Festival of 1 minute videos 

7-8-9 settembre 2006, Centro per l’Arte 

Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Info: 

www.videominuto.it info 055-7399981, h. 

21,30 

• COURSES 

Arteinscena Musical laboratory 

Dance and singing 

enrollment to teatro@politeamapratese.com 

or fax (0574/445580) o at Teatro Politeama 

Pratese, Via G. Garibaldi 33 Prato 

• EXHIBITS 

Primo Piano 

Words, Art, Actions, Music, a collection of 

live art. Over 400 pieces capturing the artistic 

movement of the 60’s and 70’s. 

June 14-Sept. 18, Centro Arte Contemporanea 

Pecci, Viale della Repubblica 277, 

Prato, tel. 05745317, www.centroartepecci. 

prato.it, Closed Mon/Tues, Wed-Thur 10- 

18.30, €5 

Arts in Fabula exhibiton realised by 

Maurizio Sciaccaluga 

from June 17 to November 1, Palazzo Pretorio, 

Certaldo (Firenze) info 0571661219 

- www.comune.certaldo.fi .it 

Corrispondenze 

Selected operas 

From 7 sept 2006 to 7 Jan 2007Centro per 

l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Viale della 

Repubblica 277 Prato, info 0574-5317 

www.centropecci.it, up to 21st oct from Tue 

to Sat h. 10-14, 15-19 then up to 7 jan from 

Wed to Sun h. 10-14, 15-19, Free entrance 

Fucecchio Foto Festival 

Photographic exhibition 

Sept. from 9 to 24 Auditorium La Tinaia 

Parco Corsini Fucecchio (Firenze) info 

0571268206 - www.fofu.it 

Second open-air museum about the 

Gothic Line 

Sept. 16, 17, Passo del Giogo Scarperia, 

tel. 0558431623 - www.comune.scarperia. 

fi .it 

Intrecci mediterranei 

fabrics from the 11th to 17th Century 

Until Sept. 30, Wed-Fri 10-18, Sat 10-14, 

Sun 16-19, Tue closed, Museo del Tessuo, 

via santa chiara 24, Prato, 0574 611503, 

www.museodetessuto.it, 4€ 

The Valley of Treasures 

Mirroring Masterpieces Compared: A comparison 

of art works to re-launch the “Uffi zi 

of the Countryside” 

Until November 19, Exhibitions in Valdelsa 

and Empoli Museums, various sites, www. 

piccoligrandimusei.it 

33rd Cutting Irons market fair 

Until 17 sept, Palazzo dei Vicari tel. 

0558468165 www.comune.scarperia.fi .it 

Primo Piano 

Words, Art, Actions, Music, a collection of 

live art. Over 400 pieces capturing the artistic 

movement of the 60’s and 70’s. 

June 14-Sept. 18, Centro Arte Contemporanea 

Pecci, Viale della Repubblica 277, 

Prato, tel. 05745317, www.centroartepecci. 

prato.it, Closed Mon/Tues, Wed-Thur 10- 

18.30, €5 

Dilvo Lotti: un maestro dell’espressionismo 

europeo 

From July 15 to December 15, Museo Diocesano 

- Via Angelica - Conservatorio di 

Santa Chiara - Rocca Federiciana - Oratorio 

del Loretino - Accademia degli Euteleti, 

San Miniato 


On the Scaffolding with Filippo Lippi 

Visits to the restoration of Filippo Lippi’s 

fresco (max 12 persons) 

Cattedrale di Santo Stefano, piazza del 

Duomo, Prato, tel. 0574.24112, www.restaurofi 

lippolippi.it, by reservation only, every 

Sat at 10, 11, 16, 17, Sun at 10, 11, €8 

Ancient Tabernacoli 

9th Sept. Lead by d.ssa Veronica Bartoletti, 

Ass.ne Amici dei Musei Meeting 4 pm Via 

Carbonaia 8/a Prato - Free but Booking required 

at 0574-31465 e-mail: amicimuseip 

rato@interfree.it 

Guided walking tours around Calenzano 

From April to October, info 055.8833255, 

www.comune.calenzano.fi .it 

On the Scaffolding with Filippo Lippi 

Visits to the restoration of Filippo Lippi’s 

fresco (max 12 persons) 

every Sat at 10, 11, 16, 17, Sun at 10, 11, 

€8, Cattedrale di Santo Stefano, piazza del 

Duomo, Prato, tel. 0574.24112, www.restaurofi 

lippolippi.it, by reservation only 

Abbey of San Salvatore and San Lorenzo 

a Settimo 

Every Wed, Fri 10-12, Sun 15.30-18, closed 

July and Aug, Badia a Settimo, Scandicci, 

tel. 055.7310537, www.badiadisettimo.it 

The Ceramics of Montelupo 

Free guided visits of Archaeology and 

Ceramics Museum and participation in 

workshops 

Every Thur from 10.00 to 14.00, Museo 

Archeologico e della Ceramica, Montelupo 

Fiorentino, tel. 0571.518993 

Wine and Fashion in the Florentine 

Mountains. Itineraries with guided visits, 

shopping 

Tours to discover the beauty of the Florentine 

Mountains. Visits to artisan workshops 

and local shopping centres 

All year Mon and Sat, Resco Travel, tel. 

055.868009 

walking in Val D’orcia (Siena) 

unitll 30 November, info and booking 0577 

351302 www.dimenicainchianti.it, 7€ 

Sunday in Chianti 

unitll 30 october, info and booking 0577 

898303 www.parcodellavaldorcia.com, 8€ 

The Valley of Treasures 

Guided visits to the Jerusalem of San Vivaldo 

Montaione, San Vivaldo info 0571699252 

www.piccoligrandimusei.it 

• MARKETS & FESTIVALS

12 





Open shops under the stars 

Performances and food tasting 

June-Sept. on Wednesday, Dicomano historical 

center 

Festival in Limite 

Sept. from 1 to 30 Limite sull’Arno (Firenze) 

info 0571978136 - www.comune.capraiae-limite-sull-arno.fi 

.it 

Sagra del fico a Carmignano 

2 to 10 Sept, Bacchereto, Carmignano Prato, 

www.carmignanodivino.prato.it info 055 

8712468 

Medieval market on the street 

from 7 to 9 Sept, in Santa Maria in Castello 

e S. Antonino Prato 

Beef-steak and mushroom festival 

Sept. 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 

29, 30 Certaldo Firenze tel. 0571667349 

- www.comune.certaldo.fi .it 

Corteggio Storico 

8th Sept, Medioeval parade in the Central 

Street of Prato, from 8,30pm 

Chianti Classico Wine Fair 

fair, wine tasting, live music, treasure hunts 

and fi reworks, fi ne wines and food products 

of the Chianti region 

Sept. 8 to 10 Greve in Chianti, Open 10 am 

to midnight. Free adm 

Murder Party 

Murder mystery week-end game organized 

in villas 

Week end of 8 to10 Sept, Agriturismo della 

Fattoria di Statiano Volterra (Pisa) Info 

www.yellowlegacy.it 

Historical cortege and Palio of Diotto 

Sept. 8 scarperia Centro storico tel. 

0558468165 - www.comune.scarperia.fi .it 

Sagra della Polenta, dei Porcini e del 

Cinghiale a Carmignano 

From 9 to 17 Sept, Poggio alla Malva a Carmignano 

(Prato) info 055 8712468 www. 

carmignanodivino.prato.it 

Sagra della polenta e uccelli a Barga 

9 and 10 Sept, Filecchio, Barga (Lucca) 

info www.comune.barga.lu.it 

Feast of Pardon 

Sept. from 9 to 12 Reggello Firenze tel. 

0558669232 - www.comune.reggello.fi .it 

wine Festival 

Sept. 9, 16, 23 Palazzuolo sul Senio (Firenze) 

tel. 0558046008 - www.palazzuolo.it 

Neustadt Beer festival 

Sept. 9, 10 Montespertoli (Firenze) info 

05716001 - www.comune.montespertoli. 

fi .it 

Children’s palio 

Sept. 9 Cerreto Guidi (Firenze) info 

0571906220 - www.comune.cerreto-guidi. 

fi .it 

Sapori e Colori 

Market in Piazza Duomo 

10th Sept, from 9am to 7 pm Piazza Duomo 

Prato Info: Unione Commercianti tel. 0574- 

43801 

La meglio Genia 

Exhibition, food tasting 

Sept. from 10 to 19 CAMPI BISENZIO 

Centro storico tel. 3401019292 - www.comune.campi-bisenzio.fi 

.it 

Schiacciata, grape and roasted pork 

festival 

Sept. 10, 17 Vitolini, Vinci (Firenze) tel. 

0571568012 - www.comune.vinci.fi .it 

Controcorrente 

Games, sports, along the Arno 

Sept. 10 La Tisana Empoli (Firenze) tel. 

0571757999 - www.comune.empoli.fi .it 

Traditional soup festival 

Sept. 10 Fucecchio (Firenze) tel. 

057123454 - www.comune.fucecchio.fi .it 

Lo sbaracco 

Barter Market 

Sept. 10 castelfi orentino (Firenze) info 

0571686341-48 - www.comune.castelfi o- 

rentino.fi .it 

Week of the Honey in Montalcino 

market and fair 

10 Sept, Fortezza Montalcino (Siena) www. 

comunemontalcino.it 

Palio dei Ciuchi ad Asciano 

10 Sept from 5 pm, Asciano (siena) info 

www.comune.asciano.siena.it 

Disfida con l’Arco a Montopoli Val d’Arno 

Traditional competition 

10 sept, Montopoli Val d’Arno (Pisa), Info 

0571.449024 www.montopoli.net, 18.00 

Palio of the contradas and Jousting 

Sept. 10 Bagno a Ripoli (Firenze) tel. 

0556390222 - www.comune.bagno-a-ripoli.fi 

.it 

Limite fair and fireworks display on the 

Arno river 

Sept. 11 Limite sull’Arno tel. 0571978124 

- www.comune.capraia-e-limite.fi .it 

Late afternoon concert at Villa Peyron 

Sept. 13 Villa Peyron Fieseol tel. 055264321 

- www.bardinipeyron.it 

Wine Festival in Panzano 

Panzano hosts tasting booths representing 

nearly 20 of the best local wineries 

Sept 15, 16 and 17. Panzano-in-Chianti; 10 

euro to receive a wine glass and holder and 

all the wine you care to sample 

Assedio alla Villa a Poggio a Caiano 

medieval food stands, music, games, sports 

etc. 

15, 16 and 17 Sept., Poggio a Caiano (Prato) 

info 055 8798779 www.prolocopoggioacaiano.it 

Nel Sogno di Messer Boccaccio 

historical performances based on stories 

by Boccacio 

15, 16 and 17 Sept Piazza Boccaccia, Certaldo 

(Firenze) Info 0571 6611 www.comune.certaldo.fi 

.it 

Wine is pleasure. Wine and olive oil 

tasting 

Sept. from 15 to 17 Basilica di S. Maria, 

Impruneta (Firenze) 0552373267 -www. 

comune.impruneta.fi .it 

Feast of Pardon 

Sept. from 15 to 19 Incisa Valdarno, central 

streets, info 0558333433 - www.comune. 

incisa-valdarno.fi .it 

giardini in fiera 

fl ower and garden fair 

Sept 15, 16 and 17, Villa Le Corti, San Casciano 

(Firenze) info 055 829301 www. 

giardininfi era.it, 10-19, 8 euro 

Parade of the town districts and rowing 

Palio 

Sept. 16, 17 Limite sull’Arno (Firenze) tel. 

0571978124 - www.comune.capraia-e-limite.fi 

.it 

Expressive festival 

Expo of paintings. sculpture, video, music, 

design and more. 

17 to 23 sept. Offi cina Giovani Piazza Macelli, 

4 Prato Info: www.freeshout.it 

Sagra del Seitan 

Seitan is considered the best vegetarian 

substitute for meat. 

17 Sept from noon to midnight at Circolo 

Ricreativo di Pozzolatico, Via Imprunetana 

per Pozzolatico, 227 a Impruneta (Firenze) 

info 055 620262 www.sagradelseitan.it 

Sagra della Bruschetta a Palazzuolo 

sul Senio 

17 sept only Palazzuolo sul Senio “Casa 

del Villeggiante” info 055 8046125 www. 

palazzuoloeventi.com 

Stradainfiera 

17 and 18 Sept in Greve in Chianti (Firenze) 

info 055.85.45.27 www.comune.grevein-chianti.fi 

.it 

Bruschetta (roasted bread with oil) festival 

Sept. 17 Casa del villeggiante Palazzuolo 

sul Senio (Firenze) tel. 0558046008 - 

www.palazzuolo.it 

The sweetest day of the year - food festival 

with typical cakes 

Sept. 17 Castelnuovo d’Elsa Firenze info 

0571686341-48 - www.comune.castelfi o- 

rentino.fi .it 

Late Summer walking tour 

Sept. 17 Montespertoli (Firenze) info 

05716001 - www.comune.montespertoli. 

fi .it 

Harvest festival 

Sept. from 21 to 24 Mercatale Val di Pesa 

(Firenze) info 0558077832 - www.comune. 

san-casciano-val-di-pesa.fi .it 

Open shops under the stars 

Shows, food tasting 

Until Sept. on Wed, Dicomano, info 055 

838541 

viva la piazza! 

Until 8 Sept. Tavarnelle V.P. e Barberino V.E, 

www.comune.tavarnelle-val-di-pesa.fi .it, info 

055-8077832 


Whisky Trail 

8th Sept, Castello dell’Imperatore, Prato, 

from 10pm 

Montereggae. Concerts in Montereggi 

Sept. 8, 9 Montereggi (Capraia e Limite) tel. 

0571978124 - www.comune.capraia-e-limite-sull-arno.fi 

.it 

Baccano utile 

Musical performance 

Sept. 9 Marradi, Pian di Sopra tel. 

0558045170 - www.pro-marradi.it 

Viae Musicae. Antiqua Ensemble. Prima 

ch’autunno arrivi. 

Antique music concert 

Sept. 16 at 4,30 p.m. Teatro d’estate di Villa 

La Tana (Bagno a Ripoli) tel. 0556390356- 

7 - www.comune.bagno-a-ripoli.fi .it 

Opera gala 

Sept. 16 Castello di Sonnino (Montespertoli) 

tel. 0571609412 - www.comune. montespertoli.fi 

.it 

Brotherhood in concert 

Sept. 16 Spazio Energia, Reggello Firenze 

tel. 0558669229 - www.comune.reggello. 

fi .it 

Summer concert season in Lamole 

Sept. 17 Lamole (greve in Chianti) tel. 

0558547160 - www.comune.greve-inchianti.fi 

.it 

Salotto musicale. Concerts 

June, July, the fi rst Monday of the month, 

Sede Pro Lastra Enrico Caruso, Lastra a 

Signa, tel. 055.8722628 

• PARKS 

Sculptures in a woodland 

In an untouched wood of ilex and oak trees 

in the heart of Sienese Chianti, many internationally 

renowned artists from fi ve continents 

have created imposing contemporary 

sculptures 

Parco sculture del Chianti, La Fornace 

48/49, Pievasciata, Siena, tel. 0577.357151, 

www.chiantisculpturepark.it, open all year 

Parco Mediceo di Pratolino 

Theatrical, musical and dance performances, 

inter-cultural themes. 

Until October 31, Thur & Fri, Pratolino, Vaglia, 

info 055.409155, from Thur to Sun 

10-19.30 

Stato Libero dei Renai 

This natural oasis offers numerous lakes, 

ponds, green areas, bird-watching spots, 

sport facilities, children’s games, a swimming 

pool, etc 

Until Sept. 30, Mon-Fri 12:00-20:00, Sat, 

Sun and holidays 9-20, free, Parco dei Renai, 

Lastra a Signa, www.parcorenai.it 


Calenzano discovered, walks through 

history and nature. 

Guided walking tours 

from April to October, Calenzano, info 

055.8833255 

Silver Fish Award 

Sept. 10 Piazza Umberto I, Londa (Firenze) 

tel. 0558352520 - www.comune.londa.fi .it 

Hunters’ day 

Sept. 10 Lutirano Marradi (Firenze) tel. 

0558045170 - www.pro-marradi.it 

7th Vento di sotto sailing Trophy 

Sept. 10 Lago di Bilancino (Barberino di 

Mugello – Firenze) tel. 0558418133 - www. 

bilancinolagoditoscana.it 

Archer festival 

Sept. 16 Parco di canonica Certaldo Firenze 

info 0571661256 - www.comune. 

certaldo.fi .it 

61° Gran Premio Industria e Commercio 

International professional bicycle race 

17 Sept, Start and Arrival at via Valentini 

Prato. Info: Ass. ciclistica Pratese “1927”, 

tel. 0574-22282, www.ciclisticapratese.it 

Calenzano discovered, walks through 

history and nature. 

Guided walking tours 

from April to October, Calenzano, info 

055.8833255 

• SUMMER NIGHTS 

PratoEstate 

Concerts, performances, events, exhibits, 

etc. 

June-Sept., info: Ass. Cultura Comune di 

Prato, tel. 0574.615024, www.pratoestate. 

it 

Summer in Sesto 

June- Sept., info tel. 055.44961, www.sestoestate.com 

Sport festival 

Until Sept., San Casciano Val di Pesa, tel. 

055.8229558 

Montemurlo Estate 

cinema, dance, folklore, music, theatre and 

sport 

Until Sept., every day, info Uffi cio Cultura 

Comune di Montemurlo, tel. 0574.558264 

Prato Estate 2006 

Music, cinema, theatre 

Until Sept., info 0574.1835021-22, www. 

pratoestate.it 

IN TUSCANY 


Con-Vivere Carrara Festival 

City, Territory, Culture. A Festival on Multiracial 

social integration 

8 to 10 Sept, various places in Carrara, see 

all details on www.con-vivere.it 

Ma la notte ...si! 

Street poetry and lectures 

13 at Palazzina Zalum and 22 sept at Baracchina 

rossa in Livorno info 0586 820587 


Sagra della zuppa di pane a Roccastrada 

1 to 10 Sept, Montemassi, Roccastrada 

(Grosseto), www.comune.roccastrada.gr.it, 

info 0564 - 561111 

Sagra del cinghiale a Capalbio 

6 to 10 Sept, Piazza dei Pini, Capalbio 

(Grosseto), www.capalbio.it, info 0564 

896611 

Festa Medievale 

Medieval market, food stands, music, games 

etc. 

9 Sept, Monsummano Terme (Pistoia) info 

0572 959228, www.comune.monsummano-terme.pt.it, 

h 17.00 


Pearl Jam 

20 Sept www.pistoiablues.com, Piazza 

Duomo, Pistoia, ticketone.it 21, 38€ 

UP COMING 


Corri La Vita 

Help in the fi ght against breast cancer by 

participating in a 5.6 kilometer walk through 

Florence or a more challenging 12 kilometer 

run 

Sign-ups begin Sept. 1, at the Lega Italiana 

Lotta ai Tumori, Viale Volta 173, or two 

sporting goods stores: Universo Sport, 

Piazza Duomo 6/7/8 r, Tel:055/284412 

and Sport Le Cure, Via Sacchetti 22/R, 

tel. 055 573420. Registration will also be 

held the morning of October 1 in Piazza 

Santa Croce. Note: those running the 12 

kilometer event require a doctor’s certifi cate. 

For more information or to register, visit 

www.corrilavita.it or e-mail info@corrilavita. 

it. Dott.ssa Elisabetta Bernardini, e-mail: 

info@legatumorifi renze.it. cell. 335 83 50 

718, tel: 055 576939



13 


Events in FLORENCE SEP 8 TO SEP 21

14 


UP CLOSE & PERSONAL 

An 

Interview 

with 

Dr. Alessandro 

Frigiola 

‘To be able to save their lives, to see the smiles in 

their eyes and in the eyes of their parents, is a 

great joy and very satisfying.’ 

Dr. Alessandro Frigiola, head surgeon 

at San Donato General Hospital 

in San Donato Milanese, decided 

to found the Associazione Bambini 

Cardiopatici nel Mondo (Association 

for Children with Heart Disease) in 

1982 after his experience in Vietnam, 

where he spent a month witnessing 

the deaths of dozens of children born 

with heart disease. Dr. Frigiola felt it 

was his duty to strike out against what 

he considered a ‘moral injustice.’ He 

started to offer his services in centres 

around the world—centres that were 

being forced to operate without suffi 

cient funds or adequate facilities. In 

1992, he received an offi cial invitation 

to travel with his team to Egypt 

and serve at the University Hospital 

of Cairo. That same year, he founded 

Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo—a 

charity association that was presented 

to the press in March 1994. 

Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo 

operates in Italy and abroad, lending 

it services primarily to underdeveloped 

countries that lack the staff, hospital 

facilities and equipment needed to 

supply life-saving heart treatments. 

The association’s mission is to perform 

heart surgery on children affl icted 

with complex congenital heart disease, 

and to aid young patients during their 

post-surgery recovery stage. Bambini 

Cardiopatici nel Mondo also supplies 

the technical equipment necessary for 

said operations and organizes training 

courses on various medical disciplines 

within these foreign communities. In 

Italy, the association provides scholarships 

to foreign doctors to prepare 

themselves professionally in the fi eld 

of heart-surgery and return to their own 

countries of origin with the benefi t of 

life-saving knowledge and expertise. 

Dr. Alessandro Frigiola will be in 

Florence on Sept. 16 to speak at the 

benefi t dinner sponsored by Mabel 

Srl. The event, which includes a musical 

performance featuring ‘Verdi e 

l’animo umano’ and a dinner organised 

by Guido Guidi, will be hosted 

at the Istituto Universitario Europeo in 

its famous Badia Fiesolana. All funds 

collected from ticket sales will be 

donated to the Associazione Bambini 

Cardiopatici nel Mondo to support its 

initiatives in Italy and abroad. 

The Florentine: What is the 

most important thing that needs 

to be done for the children your 

association serves? 

Dr. Alessandro Frigiola: It’s crucial 

for us to develop an informationspreading 

campaign which will help 

the association achieve its objective— 

namely to sustain an international 

organization dedicated to children 

with heart disease. We are working to 

coordinate projects in at least 20 to 25 

countries throughout the world. Our 

ultimate goal over the next ten years 

is to help these countries become 

autonomous when it comes to treating 

children with heart disease. The project 

has an estimated overall cost of 40 

million euro—which is really quite low 

if you consider how many millions of 

euro get invested in absolutely futile 

projects. 

TF: What have been the 

difficulties in finding funding for 

this project? 

AF: There have been enormous 

diffi culties involved in developing this 

project, and many limitations still exist 

because the association is supported 

entirely by donations from individual 

citizens and fund-raising initiatives— 

like the one supporters decided to 

organise in Florence on Sept. 16. 

Our association is beyond the scope 

of politics and religion and doesn’t 

receive government funding. 

TF: What has been your best 

experience throughout the course 

of this project? 

AF: I have had many beautiful 

experiences...I work in poor countries 

where people don’t have a thing—where 

children, and not only children, die 

because they don’t have the possibility 

of treatment. To be able to save their 

lives, to see the smiles in their eyes and 

in the eyes of their parents, is a great 

joy and very satisfying. 

TF: What kind of response 

have you received from the 

governments of the countries 

where you’ve worked? 


AF: We have always been welcome 

and have received a lot of support from 

the governments of the countries we 

have gone to work in. 

TF: What would you like to do 

to strengthen the organization? 

What needs to be done? What’s 

missing? 

AF: As I have already said, our goal 

is to create an international heart 

organisation; to achieve this objective, 

we need to come up with funds so 

that we can continue to train heart 

surgeons, cardiologists, anaesthetic 

experts and nurses—in hopes that they 

may become autonomous within their 

own countries. 

TF: How has your life changed 

since you founded Bambini 

Cardiopatici nel Mondo? 

AF: My life has changed quite a bit 

since I established this association, not 

only because I work a lot, but because 

I have learned to value some aspects 

of life that we often take for granted or 

forget about. I can no longer stand the 

proliferation of certain injustices that 

have become intolerable to me. 

TF: What would you like our 

readers to know about this 

association? 

AF: First and foremost, I would like the 

readers of The Florentine to know that 

Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo goes 

beyond politics, religion and ethnicity— 

and that according to the latest reports 

by the World Health Organisation 2.5 

million children with heart disease 

are waiting for treatment. If they don’t 

receive surgery, 70 percent of these 

children die. 

For more information about Bambini 

Cardiopatici nel Mondo write to: 

info@bambinicardiopatici.it 

www.bambinicardiopatici.it 

To participate in the Florentine Benefi t 

Dinner: 

Contact: Anna Mollo 

mollo@mabelweb.it


Culture & CUSTOMS 

15 


All of the articles found in the following pages are written by independent collaborators. The Florentine seeks to publish 

stories that are interesting, entertaining, and useful to all of our readers. If and when a writer expresses opinions within his 

or her work those opinions should be considered to be those of the writer and not necessarily those of the publishers of this 

newspaper. If you wish to submit articles for consideration please contact us at redazione@theflorentine.net. 

ITALIAN VOICES: a window on language 

and customs in Italy...‘Il rientro’ 

by Linda Falcone 

It’s Tuesday—the day we put the newspaper 

to bed. And yes, since the entire 

staff has spent the last few weeks boldly 

courting summer, we are surprised that the 

paper is already pushing so hard to hatch. 

On most days, we the people of The Florentine 

form a relatively perfect union and 

work in varying levels of peace and harmony. 

Today, on the other hand, there is 

little room for love. It’s not even midday 

and we’ve already fought about a front-page 

photo you’ll never see, waged a war over 

headlines you’ll never read, and I’ve almost 

been fired for inserting last-minute commas 

that you probably won’t even notice. Such 

is the beauty of journalism. 

Sometimes the expression I need to write 

about escapes me until just before deadline. This 

week, the word has followed me everywhere— 

chasing me down streets and flitting in and out 

of everyone’s eyes. Il rientro. All morning it has 

been looming over our desks, ominous, carnivorous 

and invisible. The pressroom door is closed, 

but it has somehow seeped under the doorway, 

merciless as the damp. 

The first signs of ‘re-entry’ started a few days 

ago as the familiar snake of traffic began inching 

wickedly towards the city. That trail of cars 

brings Italy’s actors and actresses back to their 

everyday stages. September is here; the show is 

about to begin again. For a month, all of the city’s 

respectable citizens drew the curtain and stayed 

out of the limelight. That’s the privilege of August 

in Florence. Shops close, shutters shut, everyone 

turns their key three times and makes a break for 

mountain peaks or sand dunes. Daily drama flies 

north for the summer. No one has the strength to 

argue about things that can’t get done anyway. 

With September’s rientro, the spectacle inherent 

in Italian living once again finds its way to 

the surface. The lovers, the haters, the smart and 

the quick, the belligerent, the wily and the wise— 

all those characters who normally populate the 

Florentine stage-play—take up their roles once 

more. For Italians, il rientro is another way to say 

‘Lights, camera, action!’ It’s time to try and get 

your way again. In August, you could afford to be 

slow and low and silent. With il rientro you’ve got 

to be tricky and witty and loud again. 

Il rientro is always hard, they say. I, for one, 

will miss the sea, shushing ladies in floppy hats 

and sandcastles by the water’s edge. I will miss 

lukewarm pasta from a thermos and breaded veal 

cutlets at the beach. But most of all, I will miss 

the two hours of ‘digestion time’ Italians call le 

ore del silenzio. From two o’clock to four, protesting 

children up and down the beach get banished 

from the seaside and are bade to keep quiet and 

in the shade. In Italy, bathing in salt water after 

lunch blocks the intestines and paralyzes all major 

muscle groups. It’s simply common knowledge. 

During le ore del silenzio kids take turns getting 

buried alive. Dying during digestion is not as 

risky as swimming, and nobody ever scolds them 

for it. Adults have it much better. We get dibs on 

all the lounge chairs. We find time to shamelessly 

snore undisturbed or read a year’s worth of ‘pink’ 

journalism in a week and a half. We are even 

allowed to break the silenzio to complete crosswords 

that require group effort. 

But speaking of group effort, my colleagues 

behind me are making absolutely no effort to 

overcome their unanimous rientro grouchiness. 

Giacomo used to be an architect but always 

talks like a lawyer when he is feeling cross. ‘It 

’With September’s rientro, 

the spectacle inherent in 

Italian living once again finds 

its way to the surface.’ 

is an unarguable fact that this local news 

article is a mortal bore,’ Giacomo tells his 

brother. 

‘So go throw yourself off Ponte Vecchio, 

that’ll make a good story,’ comes Marco’s 

reply. 

‘Yes, but if I dive, then you’ll be stuck 

writing it.’ 

‘You’re right. Never mind, lascia fare.’ 

I smile in spite of myself. Unfortunately, 

they see it. To be happy during the days of 

il rientro is a serious breech in the Florentine 

Code of Correct Conduct. But I can’t 

help it. I love my job. I love the quick wit 

that abounds here and even the pointless 

bickering that sprouts on alternate ruby 

Tuesdays. 

‘What the hell are you so happy about?’ Giacomo 

wants to know. My smile is going to be his 

next fight. 

‘I was just thinking of instating an ore del silenzio 

rule here at the office. Anyone who makes a 

peep during digestion gets buried in quicksand. 

What do you say? After lunch, silence and detective 

paperbacks only.’ 

Evidently the idea is appealing enough to spark 

Giacomo’s begrudging interest. ‘Would we get to 

do crosswords too?’ 

‘You know I’d never object to the search for 

good words.’ 

‘So what’s your word of the week, Lovely?’ 

Italians forget fights as quickly as they start 

them. ‘Lovely’ means we are friends again. ‘I’m 

writing about il rientro,’ I tell him. 

‘Un articolo triste, allora. Why such a sad article 

to start the new season?’ 

‘All good drama needs some element of tragedy,’ 

I muse. 

‘What are you saying?’ he frowns. ‘You’re writing 

an article not a play.’ 

Apparently, this is going to be premise for 

another argument. Oh well. It is September and 

time to keep up with the punches. The sweet lull 

of August fades so quickly. Il rientro has burst into 

town. The city gates stand wide open. The swing 

and sting of Italian life has returned in full force.

16 


The ARTS 

Life in Italy 


Hills and heavens of Mugello 

Art exhibit showcases international student exchange 

By Laura Robertson 

‘Many a dream has been disclosed this summer! Morning conversations 

are about painting, against the backdrop of Rilke’s letters on 

Cézanne as lunch is eaten in the shade, sheltered from the burning 

rays of the sun. The sweltering heat seeping through the walls of the 

old Tabaccaia is an unwelcome visitor; it’s much better to be outside, 

painting in the fields, in the woods or by the lake.’ 

Prof. Adriano Bimbi on the Mugello Project 

Riccardo Nencini, ‘the 2006 Project 

highlights a successful commitment 

that will indeed help many young 

people build their own identity. It will 

also help our population to appreciate 

the educational values that are 

born from the history of our territory. 

Our present reality is deeplyrooted 

in these values, together with 

the conflicts and yearnings to which 

we often find ourselves prey. The 

ultimate goal is to resolve conflicts 

by means of peace and art.’ 

Not a bad goal for an artist. After 

all, a lot can be achieved by means 

of a canvas. ‘Peace and art born in 

the hills of the Mugello’...that’s just 

another way to say ‘enchantment.’ 

Take ageless landscape. Mix it 

with youth and international 

curiosity. Add study and reflection 

along with generous doses of 

courage, colour and vibrant creativity. 

Ask a 600-year-old artist-monk 

to take the project under his wing 

and a creative professor to uphold 

its excellence. Spark the interest and 

patronage of educational and governmental 

institutions, both locally 

and abroad. And then paint, paint, 

paint your heart out. 

Such was the recipe for success 

for the young talented artists working 

alongside Accademia Professor 

Adriano Bimbi this summer, in an 

effort to create this year’s muchawaited 

Mugello exhibition. The 

program opened five years ago with 

the theme ‘The Man on the Cross’ 

(inspired by Donatello’s remarkable 

wooden crucifix), and has consistently 

proved to be an inspiring 

annual event, both culturally and 

artistically. The 2005 exhibit, built on 

the theme ‘In the Valley of the Masters’ 

went on display for the first time 

in both Italy and New York at Pace 

University. Gladly, the same is true 

for this year’s exhibition, product of 

the first edition of a new exchange 

program, wherein Pace University 

students joined Professor Bimbi and 

his students for one month of Tuscan 

painting. In October 2006, the 

University in New York will host 

Accademia students on the occasion 

of the overseas portion of the event. 

The Tuscan inauguration will 

take place at 5pm on Sept. 23 at the 

Convento di Bosco ai Frati, the Castello 

di Cafaggiolo, and the house of 

Giotto in Vicchio. It will continue 

to be on display until Oct. 8, 2006. 

Then it’s time to cross the ocean for 

New York’s part of the bargain. Pace 

University’s Michael Schimmel Center 

for the Arts will host the exhibition; 

expect inauguration at 5 pm on 

Oct. 26. The show continues until 

Nov. 15. 

The theme this year? Well, let’s 

just say that the young artists are 

shooting for heaven. They’ve paid 

homage to the hills, the Mugello 

skies and the artist who believed 

that a painter’s hand is guided by 

God. The exhibit’s muse is no less 

than Guido di Pietro, known to artlovers 

as Fra’ Giovanni da Fiesole, or 

Beato Angelico. 

Hills and Heavens of the Mugello: 

the Angels of Beato Angelico. ‘That’s 

the theme this year,’ Professor Bimbi 

explained. ‘We strongly believe that 

the subject of the landscape in the 

Mugello calls for further, in-depth 

examination; the subtitle is an indication 

that our approach will be 

completely free of the “naturalistic” 

iconography traditional in landscape 

studies. The purpose of this year’s 

studies is to elicit and emphasize the 

sacredness of the landscape in the 

Mugello through painting.’ Prof. Adriano 

Bimbi continued, ‘We spent time 

here with young artists – the angels 

– who are neither good nor evil, who 

are free from any mortal sin, who are 

pure. We’ve been here with the spirit 

of Fra Angelico, a monk and an artist, 

who was born nearby over six centuries 

ago. We’ve come, as always, to 

learn from his supreme lesson: painting 

is the mirror of a soul in constant 

search for the holiness of things and 

of humanity.’ 

The result of such soul-searching 

is a two-part exhibition hosted on 

both sides of the Atlantic. The Italian 

exhibition includes a series of 

approximately 90 paintings of various 

sizes and media (primarily oil, 

but also acrylic and mixed media); 40 

drawings, several of which served as 

background work for the creation of 

the paintings, and other independent 

pieces. The young artists employed 

various techniques including pastel 

and watercolour and experimented 

with both ink and charcoal, many of 

which were created with natural pigments 

- clays and natural vegetable 

pigments. The New York exhibition 

will host about 25 paintings and 35 

drawings, selected from the total 

number of works showcased in the 

Mugello exhibitions. 

Many people have made this program 

possible. The project’s academic 

partners, the Accademia di Belle Arti 

di Firenze and Pace University, New 

York, have teamed up with various 

municipalities and institutional partners. 

In addition to the Province of 

Florence and the Region of Tuscany, 

sponsors include the municipalities 

of San Piero a Sieve, Barberino di 

Mugello, Vicchio, and the Comunità 

Montana del Mugello. The Tuscan 

American Association has also been 

deeply involved in supporting this 

art-study program and has played 

an essential role in initiating the 

inter-cultural aspect of the Mugello 

project, by organizing the Mugello- 

Pace exhibit in 2005. It has since 

been responsible for coordinating 

the entire US-Italy exchange portion 

of Bimbi’s project, creating its first 

complete international exchange 

in 2006—an event now destined to 

become an annual occurrence. 

‘All in all,’ says President of the 

Consiglio Regionale della Toscana, 

For more information about The hills 

For more information about 

and heavens of the Mugello—the 

The hills and heavens of the 

Mugello—the 

Angels of Beato Angelico Angels 

contact: 

of Beato 

Angelico contact: 

Lynn Wiechmann, co-president 

Tuscan American Association 

lynn.wiechmann@iol.it 

Elisabetta Boni 

Comune di S. Piero a Sieve 

055- 848-7536 

urp@comune.san-piero-a-sieve.fi.it


Life in Italy 

17 


How TO DO... 

Sinking your feet into Italian soil 

Steps to take when being a tourist is not enough 

By Robert Nordvall 

Many tourists, seduced by the 

beauty and lifestyle of Italy, 

fantasize about living here 

either temporarily or permanently. 

How does one do it? 

First, a dark secret: Although 

Italy is concerned about illegal 

immigration from some countries, if 

you arrive as a tourist from a nation 

that is not seen as an immigration 

problem, you most likely can just 

stay. As long as you remain under 

the radar of the Italian bureaucracy, 

it’s very unlikely that an official will 

come knocking at your door. Your 

stay, nevertheless, becomes illegal 

under Italian law after the time 

allowed for tourism expires (usually 

90 days), and it is impossible to 

guarantee that you won’t be ‘discovered’ 

by the authorities. Of course, 

you cannot enjoy the privileges of 

a legal resident, such as obtaining 

a driver’s license or registering a 

car, but clever folks often find ways 

around these limitations. 

Still, for the sake of convenience— 

if not for that of legality—most people 

living here eventually search out 

more permanent status. The first step 

in that process is obtaining a visa to 

stay in Italy that must be issued in 

your home nation by an Italian Consulate 

or Embassy. There are several 

different types of visas: for work, for 

study, or simply to reside here, and 

so on. The time and documentation 

required to obtain these documents 

differ by type. Unfortunately, you 

cannot simply apply for a visa on a 

short visit home and then pick it up 

on your next visit. You are required 

to stay in your home nation long 

enough to complete the entire process. 

(I’ve been told that a smart 

and expensive Italian lawyer may 

be able to simplify this process, but 

I can’t verify this claim.) In many 

countries Italian Embassies and 

Consulates have websites listing 

specific visa requirements. 

After arriving with your visa, you 

must apply for a permesso di soggiorno 

at the local Questura. This 

is the ominous Italian building that 

often has a large crowd of foreigners 

in front of it, waiting in line to apply 

for or pick up their permesso. There 

are specific days and times during 

the week when this office processes 

permessi. It is wise first to check the 

schedule and to ask exactly which 

documents are needed in your particular 

city – even if it is a national 

form the document list may not be 

the same at all offices. Be prepared 

to arrive early and return more than 

once to get your form filed. The permesso 

is not permanent and must be 

periodically renewed. 

The next step you may take is to 

get your residenza obtained from the 

Comune. Upon application, expect 

police to come to your house to 

verify your residence there. Once 

you’ve achieved residenza you can 

also apply for a carta di identitá – a 

useful document that can replace 

your passport as a form of identification 

(but not for travel outside the 

country). Another minor advantage 

of the carta is that if you are not an 

EU citizen, you ordinarily do not 

qualify for discounts at museums 

and churches, but the clerks at these 

places often don’t check the nationality 

on a carta di Identitá and give 

the discount to anyone presenting 

one. Also, if you are not otherwise 

registered at your local ASL office, 

you can join the Italian national 

health system for the payment of a 

reasonable yearly fee. 

Most residents stop at this point. 

Going from resident to citizen status 

is far more complicated. Many 

people qualify for citizenship on 

the basis of their Italian ancestry. 

The complete list of requirements 

can be found on www.myitalianfamily.com. 

A foreign citizen married 

to an Italian can apply for Italian 

citizenship six months after the marriage 

if living in Italy. Other non-EU 

foreign citizens can apply after 10 

years of residence (the Prodi government 

plans to introduce a law 

in Parliament to lower this to five 

years). Citizens of European Union 

nations can apply after only four 

years. Foreigners serving the Italian 

State have the right to apply after 

five years. The application for citizenship 

is made to the mayor of the 

Comune where you live and goes to 

the Minister of the Interior. The list 

of documents you need for is available 

at the Prefettura. 

This certainly is not an exhaustive 

statement of citizenship rules; 

anyone considering this option 

should look at websites with Italian 

citizenship regulations (many of 

which are only in Italian) and consider 

consulting an attorney. Not 

surprisingly, the citizenship process 

often requires much patience, but if 

you don’t have a lot of patience, you 

don’t want to live in Italy anyway! 

Workshop, Show Rooms and classes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Nordvall, upon retiring in 

Pistoia, arrived with his visa in 

hand. He later completed the 

procedures to become a permanent 

resident, but he does not 

plan to apply for citizenship. He 

thanks attorneys Federico Antich 

and Francesco D’Addario for 

reviewing this article for technical 

correctness, but any errors are 

those of the author alone.

18 


Travel & LEISURE 

Life in Italy 


SLOW TRAVEL along the highways and byways of Italy 

When the hills were alive with the sound of quarrymen 

by Sabine Eiche 

Photo by sabine Eiche 

Nanni di Banco, Orsanmichele tabernacle 

Has it ever occurred to you 

that the stony city of Florence 

was literally carved 

out of the surrounding hills? It’s 

quite true. Countless local quarries 

provided the blocks of stone for the 

walls of medieval and Renaissance 

churches and palaces, and for the 

columns and architectural ornaments 

to decorate them. Pietraforte, a 

kind of light brown limestone, came 

from quarries at Costa San Giorgio, in the Boboli 

hill between Santa Felicità and Porta Romana, 

at Bellosguardo, and around Marignolle and Le 

Campore, all south of the Arno. To the north, the 

hills of Fiesole, Maiano and Settignano provided 

the blueish-grey sandstone pietra serena. 

In the 13 th century, load after load of pietraforte 

was hauled over the Arno to the outskirts 

of Florence to construct the enormous basilicas 

of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Even 

the piers inside these two churches are of pietraforte. 

Look at Palazzo Vecchio, the 

Loggia dei Lanzi, the Bargello and 

Orsanmichele, and you are looking 

at pieces of the southern hills 

transformed into architecture. The 

gigantic blocks of rustication that 

you see on the façades of the 15 th - 

century Palazzo Medici were cut 

out of pietraforte quarries. Filippo 

Strozzi, whose palace rivals that of the Medici 

in size, had endless loads of stone brought from 

quarries at Boboli and Marignolle. It is said that 

between November 1495 and March 1497, Strozzi’s 

heavily-laden carts rattled over the Arno 

more than a thousand times. At Palazzo Pitti, the 

builders had it much easier, since their source 

(the Boboli hill) was right behind the palace. In 

fact, Palazzo Pitti sits on the hollowed out part of 

one of these quarries. 

If pietraforte was used mainly for the construction 

of walls, pietra serena was used above 

all for columns, stairs, doors and windows. The 

oldest of these quarries, dating back to Etruscan 

times, were at Monte Ceceri in Fiesole, and they 

continued to be worked during the Roman and 

early medieval periods. The demand for pietra 

serena was so high that in the 13 th century new 

Piero di Cosimo, The Building of a Double Palace 

quarries had to be opened further east, around 

Vincigliata and Settignano. By the 15 th century, 

when Brunelleschi’s architectural style boosted 

the popularity of pietra serena to unprecedented 

heights, it was also being extracted at Golfolina, 

west of Florence. 

Brunelleschi chose quarries that would provide 

enormous blocks of pietra serena from which he 

could cut entire column shafts. He quarried the 

stone for the loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti 

at Trassinaia, near Vincigliata. The columns 

for San Lorenzo came from a site 

nearby, still known as the Cava 

delle Colonne. 

Vasari tells us that Michelangelo 

got the pietra serena for the 

New Sacristy and the Laurentian 

Library from a quarry in the valley 

of the Mensola, below Monte 

Ceceri. Because pietra serena does 

not weather well, it was normally reserved for 

the interior of buildings, although the portico of 

the Uffizi, entirely in pietra serena, is a significant 

exception. Vasari (who built the Uffizi) says 

that he chose a variety of pietra serena known 

as pietra del fossato, which was also used for 

the columns of the mid-16 th -century Mercato 

Nuovo (popularly called the Straw Market). Not 

much time passed before pietra serena became 

so sought after that the Grand Dukes of Tuscany 

decided to restrict access to the Fiesole quarries 

found between San Francesco and Fontelucente, 

and those at Mulinaccio below Maiano. 

By the early 20 th century, most quarries around 

Florence had closed. Probably the last Florentine 

monument with stairs and columns carved out 

of pietra serena was the Biblioteca Nazionale 

Centrale, begun in 1911. However, after the Second 

World War, one of the 

pietraforte quarries of Boboli 

was reopened, specifically to 

provide stone for the rebuilding 

of the bombed Ponte Santa 

Trinità. 

But even when they are 

abandoned, quarries are not 

forgotten. Some are commemorated 

in street names, such as 

the Vicolo della Cava, a tiny 

lane off the Costa San Giorgio that once led to a 

quarry above Boboli. Some survive because they’ve 

been put to other uses, such as the Cava delle Colonne, 

which John Temple Leader in the 19 th century 

turned into an artificial lake in his park at 

the Castello di Vincigliata. Maiano is the location 

of one of the best known abandoned quarries, a 

huge amphitheatre carved out of the hillside, now 

used by rock-climbers. Nearby, in a small building 

constructed for the use of the quarrymen by the 

same Temple Leader, is the renowned restaurant 

Cave di Maiano (055-59133, open daily for lunch 

and dinner). The fare is appropriately wholesome 

and very tasty. Eating out on the spacious terrace 

overlooking the hills on a balmy evening is a 

memorable experience. 

Many other quarries are preserved in the local 

memory and visited by excursionists, especially on 

the north side of the Arno. For the past two years, 

the group Anpilandia has organized a Sunday 

hike in May following the trails of the old quarrymen 

in Fiesole and Settignano (for information 

contact Consiglio di Quartiere 2, 055-2767841; 

or ask Sig.ra Rita at Trattoria Osvaldo at Ponte 

a Mensola, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, 055 

602168; while there, taste her wonderful farfalle 

al frantoio!). 

Sabine Eiche, a Canadian writer and art historian living 

in Florence, has published extensively on Italian 

Renaissance architecture, gardens and drawings. She 

is an authority on the history and culture of the Duchy 

of Urbino and is preparing a book about the local cuisine. 

Her most recent book is Presenting the Turkey: 

The Fabulous Story of a Flamboyant and Flavourful 

Bird. (http://members.shaw.ca/seiche). 

Florence 

SAM’ S 

Amsterdam 

MARKETS 

Try Sam’s for a bit of America !! 

Over 250 products imported by Sam’s from the USA 

SAM’S HAS IT ! 

In the center of Florence near the Bargello Museum 

Via Ghibellina 117r. - Tel. 055-7189020 

Store hours: Mon-Sat 11.00 am – 7.00 pm 

www.samsmarkets.com


Life in Italy 

19 


Travel & LEISURE 

Getaways for everyday 

Two historical parks for exploring culture and nature 

By Jo Linsdell 

‘A historic garden is an architectural and horticultural composition of 

interest to the public from the historical or artistic point of view. As such, 

it is to be considered as a monument.’ 

Article 1 of the Florence Charter, 1982 

Boboli Gardens 

THE BOBOLI GARDENS 

The immense stretch of green 

that extends from the hill behind the 

Pitti Palace as far as Porta Romana 

is one of the largest and most elegant 

‘Italian style gardens’ in the world. 

It reached its current extension and 

appearance through several stages 

of enlargement and renovation 

work carried out over the years. 

The Boboli Gardens, part of the 

Medici gardens at the Pitti Palace, 

was laid out for Eleonora di Toledo 

and Cosimo I in the 16th century. 

With the declining fortunes of the 

Pitti family, Buonaccorso Pitti, great 

grandson of Luca Pitti, sold the palace 

to Eleanor di Toledo, wife of 

Duke Cosimo I Medici and daughter 

of Emperor Charles V in 1549. 

This extensive out-door ‘masterpiece’ 

covers a vast area of 320,000 

square meters and contains a magnificent 

collection of fountains, grottoes 

and elegant statues. The gardens 

were designed by the famous 

landscape architect, Niccolo Pericoli 

(known as ‘Tribolo’). However, 

when he died his work was continued 

by Bernardo Buontalenti (1585- 

1588) and completed by Alfonso 

Parigi the Younger (1628-1658). 

Though during the 19th century, 

the Boboli gardens were slightly modified, 

most of its beautiful landscape 

still retains its original creations. The 

Medici family had planned the area 

as a small township, enclosed by a 

long wall, for their family. Extraordinary 

and extravagant, the Medici 

royals employed over 200 servants 

to maintain this amazing oasis of 

green. 

As one of the largest open spaces 

in the city, ‘Il giardino dei Boboli’ is 

most definitely a great picnic destination. 

These forty-five hectares (or 

111 acres) of hillside park owe their 

Parco della Cascine 

name to the Boboli family, the former 

owners of some of this land. Full 

of inviting walks, the gardens are 

among the finest classical parks of 

this kind and have various features 

worth seeing, as well as providing a 

beautiful view of Florence from the 

highpoint of the terrace of the Kaffeehaus 

(was added in 1775). 

The quietest entrance is on the 

Via Romana. One of the most notable 

features is the Viottolone, a long 

avenue lined with cypress trees. 

There are many different elements 

that enrich the landscape, including 

a rose garden, fountains, grottoes, 

garden temples and statues of 

mythical gods and goddesses. There 

are also paths that will take you to 

a higher level, where you can enjoy 

the breathtaking scenery and some 

of the finest panoramic views of the 

city. 

Boboli Gardens 

Piazza Pitti - Florence 

Open from 9.00am-4.30pm daily; 

closed on the fi rst and last Monday 

of each month. Admission costs 6 

euro. Accessible to disabled people. 

Le Cascine 

Piazza Vittorio Veneto - Florence 

Open everyday. Admission free. 

Accessible to disabled people. 

PARCO DELLE CASCINE 

The Cascine (or ‘farmhouses’) 

were part of the property which 

Alessandro and Cosimo I dei Medici 

purchased and turned into a game 

reserve and area for the rearing of 

cattle. The Cascine park is bound by 

three waterways of various sizes and 

importance: the river Arno, the river 

Mugnone and the Macinate canal 

(dug in 1563). ‘Il parco’, which covers 

118 hectares of land, is Florence’s 

largest public park. Its history has 

always been closely bound up with 

that of the city: from the Medici to 

the Lorraine, and from the Kingdom 

of Italy to the present day. 

During the Medici reign the estate 

also included a piece of land called 

La Sardigna, and an irregular rectangle 

of land between the Carraia 

bridge and the Prato gateway. Possession 

of this land, both inside and 

outside the city walls, ensured continuity 

between the city and country 

life the Medici family led in the 16 th 

century. When the Medici family 

line died out in 1737, the property 

passed to the Grand-Duchy of Lorraine, 

and the Cascine were used 

more as a place of leisure, for walks 

and for parties. In 1786, Giuseppe 

Manetti began work on reorganising 

the Cascine to create the large park, 

with furnishings and architectural 

elements of symbolic significance. 

These include the ‘Little Royal Palace’, 

the Quercione watering-place 

(also known as the Fontana delle 

Boccacce), the pyramid-shaped ice 

store and the Pavoniere (two Neoclassical 

temples used as birdcages). 

Although they were only opened 

to the public on special occasions 

from the 17 th century onwards, it was 

during the brief Napoleonic interlude, 

under Elisa Baciocchi, that the 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cascine became a real public park. 

In the second half of the 19 th century, 

it became even more popular 

as a walking or riding place than 

other traditional Florentine destinations, 

such as Fiesole or Pian dei 

Giullari. In the early 19th century, 

Giuseppe Cacialli extensively renovated 

the park. In 1869, it became 

the property of the City of Florence 

and was again restored, this time 

by architect Felice Francolini. During 

the 20 th century, this well-loved 

park became the venue for a range 

of sporting activities such as horse 

racing, tennis, target shooting, clay 

pigeon shooting, swimming (in the 

Pavoniere pool), and the home of 

the Faculty of Agricultural Science 

and the School of Airborne Warfare. 

For all the changes it has witnessed 

over the last century, Le Cascine 

has lost none of their original 

monumental qualities. Vast prati, or 

lawns, bordered by a wood of Atlantic 

cedar trees, elms, pines, horse 

chestnuts, oaks and poplars, are still 

to be found inside the park, each 

one with its own individual name, 

such as Prato di Via delle Cascine, 

Prato della Tinaia, Prato del Quercione 

and Prato delle Cornacchie. 

This popular park is a favourite 

with joggers, horse riders and families 

with young children, especially 

on Sundays and Tuesday mornings, 

when it’s market day. Towards 

Piazza Vittorio Veneto on the 

park’s east side is an open-air swimming 

pool (used during the summer 

months), while to the west is 

the park’s amphitheatre, a popular 

summertime venue for dance performances 

and concerts. Horse racing 

takes place not far from here at 

the Ippodromo delle Muline. 

Jo Linsdell has lived in Italy for 

six years and works as a freelance 

writer. Her book Italian for Tourists 

is available to buy at www.lulu. 

com/jolinsdell

20 


STYLE & FASHION 

Life in Italy 


A blast from the past 

Vintage passion feeds Florentine fashion 

By Cassandra Brown 

People have always appreciated 

treasures from the past, and 

the last couple of years have 

seen a global rise in the demand for 

vintage fashions. Not many years 

ago, it was seen as something distasteful 

in the eyes of many Italians 

to want to wear items of clothing 

that other people had worn or that 

were ‘second hand.’ Recently, however, 

we have seen an increase in the 

popularity of vintage, and with this 

has come the arrival of stores selling 

vintage clothing and accessories 

across Italy. 

Fuelled by the frequent sightings 

of celebrities in vintage clothing, 

especially from America and the 

UK, Italians, more used to setting 

rather than taking on trends, have 

adopted some aspects of ‘vintage’ 

fashion. Part of this trend comes 

from the fashion houses around 

Italy, which have delved into past 

collections and archives to produce 

pieces inspired by the past. Last 

year, Gucci recreated an exquisite 

pattern on many accessories originally 

designed for Grace Kelly. Matthew 

Williamson at Pucci has also 

designed his collections with one 

eye on the past of the great man of 

prints himself. This desire to obtain 

pieces of clothing from differing eras 

has filtered down into mainstream 

and high street fashions, and has 

further encouraged a desire to seek 

out items from years gone by. 

People seek vintage items often 

because they are ‘one off’s’ and lend 

an individual a style that is different 

and unique. Some people appreciate 

the quality of vintage goods, 

especially those that have been hand 

made. In today’s climate of mass 

production and clothes and accessories 

that have been imported from 

factories all over the world, this is 

certainly something to consider. 

Florence, although not often seen 

as such an important city for fashion 

as Milan, is nevertheless home to a 

number of vintage fashion stores and 

fairs. Often coinciding with the Pitti 

Uomo and Filati fairs, is Pitti Vintage, 

which showcases a vast array 

of differing styles from around the 

world. At this increasingly popular 

fair, pieces from big names such as 

Gucci, Fendi, Pucci and Prada can 

easily be found, as well as a number 

of handmade items, accessories, 

shoes, and luggage. A popular trend 

among new and existing ‘trendy’ 

designers is to purposely design ‘new 

vintage’ items – distressed jeans and 

tee-shirts being perfect examples 

that are now mainstream. 

The Corsini family regularly hold 

vintage sales in the gardens of their 

stunning palazzo. Here the great 

and the good of Florence sell and 

buy designer and hand made items, 

more often from Italian and in particular, 

Florentine designers. 

Pitti Vintage, close to the Pitti 

Palace, is a treasure trove of items 

from the past, selling many big name 

brands, and is more on the costly 

end of the vintage market in Florence. 

Here it is sometimes possible 

to find accessories in exotic leathers, 

such as crocodile and lizard. There 

is also jewelry as well as luggage, 

shoes and boots. Other accessories 

include belts, suspenders and an 

eclectic mix of brooches. Ceri Vintage 

sells a mix of brand and nonbrand 

items, including Gucci, Louis 

Vuitton and Armani, as well as a 

selection of marine garments, buttons 

and emblems. Yves Saint Laurent 

pieces can sometimes be found 

in these stores, although normally 

more in clothing than accessories. 

Lastly, Borgo Pinti is home to Maison 

Dumitru, which tends to sell 

non brand name vintage, from private 

labels or private collections. It 

is a treasure trove of unique pieces. 

All of these stores also occasionally 

sell ‘one off’ items, such as old 

cigarette holders or containers and 

business card holders, and they are 

great places to find exquisitely tailored 

items that have been hand 

made by tailors across Florence, and 

the world. 

Vintage fashion is popular among 

the huge numbers of tourists and students 

that come to Florence to study. 

So much so, in fact, that Ceri Vintage 

has organized the Florence Vintage 

Market next Sunday September 10 

at the Canoa Club presso Canottieri 

Comunali Firenze, on the Lungarno 

Francesco Ferrucci, no 4. It looks 

to be a fun afternoon with a bar-bque, 

music and free entrance from 

12.30pm to 8.00pm. There will be 

vintage clothing, accessories, luggage 

and jewellery from all over the world. 

It is exciting to see that Florence, 

a city steeped in history, has reacted 

to a worldwide trend in vintage fashions, 

and has encouraged a whole 

new approach to individual and 

unique ways of dressing. With the 

arrival of more and more vintage 

fairs and shops, it appears that finding 

and choosing items from decades 

gone by can be a fun and fascinating 

way to shop. 

Having earned a medical degree 

from Cambridge University, UK, 

Cassandra followed her heart 

to Florence, and into the fashion 

world. She works in communications 

and marketing, as well as writing 

for several international publications 

on fashion and luxury.


Life in Italy 

21 


Food & WINE 

Where wine is pleasure 

September in Tuscany welcomes slow food and fine wine festivals 

By Carolyn Abney 

BE FAMILIAR WITH THESE ITALIAN WINE INDICATIONS: 

Feste, feste everywhere 

and such a lot to drink! 

This is harvest season 

in Tuscany, which, of course, 

means harvest festivals. The 

weekend of Sept. 8-10 offers 

two opportunities… 

Although there is also an 

artisan’s market on Sept 7, 

which makes an overnight 

stay in Greve in Chianti 

even more attractive, the 16 th 

Rassegna di Chianti Classico/ 

Chianti Wine Festival takes 

place September 8-10. Greve 

is in the heart of Chianti country, 

just 30 kilometers south 

of Florence, and can be easily reached by car on 

state road 222 or by 45-ride on the SITA bus. If 

you go by bus, be aware the last bus leaves Greve 

at 4:30pm. The event takes place in Piazza Matteotti, 

the main square. Like most of these events, 

you purchase a souvenir wine glass; then try out 

the wines. There are several nice trattorias and 

restaurants around the square, and, during the 

festival, there will be food stalls as well, where 

you can try traditional dishes, local cheeses and 

salamis. 

In Fiesole on Sept. 9 and 10, Slow Food 

Firenze and the City of Fiesole have teamed up 

for a weekend that will be fun as well as educational. 

On the morning of Sept. 9, there will be 

a seminar called ‘Good to drink, good to think. 

What is the future of quality wine?’ This event 

will be held in the auditorium of the Consiglio 

Regionale della Toscana, Via Cavour, 4 in Florence. 

In the afternoon, the festivities start in the 

Roman Amphitheater in Fiesole at 3pm. There 

will be lots of opportunities for tasting wine and 

food – including the famous ribollita and papa al 

pomodoro - plus book signings and a guided tour 

of the Museum. Fiesole is 4 kilometers north of 

Florence; because of limited parking, the ATAF 

bus number 7 is your best choice. 

• Vino da tavola (VDT). Just what it sounds like 

– a simple table wine. The label can’t have a vintage 

year nor name the grape used to produce it. 

• IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica). The 

label will have a broad geographic designation and 

may indicate a year and/or grape variety. 

• DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata). 

By law, the label will indicate that the wine 

comes from a specifi c place and made from specifi c 

grapes, in accordance with rules governing planting, 

cultivating, and fertilizing. The maximum yield of 

grapes/hectare is specifi ed, and there are specifi cs 

about alcohol level and ageing of the wine. 

• DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata 

e Garantita). The most stringent of the categories. 

A DOCG wine includes all the DOC attributes, 

but the producer is also required to guarantee 

everything stated on the wine’s label. The bottle 

carries a government seal of approval. 

Remember, the DOC/G system is about authenticity, 

not quality. When you buy one of these wines, 

you are buying ‘the real thing.’ Whether it tastes 

better than a specifi c IGT or VDT, is up to you to 

decide. 

On Sunday, the Campionato di Vino wine 

championships will be held. Beginning at 

11am, individuals and teams of experts will 

have blind tastings of wines at Fiesole’s Basilica 

Sant’Alessandro. Prize winners will be announced 

at the Amphitheater at 7pm. The wine and gastronomy 

booths will re-open from 3pm to 7pm. 

There will be tours of the grounds and a spe- 

cial wine laboratory at 5pm. 

Although the tasting area in 

the Amphitheater is open 

to all, many events require a 

reservation. For more information, 

contact Slow Food 

Firenze by email (segreteri 

a@slowfoodfirenze.it) or by 

telephone Monday to Friday, 

10am to 1pm, 055.684.405. 

The next weekend, head 

south again to Impruneta, 

Panzano, or both. This year 

the Vinoteca al Chianti is 

holding its 6th Vino é piacere 

festival. Some 800 wines will 

be offered as well as olive oils 

and artisan-made food products from throughout 

Italy. The festival takes place Friday from 3pm 

to 10pm; Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 

10pm. The venue is the Cloister of the Basilica 

of Impruneta. Again, a small fee is charged for 

your tasting glass. Impruneta is an easy drive by 

surface streets and is just 5 kilometers from the 

Certosa exit of the A1; or you can take a CAP bus 

from Florence. 

A little farther south, you find the charming 

village of Panzano. Friday evening and all day 

Saturday and Sunday, you will be able to taste 

the wines of many Panzano winemakers, enjoy 

some good music by a local band, stop in at the 

world famous butcher shop of Dario Cecchini, 

have a pleasant walk in the country or all of the 

above. The center of town is closed to traffic for 

the festival. The booths are simple and it gets 

very crowded. But, if you love the Sangiovese 

grape and Chianti wines, this is the place to be. 

A small fee for the tasting glass. You can take the 

SITA bus that continues from Greve or the 222, 

otherwise known as the Chiantigiana or ‘Strada 

del Chianti’. 

Salute! Cin Cin! Enjoy! 

Photograph Florence...and win your copy of 

“Italians Dance and I am a Wallflower” 

The new book by Linda Falcone 

Send your photo to 

info@theflorentine.net 

The winner will be chosen by 

The Florentine editorial staff 

...and the winner is... 

author: Mandy Coyle 

title: Arno river’s reflection 

The winner will be contacted by The Florentine staff.

22 


Book REVIEWS 

Travels with Intent 

Ed Hayes sees Italy through new eyes 

Nothing can be more depressing… than to encounter a husband who boasts 

of having seen everything in Rome in three days, while the wife laments that, 

in recollection she cannot distinguish the Vatican from the Capitol, St Peter’s 

from St Paul’s. 

Augustus Hare: Walks in Rome (1893) 

I 

am sure many of the visitors to 

Italy today still come away with 

that sensation of having seen too 

much to digest. There is so much to 

see that without a sense of purpose 

you can just get swallowed up. Most 

of us, not being specialists in art history, 

structure our excursions by following 

a well-trodden itinerary of the 

‘main sights’ – acknowledging the 

superior wisdom of the guidebook. 

Tourists have been ‘doing the sites’ in 

Italy like this for centuries, in search 

of the curious and the beautiful. 

But before the tourist came the 

pilgrim. Long before the grand tour, 

travellers made a beeline for Italy as 

the centre of Western Christendom. 

Lucinda Vardey’s Traveling with the 

Saints in Italy shows that pilgrimage 

still has significance to travellers 

in the 21 st century: “As we require a 

physical vacation and a rest for our 

bodies, so too do we need the same 

for our souls.” 

Vardey’s book takes us to locations 

that played a central role in the 

lives of an eclectic selection of saints 

– from mystic and hermit to practical 

church reformer – from Saint Benedict, 

who first established monasticism 

in Europe to Saint Francis of 

Assisi, whom she describes as saving 

the Church from itself through 

humility at a time when it had 

‘become elitist and removed from 

the needs of the poor.’ She also treats 

Mary Jane Cryan 

lives in a small 

town nestled 

between Rome and Tuscany 

that has been under 

the protection of the English 

crown since the time 

of Henry VIII. Travels to 

Tuscany and Northern 

Lazio, the latest addition 

to her decades of ferreting 

out hidden history, gives 

readers a glimpse of 18 th - 

century travel as experienced by highranking 

ecclesiastics and nobles. 

The heart of this thoroughlyresearched 

and well-documented book 

is a travel diary kept by Don Giovanni 

Landò, secretary to Cardinal Henry 

Stuart, Duke of York, who made three 

trips to Tuscany and Northern Lazio 

between 1763 and 1776. The extraordinarily 

detailed diary records the Cardinal’s 

daily schedule, habits, dress, 

health, and social engagements, and 

we are swept up at once into the bustle 

of this royal Cardinal’s travels. 

female saints like Catherine of Siena 

and Saint Francis’s helpmeet, Saint 

Clare. The book contains suggestions 

for meditations and intentions to give 

further purpose to the pilgrim’s journey, 

practical information about how 

to get to the locations, and observations 

about art and points of local 

interest. 

While these itineraries could give 

an overarching purpose to a journey 

in Italy, the book does not pretend 

to be a replacement for a guidebook. 

The telling of the stories concentrates 

on reverence rather than historical 

inquiry. Vardey refuses to go into any 

News & Views 

McRae Books, Via Dei Neri 32/R 

September 19 

Lucinda Vardey talks about her new book Traveling with the Saints in Italy 

(see review). She has guided pilgrimages in Italy for over ten years with her 

husband and divides her time between Toronto, Canada, and their Tuscan 

retreat house, Migliara. 

The British Institute of Florence – Book Group 

The Harold Acton Library – Lungarno Guicciardini 9 

The book group meets at 6pm on the second Monday of the month in the 

Library. 

Sept. 11: The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt 

Oct. 9: The Accidental by Ali Smith 

Nov. 13: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 

Dec. 11: The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark 

All are welcome, the only condition is that you have read the book. 

What was Florence like in 1764? 

Students of history will 

relish the book’s rich documentation, 

but Travels 

to Tuscany and Northern 

Lazio is not just for specialists. 

It gives a fascinating 

picture of what life was 

like in 18 th century Tuscany 

with detailed descriptions 

of Florence, Pisa, Bologna 

and the towns of northern 

Lazio. Travel times are 

meticulously noted so that 

modern travelers can compare how 

long it took to travel between Tuscan 

cities 250 years ago. There are minute 

descriptions of churches visited, and 

of the treasures and reliquaries they 

contain, as well as of the sumptuous 

food served at banquets. In addition 

to the diary, previously unpublished in 

any language (the second part of the 

book contains the full text in Italian), 

Cryan provides a wealth of historical 

information to help set the scene–itinerary 

maps, old prints and period 

illustrations of vestments and towns 

controversies over the saints’ lives 

and works. 

Much of the art that makes Italy a 

remarkable destination is religious, so 

why not acknowledge that? At least 

spare us from ‘doing the sights’ in the 

manner of a tourist my father-in-law 

overheard in the Uffizi. Passing his 

umpteenth Madonna and Child, the 

tourist commented to his companion, 

“Don’t you think it’s sinister, don’t you 

think it’s a bit sexist – the way the baby 

in these paintings is always a boy?” 

Lucinda Vardey will be coming to 

speak about her book on Sept. 19 at 

McRae books. 

by L. Lappin 

visited, a bill for carriage repair, the 

members of the traveling party, and 

even a list of prices at a local grocer. 

These practical details are the stuff of 

historical reconstruction which allow 

the reader to understand the daily life 

of a bygone era. 

A brief chapter on other travelers 

to the area, along with current 

descriptions of the places visited on 

the Cardinal’s three journeys, completes 

the volume. The finely-done 

illustrations and art work by Justin 

Bradshaw make for a handsome book. 

In retracing the steps of travelers 

throughout history, Cryan has helped 

fill in a blank space on the map of the 

Grand Tour, for much documentation 

still lies buried in archives. Her books 

are a mine of information, anecdotes, 

and curiosities for all those interested 

in delving deeper into the history of 

central Italy. Signed copies are available 

at www.elegantetruria.com or 

may be ordered at BM bookshop on 

Borgo Ognissanti. 


Florence 

Business Cards 

Periodontics, Esthetic Dentistry, 

Oral Implants, Orthodontics, 

Pediatric Dentistry, Hygiene, 

Whitening. 

viale Gramsci 12 FLORENCE 

055 241208 - 2480082 

EMERGENCY 

24 hrs / 365 day 

335 8366567 

www.studipaoleschi.it


Useful Numbers and Classifi ed Ads 

23 


Classifi ed ADS 

Housing For Sale/Immobili Vendita 

Castelnuovo del Abate, Tuscany. 9klm 

Montalcino. Mansard 34msq apartment/studio. 

Requires minimal restoration. 

Euro 55.000,00 as is. Campiglia 

d’Orcia, Tuscany. 18klm Pienza, 30 klm 

Montalcino. Apartment 78msq. Ground 

fl oor, spacious open plan living/dining, 

grotto cellar at rear. Upstairs 2 bedrooms, 

bathroom. Euro 140.000,00 

completely restored. Photos, descriptions 

both properties www.montalcinotuscany.com/property.htm. 

Private sale. 

Luigi 348 2422509 

Located in the Municipality of Lamporecchio, 

(Pistoia) in the heart of 

the Montalbano hills. Colonial house 

includes 3 units plus 2 independent 

units. 32-acre lot with 4,000 olive trees, 

vineyards and woods. Beautiful hilly 

location with view of the valley. For information 

contact bardazzisnc@tin.it 

Loft For Sale in Prato. 2 lofts near 

historic centre, each 137 sq. m., ideal 

for home offi ce. We can show layout 

and location. For information, e-mail 

marco@agilelogica.it 

For sale: Own your own piece of 

Chianti. 3 Fabulous apartments 

restored in Tuscan Tradition. 20km 

from Florence, swimming poo. 

Judieanne +39.335.839-0712, 

info@coloursoftuscany.com, 

www.coloursoftuscany.com 

Housing for Rent/Immobili in Affi tto 

Florentineflats.com offers quality 

apartments in Florence city centre 

at affordable prices, short and long 

term rentals, minimum 5 days. Call 

Rachel 348.0457857 / 055.685661, 

rach@dada.it 

Two female suitemates wanted to 

share beautiful penthouse apartment in 

palazzo on Via Pietrapiana Oct 10-Nov 

3. Fifty euro/person/night. All or part, 

seven night minimum. Wonderful views, 

modern kitchen, recently renovated, 

tastefully furnished, friendly and safe 

neighbourhood. Contact via e-mail: 

lbh1066@yahoo.com 

Resident accommodations in the 

San Frediano neighbourhood. Independent 

building with 31 rooms complete 

with bathroom, air-conditioning, 

electronic entrance keys, winter and 

summer courtyard, small car park. Also 

guests universities and colleges for 

both brief and long periods. For more 

information write to scatizzi@dada.it or 

send a fax to 055/2336990 

A large room with private bathroom 

with use of kitchen & sitting room in a 

large & bright fl at equipped with every 

comfort (also for very short period, 

close to piazza Gavinana), write to 

elia.dellachiesa@dada.it 

Large 1 bedroom apartment for rent, 

on quiet street between the Duomo and 

Piazza Signoria. Renovated, lovely hardwood 

fl oors. Large kitchen. Can sleep 

up to 4 people. 1,100 per month. 

Short or long term. Available May 1. 

Caterina 347.3737616 or 055.583406 

Two large, bright rooms, in a fl at 

equipped with every comfort, for rent in 

via Mariti, 100 m. from University (Novoli 

area), also for short periods. Non 

smokers only. Tel. 055.353425 

Near Piazzale Michelangelo secretly 

hidden wih private garden and only 

15 minute walk to center. 2 bedroom, 

2 bath. Fully furnished, long term 

rental only. 2,000 euro/month. Judieanne 

Colusso + 39.335.839-0712, 

info@coloursoftuscany.com, 

www.coloursoftuscany.com 

Lungarno Torrigiani-imagine living 

with views of the Arno and a small 

park at your doorstep, but in the centre 

of Florence. A very large 4 bedroom 

apartment, 190sq m, 1st fl oor, 2 bathrooms, 

kitchen, lounge-dining room, 

partially furnished, long term rental only. 

2,700 euro. Judieanne +39.335.839- 

0712, info@coloursoftuscany.com 

Business for Sale/Attività Commerciali 

Children’s clothing manufacturer 

looking to sell business. Thirty-yearold 

establishment produces clothing 

for children from ages 1 to 12 and is 

equipped with the necessary equipment 

for production. The company has a 

large client portfolio with buyers in Italy 

and abroad. For more information send 

an email to gio.giu@gmail.com 

Jobs Wanted/Cerco lavoro 

Experienced young woman (30) 

would take care of your children. French 

mother tongue, very good Italian, very 

good English. Available full time from 

October 1st. Camille 347.6048907 

Help Wanted/Offerte di lavoro 

Bed and breakfast hotel in central 

Florence looks to employ additional 

staff. Hours negotiable. For job description 

e-mail: peter@bnb.it 

Seeking TEFL Certified mother tongue 

teachers for academic year 2006/2007. 

Please send CV asap to our Institute in 

Florence at: didattica@liveinstitute.it 

Private Lessons/Lezioni Private 

Italian individual lessons in Florence. 

Sharpen your grammar to enjoy conversation. 

Fluent English, Japanese, French 

spoken. Call Alberto and his Japanese 

wife Fumiko, tel. 055-475152, 

www.azlanguage.it - info@azlanguage.it 

Private oil painting lessons in English 

near Teatro Goldoni. Still life subject, 

canvas, paints and easel supplied. All 

levels welcome. For more information 

please contact Cathy at 055.2207171/ 

338.1499392 

Expert craftsman offers individual 

or group classes in English or Italian. 

Introduction to chiselling and 

embossing-theory and practice. 

Introduction to technical design. 

Call Fabrizio 338.5060720 or write 

acquafresca69@hotmail.com 

Leather Crafting Classes. Scuola del 

Cuoio offers short-term (3 hours/1-2 

days) & long-term (1 wk to 10 mths) 

individual courses and classes under 

a Master Leather Craftsman inside 

the Monastery of Santa Croce, via 

San Giuseppe 5 (thru the garden). 

Enquiries: tel. 055.244.533 or 

info@leatherschool.com. For more info. 

visit: www.leatherschool.com 

Leisure & Vacation/ 

Tempo libero e vacanze 

B&B in Poggio al Vento. Located in 

a splendid nineteenth century villa. 

Includes two master bedrooms and a 

welcoming double bedroom. Poggio al 

Veneto is a small company that deals in 

organic agriculture, in the hills of Scandicci, 

in Casignano, just a few kilometres 

from Florence. For information and 

reservations call: +39.055.7309861 

or +39.328.3876663 or write to 

info@casignano.it 

Panoramic colonial house in the hills 

of Chianti, only 15 km from Florence. 

Surrounded by a large park and olive 

grove, swimming pool. 4-6 person fl ats 

for rent for brief periods, completely 

furnished. Quiet, family-style atmosphere. 

Landlords available on site for 

any needs. Tel. 333.2203265, e-mail 

femanesc@tin.it 

Services/Servizi 

Thai temptations. Are you looking 

for a healthy alternative to your 

regular dinner parties? Creating 

elegant banquet style, Thai and fusion 

catering. Ph. 347.5199440; e-mail 

thaitemptations@hotmail.com 

Ashtanga Vinyasa Flow Yoga taught 

in English and Italian inside a beautiful 

Contemporary Art Gallery in the heart 

of Florence. Privates available upon 

request. VIANUOVA, Via del Porcellana 

1R (near the corner of Borgo Ognissanti). 

Mon. Wed. Thu. from 7.00 to 

8.30 p.m. - Call Bobby or Michela at 

338.7874720. info@yogafl orence.com 

- www.yogafl orence.com 

 

 

 

Body Language Pilates and Yoga 

Studio. An intimate studio near Centro 

offers many level specifi c classes daily 

of group Yoga and Pilates mats taught 

in English with private apparatus sessions 

available. 

Call D. Clark at 335.790.4029 

Do you have difficulties putting 

together your resume and cover letter? I 

am a graduate of Cambridge University, 

UK, and have helped numerous people 

get interviews for jobs with the help of a 

well-written resume and cover letter. For 

50 euro, I will meet with you, and write 

a resume and cover letter. Contact 

Cassie at cassielbrown@hotmail.com 

Personals/Personali 

Reliable, 31-year-old Australian looking 

for English teaching, babysitting, 

waitressing or computer assistance 

work during July and August in Florence. 

Tel. 055 420 1948 / 339 168 4177 

French young woman offers babysitting 

and help for homework. Available 

nights after 19:00, mornings until 

10:00 and week ends. Please contact 

Camille: 347 604 8907

Italy's favourite son, finally moving out - The Florentine

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