Freya's Florence Tours - Freya Middleton

12/10/2026

𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐚𝐥𝐞: 𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐡𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐢 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐫à 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟏 𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐫𝐞

Si anticipa di venti giorni la possibilità di vaccinarsi contro l’influenza per chi ha tra sette e 59 anni. La campagna di vaccinazione in Toscana è iniziata il 7 ottobre con medici di medicina generale e personale delle aziende sanitarie che hanno iniziato a vaccinare gli ospiti della Rsa.
Il 14 ottobre sarà la volta dei bambini tra sei mesi e sei anni e per sessantenni e ultrasessantenni.

Per approfondire: http://w3.webrt.it/qTVwu

12/10/2026

In 1504, the Florentine Republic commissioned Leonardo da Vinci (then in his early 50s) and a young Michelangelo (in his late 20s) to paint massive side-by-side battle murals in the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) inside the Palazzo Vecchio...

The room was the Hall of Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio, where Florence’s governing council met. Leonardo, then 51, was assigned the Battle of Anghiari. Michelangelo, just 28, was given the Battle of Cascina. The two giant scenes were meant to face each other across the hall, a showdown between the old master and the rising star.

Neither painting was ever finished.

Leonardo tried an experimental method, painting with oil directly on the wall instead of using traditional fresco. The paint ran, and he eventually gave up. Michelangelo only got as far as his full-size drawing before Pope Julius II called him to Rome.

Even unfinished, their work caused a sensation. The sculptor Benvenuto Cellini called the two drawings “the school of the world,” and young artists like Raphael came to study them.

Michelangelo’s drawing was later torn apart and lost. Today, both works survive mostly through copies made by other artists.

Decades later, Giorgio Vasari painted new frescoes in the hall. Some researchers believe Leonardo’s lost painting may still be hidden behind one of them.

12/10/2026

Here's a lovely easy little excursion from Florence...
Montelupo Fiorentino is located about 20 kilometres southwest of Florence. It has undergone a significant revival as a town and as a place of manufacture of high-quality painted ceramics during the past ten years. There is now a fine majolica museum as well as an archaeological museum, and, of course, numerous workshops and outlets producing and selling hand-painted ceramics in both traditional and modern styles. The main reason for a visit to Montelupo is to admire and perhaps buy hand-painted majolica.
In antiquity, the territory of Montelupo, situated between Montalbano and the middle course of the Arno near where the river Pesa flows into the Arno, was already an important crossroads on the communication route between the Florentine area, the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian coast. Its location on the old Roman road that joined Florence and Pisa and the presence of waterways led to the development of numerous manufacturing activities, including ceramics.
During the 17 C, the town produced wonderful ceramic pieces for the pharmacies of the Florentine Dominicans of San Marco and Santa Maria Novella.
Every year the town relives its history with a show of its ceramics in a festival that takes place approximately from 22nd to 30th June (be sure to check the dates). The town's inhabitants dress in period costumes to recreate the ancient atmosphere with minstrels, merchants and artisans.

12/10/2026

Looking for a great slice of Pizza?
Receiving the top accolade in the Pizza by the Slice category in Gambero Rosso’s latest 'Guida alle pizzerie d’Italia' is La Divina Pizza (borgo Allegri 50R), a five-minute walk from Santa Croce. Graziano and Roberta Monogrammi leaven their dough from 24 to 48 hours, only use Cervia Adriatic salt and ingredients from certified local producers. Enjoy the buckwheat pizza base and buffalo mozzarella toppings.

12/10/2026

How often have you walked past this statue?
Given to the city by the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze in 1996, the bronze statue of St. John the Baptist, Florence’s protector and patron saint, sculpted by Giuliano Vangi stands in piazza Santa Maria sopr’Arno, in the small triangular square between via de’ Bardi and lungarno Torrigiani. Two meters tall, Vangi’s statue of the saint is unique and evocative. The gaunt, almost emaciated, full-length figure looking towards Ponte Vecchio has his right arm raised, pointing his famous finger. His clothing (a short undergarment and rough-hewn cloak lined with camel hair and tied with intricate rope cording) and his bare feet, long hair and beard recall his days in the desert.
Vangi’s sculpture is the most recent of the many depictions of St. John the Baptist around town. The two most familiar sculptures (both now copies) are the one above the north door of the Baptistery, which is named after him, in piazza Duomo, and Lorenzo Ghiberti’s fifteenth-century statue in an external niche of the church of Orsanmichele. The Chiostro dello Scalzo (via Cavour, 69) also contains a beautiful fresco cycle of his life.
(Deirdre Pirro)

12/10/2026

Did you know... Florence's beloved football club, ACF Fiorentina, is the only Italian sports team ever to support a charity, and it has done so for the last twelve years, sponsoring Save the Children (www.savethechildren.it), a foundation that has been fighting for children's rights in the world since 1919. Moreover, Save the Children has never been supported by any other professional sports team.

12/10/2026

On this day we remember Piero della Francesca who died today October 12, in 1492 in the Tuscan town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro...
He was a painter of the Early Renaissance but was also a mathematician and geometer. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes "The Legend of the True Cross" in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo.
His diptych of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino is one of the most famous works of art of the Italian Renaissance. It depicts Federico da Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza.
The Duke of Montefeltro, leader of mercenaries, skillful strategist and a great patron, turned Urbino into a refined and renowned cultural centre.
It was there that Piero della Francesca carried out this masterpiece between 1465 and 1472.
Choosing the to represent the couple in profile was necessary as the Duke had lost his right eye during a tournament and for this reason only the left side of his face is portrayed.
The Duchess Battista Sforza is richly dressed and has an excessively high forehead, according to the fashion of the time.

11/10/2026

I have no words...

11/10/2026

If you ask people to name the greatest sculptor, the 15th-century Florentine, Donatello, will not be near the top of the list. Yet throughout a long career he innovated and experimented with different materials and different formats, working at the cutting edge of Renaissance ideas. Some of his works are startlingly modern in their raw emotional expression. Others display stylistic variety, showing that the artist always put his subject first. Here are 10 works that prove why Donatello deserves his place among the sculpture greats.

Explore the life and works of Donatello, a pioneer of Renaissance sculpture known for his emotional expression and innovation.

11/10/2026

Have you ever wondered what a pyramid is doing in the Cascine?
Just off viale degli Olmi, which runs the length of the park, this mysterious structure was once an ice house. Built in 1796 by Grand Duke Ferdinando III’s architect Giuseppe Manetti, it was used to store dairy products and to preserve ice for the summer months.
The ice was harvested from small purpose-built ponds near what is now the Le Pavoniere swimming pool (the buildings of which once housed the head warden of the Cascine). The ice house, now used as a storage space by the Cascine’s gardeners, underwent extensive restoration in 2009, along with the nearby Fountain of Narcissus.
Not only ice chilled in the Cascine: a windy autumn day there in 1819 inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”.
(theflorentine.net)