Florence has a number of very good smaller museums that have originated from private collections. I have previously discussed the Museo Horne, where we can admire the collection of the Englishman Herbert Percy Horne (1864-1916). Another post was about the collection of Salvatore Romano (1875-1955), which can be found in…
I cannot recall having previously discussed a restaurant on this website. But then again Fishing Lab in the Via del Proconsolo in Florence, right next to the Bargello, is not just any restaurant. Yes, the quality of the food you get there is excellent, but it was the unique ambiance…
Many years ago I bought a beautifully illustrated biography of the Florentine painter Giotto (ca. 1266-1337), written by Francesca Flores d’Arcais. The author dedicated just a few lines to the heavily damaged fourteenth-century frescoes in a chapel of the Bargello in Florence. Since their rediscovery in 1840 there has been…
In the year 1250 the city of Florence created the office of Capitano del Popolo. The Capitano was a kind of popular tribune who guarded the interests of the people. In 1255 a public palazzo was built for him, the first of its kind in Florence. The architect was Lapo…
My two visits to the Palazzo Pretorio in Prato both got off to a rather bad start. In the summer of 2020 my better half and I arrived just too late to visit the museum. All we could do was have a little conversation with a friendly employee of the…
The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata is the church of the Servites in Florence. This Order of Servants of Mary was founded in 1233 by seven Florentines who had simultaneously experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. The church adjoins the beautiful Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, where we also find the…
There can be no doubt that the Florentines are immensely proud of the complex of San Marco. When I went to pick up my tickets for a number of attractions in the city, the man in the ticket booth explicitly spoke of “the beautiful San Marco”. The complex comprises a…
There were not that many visitors in Siena’s Pinacoteca Nazionale, so I could stroll through the more than thirty rooms at leisure. The Pinacoteca Nazionale is a museum full of top pieces: after having seen the art in about twenty rooms my eyes hurt because of all the shiny gold…
It is one of the most famous double portraits in history: that of Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482) and his second wife Battista Sforza (1446-1472), painted by Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415-1492). Federico ruled over Urbino from 1444 until his death in 1482. He was the illegitimate son of Guidantonio da…
In the fourteenth century, painting in Siena was certainly on par with painting in Florence. While Florence had Giotto and his followers, Siena could boast of Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1255-1318/1319) and the Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro (ca. 1280-1348) and Ambrogio (ca. 1290-1348). In the first rooms of the Uffizi in…
Every day thousands of people pass by the church of San Carlo on the busy Via dei Calzaiuoli. The church itself is seldom open though. During my most recent visits to Florence I found the doors of the building shut each and every time. The ultimate insult must have been…
Some churches remain on my to-do list for years for the simple reason that they are almost never open. The church of San Giovannino dei Cavalieri in Florence is just such a church. In spite of optimistic information on the Internet about opening hours, I have travelled to the church…
The church and convent of San Domenico are not located in the centre of Fiesole, but in the lower part of the town. My recommendation would be to first visit the attractions in the centre – the convent of San Francesco, the Duomo and the archaeological museum – and then…
I had previously seen the church of Santa Maria dei Servi from a great distance, i.e. from the Facciatone, the unfinished façade of the uncompleted new nave of the cathedral of Siena. Many years later I got up close and personal with the church. As it turned out, it was…
I have visited the charming town of Siena many times. For all of my previous visits, I either went by car or took the train, but for my most recent visit in January of this year I decided to go by bus. The reason was fairly simple: I did not…
I ended my most recent trip to Florence with a visit to the Museo Horne. I had never been to this museum before and had never even passed by it. After my visit I had to conclude that I had definitely missed something all these years. The Museo Horne is…
Long, long ago I had read some information about the Cappella Rucellai, but my memory was extremely hazy. When during a walk in Florence I suddenly saw a sign that directed me to the chapel, I decided to use Google to find out more about the Cappella Rucellai. I liked…
On my way to Arcetri I happened to pass by the church of San Giorgio alla Costa in Oltrarno, Florence. This church can be described with the keywords “small”, “old” (possibly from the tenth century) and “until recently closed to the public”. The good news is that it is no…
The basilica of San Lorenzo is among the oldest and most famous churches of Florence. The church is immediately recognisable by its unfinished façade and the enormous dome of the chapel behind the choir, the famed Cappella dei Principi. There is probably no church in Florence that has a closer…
The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo opened its doors to the public in 1986. Those doors were closed again in 2015 for a much needed renovation and remodelling of the rooms, but as of 2019 visitors may once again enjoy the fine collection of statues, paintings and other objects from the…