Culture

The 2015-16 season symbols an unprecedented collaboration between the Tuscany Theater Foundation run by Marco Giorgetti and The Production Center for dance run by Virgilio Sieni. From October 14 until October 31 the Pergola Theater and Cango, headquarters of two different companies accredited for drama and dance at the regional level, will host together with other spaces in Oltrarno, the first edition of UMANO – international shipyards on body language and dance, thus establishing

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore also known as Il Duomo di Firenze is one of the main touristic attractions in Florence. Its beauty and uniqueness seem like a never ending story, an endless row of details just waiting to be discovered by curious eyes. The Florentines have decided to lay the cornerstone of the Cathedral on September 8, 1296, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, building this architectural mastodon in her honor. The construction was first designed in a Gothic style by Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 by Filippo Brunelleschi who designed the dome.

This is a magical night, when wishes can come true. All it takes is to say them out loud while a star falls across the sky. It is the night of San Lorenzo, the Spanish Saint, who in 258 a.c. arrived in Rome and that very same day, died, burned on a gridiron because of the persecution of King Valeriano. According to the legend, the stars that crossed the sky that night were like sparks of fire from the coals on which the saint burned, that once risen to the sky, during the martyrdom, they descended back on Earth to make our wishes come true. The deacon San Lorenzo has come to Rome from Huesca, Spain, his native country, together with Pope Sixtus II, to give to the poor the money collected from Christians.

Dante Aligheri is without doubt one of the illustrious sons of Florence, for his writings (among which “Divina Commedia” where he recounts in verses the journey from Hell, Purgatory and Paradise and “Vita Nuova” where he sings his love for Beatrice) that created the foundation of the Italian language and for his life, a pattern of political passion.dante As in any family, between mother Florence and its famous son there were also forgettable moments, one of the most dramatic ones taking place in 1302, the year when Dante was condemned to perpetual exile and his house was burned to the ground because of the political disputes of which he was a protagonist; from then on the great poet will wander in exile until 1321 and he will end his earthly life at Ravenna, where he is still buried now. .

If statesman, historian and journalist of great succes Giovanni Spadolini would still be with us today, he would have turned 90 years old. spadoliniBorn on June 21st, 1925, he came from a middle classe family in Florence (his father, Guido was a well-known engraver) and was raised in the heart of the city: he lived in the apartment from Via Cavour 28, almost at the corner with Via degli Alfani, today declared by the Superintendent as national heritage site. He went to elementary school at Scolopi, gymnasium and high school at Galileo near Via Martelli. These are the years of the regime when he will discover one of his favorite authors, Piero Gobetti, the anti-fascist apostle of the “Liberal Revolution”, the high school student who will have to “snoop around” in the basement of the adjacent library “Giorni”. Florence, “home of the soul”.