cities and trips – Page 6

I’m on top of the DO-OME, Florence, part 1

It’s time to upload some new pictures for you! It’s been a while I haven’t written any article, so busy!

But now I’m ready for maybe one of the best articles, with the best pictures: views from the top of Dome of Florence and the Bell Tower too: Brunelleschi vs Giotto, what a contest!

It was Saturday afternoon, after 2 hours working hard in the gym, why don’t take a tour of the city and enjoy those wonderful and breath-taking moments? Enjoy them!

Dome of Florence - views from the top of the Bell Tower — Dome of Florence – views from the top of the Bell Tower

Brunelleschi's Dome of Florence and views — Brunelleschi’s Dome of Florence and views

Bell Tower, Florence: views from the top

What do you think about these views?

Well, if you would enjoy some more pictures from another perspective – from the top of Brunelleschi’s Dome (the Cupola), just follow me! You’ll discover some very exclusive points of views 🙂

Santa Maria Novella: magnificent stained-glass windows and Neo-gothic style of Florence

It was today, 18th February that Florence celebrates the death anniversary of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici.
Thanks to it, there (still?!) is free entry in several museums of the city were, and Santa Maria Novella was one of those.

It has been several time I didn’t enter that door, hence the results are surprizingly amazing!

Look at those pictures to know what I mean, discover the inner side of the first Gothic Church in Florence:

Santa Maria Novella entrance - Florence — Santa Maria Novella entrance (looking back) – Florence

San Thomas of Canterbury, right wall of SMN

Giotto Crucifix in the middle of the central aisle

Santa Maria Novella - central aisle and altar — Santa Maria Novella – central aisle and altar

Santa Maria Novella main altar, Neo-gothic style, rebuilt in 19th Century

Cappella Tornabuoni, magnificent stained-glass windows

frescoes by Ghirlandaio - final part by Michelangelo Buonarroti — frescoes by Ghirlandaio – final part by Michelangelo Buonarroti

For this last picture it’s worth to say that historical arts tells us that those frescoes were made by Ghirlandaio and its collaborators: one of them was Michelangelo Buonarroti and it is told that he contributed to paint the final part of the fresco…but it also told that Ghirlandaio was so jealous and envied him for his work of arts that decided to dismiss his pupil.

But let’s go on with SMN pictures:

Giant wooden bookrest of 6th Century (in Tornabuoni Chapel, just behind the main altar)

In Santa Maria Novella's Cloister — In Santa Maria Novella’s Cloister

and the the final view:

Santa Maria Novella - front view — Santa Maria Novella – front view

I found it very very very interesting, so, even if it doesn’t seem to have an English version, enjoy the virtual tour/map of the Church here, you can have different explanation of what you’re gonna see if you once decide to visit Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Love is in the air: San Valentine’s Day, starting 2 days before and ending the day after

Yes, you have to wait until two or three days before San Valentine’s Day to have the right idea for your lover.

It happens every year, each time you start thinking and watching shop windows, but then you think you want something different, something special that reminds you and you love of that particular feeling.

Anyway, here’s my preparation to San Valentine’s Day… Starting from a tour in Florence, passing by those little vintage shops full of things and old tools and books and posters..

Santo Spirito Street - Florence — Santo Spirito Street – Florence

going towards those refined and polish shops as the Rinascente, where you can enjoy its facade that is totally dedicated to the new fragrance of Ferragamo ‘Emozione’:

arriving to a fantastic idea, an homemade one.. that’s it! Here you are the solution:

San Valentine's choko-biscuits — San Valentine’s choko-biscuits

I know they will be very appreciated 🙂 above all if thinking about San Valentine Day’s I was sure to have…
…in Naples.

Imagine having lunch at home, because you man loves to prepare lunches for you..and you also have at your disposal a fish market where fish is very cheap and fresh and it has a wonderful taste:

and you can add some very good raw fish, enjoy this picture where you can see oysters (top!), razor shells, smooth clams and some others mollusks:

Raw fish: oysters, smooth clams, razor shells

Zoommm in the oyster:

Then, it’s time to enjoy the nice sun outside, so let’s have a walk in one of the man street – Via Toledo, also called via Roma – that goes straight to Piazza Plebiscito. At first, you meet a surprisingly great juke-box (with a poor man inside!) designed by Baci Perugina: you just need to choose your song and it starts… (then I discovered all the songs were part of Tiziano Ferro’s archives because of a particular partnership between him and Perugina brand, they created a limited edition for this loving occasion):

Baci Perugina and Tiziano Ferro for limited edition 'Autografi d'Amore' — Baci Perugina and Tiziano Ferro for limited edition ‘Autografi d’Amore’

Let’s finish the tour with something more pretty and less popular, in one of the narrows that lead to ‘Quartieri Spagnoli’ of Naples..a green and red Gallery of Love, full of flowers:

Love Gallery - Quartieri Spagnoli Naples 2015 — Love Gallery – Quartieri Spagnoli Naples 2015

Hope you enjoyed your San Valentine’s Day and mine too! 🙂

An alternative Saturday night: infusions in Teatro dell’Ozio

Actually, it’s happening even more often to have an alternative Saturday night.

Maybe because now the Saturday night is becoming the Friday night, after a long week spent working..
maybe because things are changing, and you start to understand you don’t always need to go clubbing or dancing to have your Saturday night. Anyway let’s enjoy together this new opening in Florence. I passed several times just in front of it but never stopped there. It looks like a mix of a perfume shop, a saloon, a tea house, a posh Italian bar. And it is.

They said it’s a totally new concept store: they sell perfumes, home fragrances, but also teas, tea cups and coffee pots and all the staff you can have in your kitchen. And you can also enjoy a meal, or a chocolate, infusions and cakes, pies, muffins and go on..

Look at those picture to better understand what I’m trying to say, read what it’s written on the first one, then go on..

Living style. Rooms become the perfect stages for a creative contemporary collection. Taking a new eye to the home.

Teatro dell'Ozio shop - handmade bags — Teatro dell’Ozio shop – handmade bags

The first lines of the picture show the concept of what you can see in the surrounding area of your seat (a comfortable sofa or white comfortable chairs made of wood). Then enjoy the ambient: a mix of ancient arches, romanic tiles, black libraries and branches that seem to be the dark touch of this place:

Teatro dell'Ozio - Florence — Teatro dell’Ozio – Florence

And then, it follows the bathroom area (?!) – well I’m joking, this is the privè:

Here it follows the shopping area:

We finally went for a set of infusions and a chocolate muffin with pistachios cream:

Infusions in Teatro dell'Ozio — Infusions in Teatro dell’Ozio

..really hard to remember their ingredients, but their taste and flavor were very palatable and helped feeling relaxed for this alternative Saturday night.

Let’s go Vintage!

I’m not very passionate about vintage, in the sense that I don’t like to wear vintage clothes and dresses from the past, look like old women even if you are just a twenty-years old girl. Anyway, it took place a very weird vintage fairy during last weekend in Florence. People say it’s the very end of Pitti weeks – even if I don’t really agree with this. ‘Pitti people’ really look like different from the ones I saw there, in Stazione Leopolda.

It was very enjoyable, because of people, music, clothes, accessories and atmosphere all around: not only vintage clothes, but also self-made clothing, tissues, old baggages and glasses and go on…

Vintage bags - not so expensive bags — Vintage bags – not so expensive bags

Vintage collections! flowers, postcard, old memories

And now the best snapshots, old clothes that look like curtains, people that look like some old movies’ characters (very impressive) and some view forms of the place from different perspectives:

Vintage accessories - view from a mirror — Vintage accessories – view from a mirror

don’t miss the next Vintage Selection event, let’s see in 2016!

Chocolate on Sunday, nothing else.

It was Sunday afternoon, after a long long Saturday night..

Just woke up late – obviously 🙂
Going out for shopping? Buy some new shoes? Just have a walk around?
Stop thinking, it’s time for a chocolate, very hot chocolate to keep this Sunday alive,
in a total relaxing place and enjoy the mood it could give you.

The answer was ‘Hemingway’. That little chocolate place in Piazza del Carmine, Florence. Once I saw it, but I didn’t stop there. But on last Sunday it was the perfect idea.
Well, now the ‘piazza’ should be also better than before, because the parking has been removed and it’s completely a pedestrian area, wonderful.

And wonderful is the smell you can eat just entering the place. Hemingway, why Hemingway? Was he passionated about chocolate, a chocolate-addicted? Wrote he about chocolate? I really don’t know.
And then the menu, where you can read about it.
Just a little research to discover this little emotional instant in Hemingway life:
…On the night of July 8, 1918, Hemingway was struck by an Austrian mortar shell while handing out chocolate to Italian soldiers in a dugout. The blow knocked him unconscious and buried him in the earth of the dugout; fragments of shell entered his right foot and his knee and struck his thighs, scalp and hand. Two Italian soldiers standing between Hemingway and the shell’s point of impact were not so lucky, however: one was killed instantly and another had both his legs blown off and died soon afterwards. Hemingway’s friend Ted Brumbach, who visited him in the hospital, wrote to Hemingway’s parents that: A third Italian was badly wounded and this one Ernest, after he had regained consciousness, picked up on his back and carried to the first aid dugout. He says he did not remember how he got there, nor that he carried the man, until the next day, when an Italian officer told him all about it and said that it had been voted to give him a valor medal for the act. As Brumbach reported, Hemingway was awarded an Italian medal of valor, the Croce de Guerra, for his service. As he wrote in his own letter home after the incident: Everything is fine and I am very comfortable and one of the best surgeons in Milan is looking after my wounds.

Hemingway’s experiences in Italy during World War I would become an integral part of his larger-than-life persona, as well as the material for one of his best-loved novels, A Farewell to Arms, which chronicles the love of a young American ambulance driver for a beautiful English nurse on the Italian front during the Great War.

Here’s the explanation.

And now enjoy the dark side of this post, from the very Belgian dark chocolate 99% (really hard to finish it!), to the less one 72%:

Belgian dark chocolate 72% in the back (sorry I missed this picture!)

oh, whipped cream really helped to enjoy them better 🙂

And chocolate at your disposal is in every shape and color and taste and flavor: bonbons, pralines, chocolate spoons, gianduia, macarons (or macarals?), chocolate with liqueur or grappa…

and let’s finish with a view of the place:

If you have some Sunday afternoons to spend in a relaxing place and mood, just try this chocolate bar and its wonderful chocolate, maybe avoid the 99%! or be sure to have also 2, 3 bottles of water with you – mouth dried up – .

Traditional Tuscany: fiorentina? Chianina? Cantina? what else?

Yes here we are, the second part of out tour in the countryside of Tuscany (near Arezzo) going until the upper side of Umbria. Enjoy for example, this little fiorentina, fresh meat from poor Tuscan-rooted beef:

Then, it comes the best hamburger you can find in this area: Crispi’s Chianina hamburger. It looks like a classical McDonald’s one, but it isn’t, I swear it.

let me also add this picture, it’s the one I prefer. It’s named ‘Lo sfondo’ that is to say you will have that sense of happiness while eating it and stomachache just after it 🙂

Chianina burger: 'Lo Sfondo' — Chianina burger: ‘Lo Sfondo’

And now let’s stop thinking about food, and have a look to some souvenirs you can get while going all around: magnets representing those landscapes and fields you can find on your road, sign about famous films run in those areas (as the one shown in the picture below: New Moon, Twilight), postcards about cantinas (the place where wine is produced) and historical monuments…

Tuscan souvenirs: postcards, magnets, posters

and then the most particular picture: a poster about the different kind of glasses, with different shapes and glass: generally they are linked to a particular kind of wine. Wine experts always say that there’s a only kind of glass for a specific wine, have a look here:

poster about wine and glasses: the kind of glass you use is related to the kind of wine you’re going to drink

Finally, let’s have a good Italian coffee, together with some special chocolate becoming exactly from their best production known all over the world: baci perugina frim Perugia

Italian Coffee in Montepulciano (La Briciola restaurant)

chocolate from Perugia ('baci perugina' are the most popular in the world) — chocolate from Perugia (‘baci perugina’ are the most popular in the world)

Ending with a wonderful panorama

Escape: Tuscan countryside

Yes I was escaping, flying away from the city, just for a brief wend.

But it was like going back home, in the countryside of a wonderful area as Tuscany.

That’s why I want to share some pictures with you, to offer you an escape, going deepen in the fields and trees and sun and weird moments of life.

Let’s start the tour from a little town near Arezzo, named Civitella Val di Chiana (exactly where the popular ‘chianina’ is made). Here you are some little snapshots of a huge landscape:

Tuscany - Civitella Val di Chiana — Tuscany – Civitella Val di Chiana

and then, something more particular and weird…

for example, think about those little towns that became popular thanks to their homemade products, as cheese and wine..

The following are Montepulciano’s ‘cantina’ views:

Montepulciano: Ercolani's cantina (1988) — Montepulciano: Ercolani’s cantina (1988)

and the to finish this brief tour (actually it lasted at least 1 hour), here you are the perfect end:

products of Tuscany: wine, cheese, homemade jam, particular smoked ham, lots of..

to finish, just ring the bell if you want to book and taste and enjoy…

Enjoy the rest of the trip in the next article!

– coming soon –

Florence: towards the Dome

It was my ordinary walk. I just want to share some nice shots I took while walking towards the Dome, not from the side that everybody knows – from Santa Maria Novella station – but from the back, through Via dell’Oriuolo. Here you are my walk, enjoy it by the pictures and in reality too, if you have this chance!

Just after two minutes, here you are what appears in front of you:

Now the Dome is very near to my camera, let’s zoom in

And finally, here you are the great view

So amazing… Just staring at it.

Colorful breakfast: Macarons or Macaral?

I took some pictures, they’re very colorful and bright, looking so happy. They’re about this new trend of ‘Macarons‘, something I thought was produced in France. I’m speaking – writing?! 🙂 – by using the past tense, because, in fact, some days ago I discovered something different. There was this old lady, who was working in one of the most colorful and modern cake design/pastry of Florence – Rinaldini its the name – and she told me that their origins are Italian, they’re part of the Made-in-Italy-history.

In fact, by looking at the following pictures, you will see that they’re called ‘Macaral‘ in order to be distinguished from the universal trend of nowadays. I think that Ladurée brand is playing a very essential role in the diffusion of those biscuits all around the world, and it’s also helping to spread the conviction that macarons are from France, even if it’s not true.

Anyway, wherever they’re from, it seems you can’t avoid to have 2, 3, 4, 5 (…) Macaral at least once in your life, for breakfast or a break in the afternoon..

And if when you are in front of those colorful infinite rows, you have such difficulties to choose the best flavors, just don’t worry, it’s normal! You’ll be displayed all the possible flavors of the world…violette, strawberry, pistachos, licorice, chocolate, coffee and many, many others.

If you want a tip: just choose by the color 🙂