Florence and Siena Private Tours Blog
Discovering the Porta del Paradiso in Florence
The Porta del Paradiso is a bronze door made by Lorenzo Ghiberti in Florence.
500 years ago Leonardo da Vinci dies
500 years ago, on May 2 1519, one of the greatest geniuses in humankind history died in Amboise, France. It’s dead hard to enclose in a single definition the greatness of a personality like Leonardo Da Vinci. For what concerns to me, I want to remember this artist...
Easter 2019: the must-see things to discover in Florence
Among the cities of art to visit in Italy for the Easter holidays, Florence is always a destination of great charm. However, the many monuments and places to visit in the town of Giglio are so many and all worthy of interest that tourists are often embarrassed about...
The Adoration of Shepherds in Sant’Agostino in Siena, an unknown masterpiece
In a town like Siena, where it is often difficult to appreciate the extraordinary and varied artistic heritage preserved, it happens that some works – also because the buildings closed to the public – remain almost unknown to majority. This also happens to a...
Guided tour to the mysteries of Ponte Vecchio
The wonderful autumn days allow to better appreciate the cities of art thanks to the tranquility and the milder temperatures that make walks in the streets and avenues really nice; moreover, the suggestive color range of this season means that the photos taken to...
The Maestà by Giotto in the Uffizi Gallery
A figure of the Virgin, a Madonna with a body, is the one that welcomes the visitor in Room N.2 of the Uffizi Gallery. The figure created by Giotto, the first modern painter according to artistic historiography, is mixed with a terracotta color that recalls the ochre...
The “oriental” Virtue painted by Pollaiolo in the Uffizi Gallery
That of the Virtues is an iconographic subject increasingly frequent in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. The Temperance is part of a wooden series painted by Piero del Pollaiolo and the young Botticelli for the Mercatanzia Guild in about 1470, when the...
Night guided tour to the Uffizi Gallery
On the occasion of the evening openings of the Uffizi, promoted until the end of September every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, an alternative and even more intelligent way to enjoy the Uffizi Gallery is to visit the museum in less frequented time slots and...
Discovering a Renaissance treasure trove in Siena
In the visit to the historic center of Siena it is rarely possible to find a small treasure trove of Renaissance art in the middle of the Gothic architecture for which the town is famous. Going along Via Montanini is the little church of the Madonna delle Nevi. Built...
The fascinating story of Sant’Anna’s devotion in the Church of Orsanmichele
Today is a day of celebration in Florence. July 26th is still remembered as an important date for the history of the ancient Florentine Republic, since it is celebrated Sant’Anna, patron saint of the city. The anniversary is celebrated in an equally special place for...
When Art has been a Woman, at last
, Florence has been the environment in which Art, since the fourteenth century, has become the medium-expression of society. It is always in the ‘Town of Lily’ that the word Arte, as a feminine noun according to the Italian language acceptation, has assumed an...
Details of Primavera
A detail, one of the many that it’s possible to contemplate in this famous painting by Botticelli, a masterpiece of the Renaissance, an icon in the great sanctuary of painting which is the Uffizi Gallery, a destination for lay pilgrimages every day. The thousands of...
New Year’s Eve 2017: all the events you can enjoy in Siena
According to the tradition, New Year’s Eve is a moment in which people used to meet with friends or with own family, to welcome the arrival of the new year. In addition to the traditional destination of mountains, many are those who uncorck the midnight Spumante...
A show to reinterpretate Ambrogio Lorenzetti, a note but less known artist
There could be no greater need to shed light, through an updated scientific work, on a great protagonist of Italian painting of the fourteenth century such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, an artist whose name is slavishly linked to the famouses Buon Governo frescoes in Siena...
The out of law’s castle: discovering Radicofani
If you are going in search of the Province of Siena and you think that it is only the gently sloping hills to characterize the profile of the landscape of this delightful Tuscan spot, you will totally change idea when, pushing yourselves forward the southern area of...
The Chapel of Madonna di Vitaleta
On many times happen to wonder where some places of fascinating Italy are, places which end up to bind spontaneously to the collective memory, perhaps for their popularity, or, when they are not know directly, for the simple fact they appear to our view as hearty,...
The UNESCO twenty years of Pienza
Are celebrating in these days the twenty-year anniversary of Pienza, recognized as a World Heritage Site. The city of Pius II completes a program that has seen, during 2016, important events entitled “Save the Beauty”, aimed at enhancing and safeguarding the...
The Adoration of Magi
The Adoration of the Magi is one of the scenes that are found in the upper part of the pulpit of the Cathedral of Siena, one of the masterpieces of the Italian medieval sculpture. The marble slab that measures 85 x 97 cm and 16 cm thick, is part of a set of seven...
The unveiled beauty
These are the last days to admire in Siena something extraordinary. Until October 27, the floor of the Cathedral is entirely unveiled to visitors, in the splendor of its marble inlays which cover the whole ground of the church. Already considered by Vasari the...
The Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo
In the renowned Piazza del Campo, within the core of Siena town, there is a sculpture masterpiece which has to been absolute admired: the Fonte Gaia (fountain of the joy) was built by sienese people in the second half of the XIV century. The original part of the...
The House of Duccio: discovering the workshop where the “Maestà” was painted
Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1318-19), painted the ‘Maestà’ for the Cathedral of Siena (a detail above). The great altarpiece, “the largest painted table of the Italian school we received” (cit. Torriti), was commissioned to the artist on 9 October 1308....
Welcome to my website
It is with joy that I communicate to visitors that, finally, my new website is published. Thanks to the competence and professionalism of my web designer who followed me step by step, I can now finally announce the publication on of the site and the relative Florence...