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☆ Florence’s famed Ponte Vecchio to be restored to former glory with two-year makeover
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —In the seven centuries since the Ponte Vecchio was first built in Florence, Italy, the bridge has watched the city changing around it, surviving floods, fires and the Nazi invasion in World War II. Now, the famed bridge itself is getting a two-year makeover, at the cost of about €2 million, to restore it to its former glory, the city of Florence and the Marchesi Antinorini winemakers announced on Wednesday. “This is a historic project because Ponte Vecchio has never had a restoration intervention of this technical complexity,” Florence’s mayor Dario Nardella told reporters on Thursday. Such is the Ponte Vecchio’s significance that it was the only bridge across the Arno River spared by the retreating German army towards the end of World War II. Previous replacement joints will be upgraded, the stone itself will be strengthened and the footpath’s stone will be restored too.

Persons: Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, ”, Dario Nardella, “, Marchesi Antinori, Piero Antinori, Tod’s Organizations: CNN, Diesel Locations: Florence, Italy, Nazi, Venice

☆ Renaissance Portraits That Played Hide and Seek
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Karen Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Met’s delightful show “Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance” illuminates a curious trend in 15th- and 16th-century painting: the slow reveal. The works on view, originally concealed in special cases and behind sliding or reversible panels, gamify the experience of looking at portraiture; they have to be moved, before they can move us. But we can peer at them from double-sided glass cases and watch animations of faces emerging from sliding panels. The covers are marvelous works in their own right, with elaborate emblems and allegories that are themselves a form of representation. The interactions between the different components can be quite playful, with a literary and theatrical flair.

Persons: Ridolfo Ghirlandaio Organizations: Met, Courtauld Locations: London, Florence, Florentine

Two climate activists on Tuesday targeted Botticelli’s masterpiece “The Birth of Venus” hanging at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, attaching images of recent flood damage in the Tuscany region on the protective glass. Authorities immediately cleared the room and the two protesters were brought by carabinieri for questioning. Under a new law, the protesters risk up to six months of jail time. The protest materials were easily removed from the glass without leaving a trace, and the room where the painting hangs was reopened within 15 minutes. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Persons: Venus Organizations: Associated Press Locations: Tuscany

☆ Italy Searches for Museum Leaders, With Nationalism in the Air
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Elisabetta Povoledo | More About Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ten candidates are up for each job. The final selection will be made sometime next month by Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s culture minister, and Massimo Osanna, the ministry’s director overseeing museums. It has been eight years since a reform granted some Italian arts institutions greater autonomy and opened up the position of museum director to people from outside the culture ministry’s ranks. The then-culture minister, Dario Franceschini, sought applications from foreigners to shake up the museum sector, even publishing the job advertisement in The Economist magazine. At the first 20 museums affected by the reform, Franceschini appointed seven foreigners and several Italians with experience abroad, who were hired for a four-year contract, that could be renewed once.

Persons: whittle, Gennaro Sangiuliano, Massimo Osanna, Dario Franceschini, Franceschini Organizations: Culture Ministry, Brera, Economist Locations: Florence, Naples, Milan

As tourism returns to prepandemic levels across Italy, travelers itching to visit Florence face a delicate dilemma: how to experience the Tuscan capital’s Renaissance grandeur while remaining sensitive to the damage mass tourism inflicts. One solution is to travel outside of the high season, but even in the fall, visitors will face crowds at the Galleria dell’Accademia and at the Uffizi (especially if the latter reopens the long-shuttered Corridoio Vasariano to the public this year, as planned). Even better is to approach Florence not as a historical theme-park, but as a living city, by seeking out lesser-known pockets and new projects — from an ambitious cultural complex to a tiny trattoria run by passionate young Florentines — that will help sustain this city for years to come.

Persons: Florence Organizations: Florence Locations: Italy

☆ Italy row over museum director fuels debate over Meloni's grip on culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Federico Maccioni | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MILAN, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A row between the head of a prestigious museum in Turin and politicians from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition has inflamed a debate over whether the government is seeking an undue grip over culture. However, Greco came under fire from right-wing parties in 2018 when he launched a promotion offering price reductions for Arabic speakers in recognition of the fact that the museum's collection came from Egypt -- the largest Arab nation. I never met a politician," he told daily La Stampa, in apparent reference to his time working in the Netherlands. Greco said he was confident there would be transparency around future appointments, but said Italian politicians needed to stop interfering. "In Italy, political interference is excessive, it ruins certain equilibriums and is a problem that has always existed," he told La Stampa.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni's, Greco, Meloni's, Andrea Crippa, Vittorio Sgarbi, La Stampa, Federico Maccioni, Crispian Balmer, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Egyptian, Italy, League, Christian, La, Meloni's, Brera, Thomson Locations: Turin, Italian, Egypt, La Stampa, Netherlands, Italy

☆ Instagram is making you a worse tourist. Here’s how to travel respectfully
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Lauren A. Siegel | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Now, travelers also look to social media for proof of how others behave. If their peers from home are throwing caution to the wind while on vacation, this can cause a domino effect of bad behavior. I’ve identified other bad travel attitudes and habits that have emerged as a result of social media-driven tourism. The Instagram effectWhen people travel to a beautiful place, the temptation to post photos and videos to social media is high. This speaks to the role of social media as part of the problem when it comes to bad tourist behavior.

Persons: I’ve, David Silverman, Bali, Vienna –, Finland’s, Finn, aren’t, you’ve, Lauren A, Siegel Organizations: CNN, Getty, influencers, Research, University of Greenwich Locations: Rome, geotags, Italy, Florence, Bali, Iceland, Hawaii, Palau, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Vienna, Netherlands, Amsterdam, London

☆ Vasari Corridor: Tourists arrested for spraying soccer graffiti on 460-year-old Italian landmark
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

This time it was the turn of the 460-year-old Vasari Corridor, a beautiful riverside passageway connected to the famous Uffizi Galleries in Florence, which was sprayed with Munich soccer-related graffiti in the early hours of August 23. Airbnb raidHow the Vasari Corridor looked before the graffiti incident. The one-kilometer-long Vasari Corridor was built by Italian Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari in less than nine months in 1565. Tourists behaving badlyThe graffiti reference a Munich soccer club. “I would like to express my thanks to the Carabinieri for promptly identifying the alleged perpetrators of the Vasari Corridor in Florence.

Persons: Rome, Rome CNN —, Airbnb, Tim Clayton, Corbis, Giorgio Vasari, Cosimo I de’Medici, Medici, Dan Brown, Florence Mayor Dario Nardella, It’s, Eike Schmidt, Schmidt, Gennaro Sangiuliano, ” Organizations: Rome CNN, Galleries, Carabinieri, Operations Unit, CNN, Culture Ministry, Authorities, Uffizi, UNESCO, TSV, Vasari Locations: Florence, Munich, “, Uffizi, Italian, Ponte, Santa Felicita, Italy, Rome, Venice, German

☆ Stolen 16th century Vasari letter returned to its Italian home
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] A handwritten letter by Renaissance artist and historian Giorgio Vasari is returned to its owners during a ceremony at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, June 29, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERSROME, June 29 (Reuters) - A handwritten letter by Renaissance artist and historian Giorgio Vasari has been returned to its owners in Tuscany more than 20 years after it was stolen, Italian police said on Thursday. The letter was dated March 18, 1566 and is believed to be worth around 20,000 euros ($21,760). Vasari, who is regarded as the first art historian, was born in the central region of Tuscany, where he served the Italian banking family and political dynasty the Medici, in Florence. In the letter, Vasari disclosed the painter's fees as well as commenting on the progress of his works.

Persons: Giorgio Vasari, Vasari, Medici, Jan van der, Giovanni Stradano, Federica, Keith Weir Organizations: Uffizi, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Florence, Italy, REUTERS ROME, Tuscany, Arezzo, London, Brussels, Belgian

☆ Travel experiences you can only enjoy while you’re young
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

But if you’re still in your teens or 20s, it’s worth knowing about some of the amazing discounts, experiences and adventures only available to those under 30. From discount air fares to working vacation visas, we’ve rounded up some of the best travel experiences to enjoy while you’re young. “It’s 100% worth using the pass whilst you can get the youth discount,” Landon tells CNN Travel. Thurman absentmindedly Googled working working holiday visas, and to her surprise, realized the scheme “was so straightforward to apply for.”“I realized that the only barrier was me and my decision whether or not to apply,” Thurman recalls. If you’re not enrolled in college but you’re still under 30, the International Youth Travel Card could be an alternative.

Persons: CNN —, you’re, There’s, Kofi Landon, Kofi Landon Kofi Landon, Landon, he’d, Landon reckons, ” Landon, “, ”, Tammy Thurman, don’t, –, jetted, Thurman enviously, Thurman absentmindedly, ” “, ” Thurman, Thurman, it’s, she’s, who’s, you’ve, doesn’t, Markus Mainka, Gideon Hagström Lung, He’s, Hagström Lung, Lung Organizations: CNN, EU, Travelers, CNN Travel, Canada, Walt Disney World, Cathay Pacific, Eiffel, SAS, Emirates, Scandinavian Airlines Locations: Europe, Paris, Berlin, Venice, there’s, Prague, Czech Republic, Manchester, Lake Bled, Slovenia, Australia, Tasmania, South Korea, Portugal, Iceland, Canada, France, Ireland, Sydney, London, Melbourne, Emirates, Florence’s Uffizi, Helsinki, Finland, New York City, New York, Stockholm, Copenhagen

☆ The Art of Being a Flâneur
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Stephanie Rosenbloom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

I followed the river toward the Uffizi Gallery where I stopped, enchanted by the scene below. It’s “a search for the delectable, delicious, almost gustatory delights of the moment,” as they put it. Other times, an object or architectural detail that piques your interest — a gate, a gargoyle — provides a portal to another time. Stories of vanished ages can be triggered by a single stone, then explored back home through books and websites. Being in a big city among so many strangers can be at turns exhilarating and disturbing.

Persons: Arno, Fred B, Bryant, Joseph Veroff, Puccini’s, Robert K, Merton, Elinor Barber, bento, Amer, plumb, Edgar Allan Poe’s “, Marie Roget, ”, Walter Benjamin, “ Charles Baudelaire Organizations: Uffizi, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera House, Columbia University, Science, Metro, Poet Locations: Firenze, Florence, New York, Tokyo, Japan, Istanbul, Paris

“Difficult years await us but if we don’t reach zero emissions immediately they will be terrible.”Photos showed activists, wearing orange vests, standing waist deep in the fountain. They unfolded orange banners bearing the words in Italian: “Our future is as black as this water” as crowds of onlookers snapped pictures. It is believed to be the same group of climate activists that led protests at other Italian historical sites including the Barcaccia fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps in central Rome, where they poured black liquid into the fountain on April 1. Similar protests saw activists glue themselves to Italian art masterpieces in locations like the Vatican museums and Uffizi galleries in Florence. ‘Iconic’ work of artLocated in the famed Piazza Navona square in Rome, the Fiumi Fountain was designed by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1651.

☆ Florence’s Pitti Palace Showcases a Real Renaissance Woman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( J.S. Marcus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The Italian Renaissance has long been presented as a procession of male power players, from artists like Michelangelo to arts patrons like banker-statesman Lorenzo de’ Medici. But that view is set for a corrective this month, when Florence’s Uffizi Galleries mounts a comprehensive show at Pitti Palace about Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562), the Florentine duchess who ruled the Tuscan roost for a few decades, overseeing a makeover of the city’s historic core south of the Arno that still shapes it today. Bringing together a host of splendid objects, from cameos to textiles to paintings, Eleonora di Toledo and the Invention of the Medici Court in Florence runs through May 14 in the vast palace, which Eleonora brought into the Medici orbit and then ornamented with the Boboli Gardens park just beyond. Eike Schmidt , the Uffizi director, describes Eleonora as the true “manager of the Medici court.” She acted as a consort and frequent regent for her husband, Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, a descendant of Lorenzo’s.

☆ Tourists in Italy are behaving badly this year: Here’s why
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

With Europe seeing an explosion of visitors a year after Covid travel restrictions dropped, incidents of visitors behaving badly in Italy show no sign of abating. Think that’s bad? Meanwhile in Venice, tourists routinely swim in the UNESCO-protected canals, which double as the city’s sewer system. “Tourists don’t know how to relate to the artistic heritage because they have no relation with our history – so they refer to their cultural imagination, and therefore to our cinema. “So many tourists have said to me over the years, ‘In Italy there are no rules.’ But they are mistaken.

Persons: Gennaro Sangiuliano, ”, Ivan, Haley, destructively, –, surfed, Augustus, ENIT, Eike Schmidt, Florence – Italy’s, we’ve, it’s, Schmidt, serena, panini, Luigi Brugnaro, Gianfranco Zarantonello, “, Zarantonello, zipping, you’d, Tom Jenkins, “ It’s, Nicola Bassano, Dolce, Federico Fellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Trevi, Vita ”, Vita, ” Maria Pasquale, ” Jenkins, Giorgia, Dr Audrey Tang, We’re, they’d, “ Jung, it's, ” Tang, “ That’s, Tang, ” Zarantonello, Lord Byron, Byron, “ Byron, Michelangelo’s Organizations: CNN, UNESCO, carabinieri, Maserati, Vatican Museum, Uffizi, Roma, Tourists, European Tourism Association, United, Vita, Twitter, Parco, British Psychological Society Locations: Italy, Rome, Saudi, Venice, Australian, American, ENIT, Florence, ”, Italian, Czech, Belgian, eFoils, Southeast Asia, France, Spain, ‘, ” Venice, Europe, It’s, Grand, Vatican

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