Freya's Florence Tours - Freya Middleton

04/09/2024

On this day in 2013 I posted...
Exploring Florence yesterday with some lovely ladies
I wonder if these lovely ladies still follow this page 🤔

04/09/2024

DID YOU KNOW...
The Marzocco (lion), symbol of the Florentine Republic, was crowned on Tuscany's first postage stamp in 1851. The crown emphasised the sovereign independence of Tuscany.

04/09/2024

I was thrilled to hear that Australian director and screenwriter Peter Weir has received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st Venice International Film Festival!
Peter Weir, the Australian director of "The Truman Show", "Gallipoli" and "Dead Poets Society", was handed a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, and advised young film-makers to unplug to get ahead.

Weir, 80, made his international breakthrough with the 1975 arthouse classic "Picnic at Hanging Rock", before moving on to work in Hollywood, making "Witness", starring Harrison Ford, "Green Card", with Andie MacDowell, and other hits.
He received an Honorary Oscar Award in 2022 and confirmed earlier this year that he was retiring from directing. Speaking to reporters in Venice, he said aspiring directors needed to get back to basics and escape the noise of modern living.

"Starting off today, I would say even don't pick a camera up. I would pick up a pencil and paper ... I would practice like a gymnasium, exercising in here, not the muscles, but the mental muscles. We are capable of extraordinary things in here," he told a news conference, pointing to his head.

To honour Weir, Venice screened his 2003 film, the seafaring epic "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", with Russell Crowe in the lead role.
He said the producers had originally wanted to make a sequel, but scrapped the plan because the movie didn't do well enough at the box office - a decision that came as something of a relief to Weir.
"I always hoped there would not be sequels or remakes. I liked myself to move on. I didn't ever want to repeat myself," he said.

Weir said he had originally thought of being an actor, before deciding he was better off behind the camera. However, he admitted his heart lay in music.
"I would swap directing for composing," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/other/truman-show-director-peter-weir-wins-award-tells-film-makers-to-unplug/ar-AA1pRcz3

04/09/2024

You've probably seen dozens of these sweet little jugs in shops around Florence. This is mine, that I bought many years ago and use mainly for pouring sauces.
They are made in Deruta in Umbria and follow a traditional pattern that originated during the Renaissance in the hill-top town of Orvieto.
The Galletto (Rooster) pattern's main motif is a crowing rooster that symbolizes good wishes for prosperity and well-being. A good reason to buy one when next in Florence... or Deruta!

04/09/2024

Good morning from Melaleuca Bakery + Bistrot (Lungarno delle Grazie, 18)!
Their coffee is great and their cakes are to die for...

04/09/2024

Nella splendida cornice del Salone dei Cinquecento, la storia torna a rivivere grazie a un programma di eventi proposti da MUS.E e dai Musei Civici Fiorentini, non perdere i prossimi spettacoli di living history! 🎭✨

📌 Serenissima duchessa Eleonora di Toledo. Ovvero dell’amore et del comando: venerdì 20 settembre e venerdì 22 novembre alle ore 19, spettacolo dedicato alla figura di Eleonora di Toledo.
🔗 Prenota qui: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/1006654419467?aff=oddtdtcreator

📌 Illustrissimo Signor Duca: Cosimo I de’ Medici: venerdì 25 ottobre alle ore 19, spettacolo dedicato a Cosimo I de’ Medici.
🔗 Prenota qui: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/1006654419467?aff=oddtdtcreator

Info e prenotazioni: 📩 [email protected] 📞 055-2768224.

Scopri di più su https://musefirenze.it/alla-corte-dei-medici-spettacoli-di-living-history-in-palazzo-vecchio/

Città di Firenze
Città di Firenze Cultura
Feel Florence

03/09/2024

A way to escape the heat in Florence... Stibbert Park
The garden, located on the way up to Fiesole, is a haven of esoteric and symbolic architecture. Walking through the magical garden is an experience designed to culminate in self-discovery. All paths lead to an Egyptian temple, a product of Stibbert’s egyptomania, which can be accessed by water and by land. Mysterious and evocative, the park is full of surprises including a Hellenistic-inspired temple, Venetian corridors and a small island in the middle of the lake.
Via Stibbert 26
055/475520
Open every day except Thursday from April to October, 8am – 7pm; from November to March, 8am to 5pm. Closed January 1, Easter Sunday, May 1, August 15 and December 25.
museostibbert.it
Free

03/09/2024

For the Florence experts... where is this and what do the symbols represent?

03/09/2024

Put the Archaeological Museum on your list to visit when next you come to Florence!
It's conveniently located in piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta (a palace built in 1620 for princess Maria Maddalena de' Medici, daughter of Ferdinand I de Medici, by Giulio Parigi).
I particularly love the Etruscan collection which boasts the Chimera of Arezzo (discovered in 1553 at Arezzo during the construction of a Medici fortress), but the Egyptian, Greek and Roman collections are wonderful too.
The collection's first foundations were the family collections of the Medici and Lorraine. The Egyptian section was first formed in the first half of the 18th century from part of the collections of Pierre Léopold de Toscane, from another part of an expedition promoted by the same Grand Duke in 1828–29 and led by Ippolito Rosellini and Champollion (the man who first deciphered hieroglyphics). In 1887 a new topographic museum on the Etruscans was added, but it was destroyed in the 1966 floods.

03/09/2024

Have you tried the gelato in Gelateria della Passera?
Cinzia Otri opened her first gelateria in 2010 after she finished her studies at the University of Gelato in Bologna. This cosy shop is only about one metre squared in size, but the location – on the Piazza della Passera – is lovely. Gelateria della Passera has gained a lot of recognition in the last few years, with many recognising it as one of the five best gelaterias in Italy.
You’ll only find a few flavours here – a maximum of twenty – all made to the highest standards. The choice changes daily depending on what ingredients are in season; among the best are mandorla (almond), crema pasticcera (pastry cream) and coffee.
via Toscanella 15 r | Firenze

03/09/2024

Off to the 81st Venice Film Festival with some mates...

02/09/2024

Some interesting trivia...
Why do Italians say "pronto" when they answer the phone?

In italian "Pronto" means "Ready." Why do we say "Ready," then, when we answer the phone? Ready for what?
The root of this word dates back to the very early days of telephony in Italy: when the first phones were installed, the only way to connect to someone else was by going through an operator. The caller would "buzz" the operator, who would ask what number needed to be connected. "Milano 1039," might say the caller, who would then hang up.
The operator would attempt that number and, if the recipient of the call answered, the operator would then recontact the original caller and say "Pronto?" meaning "Are you ready to be connected?"
The caller would answer "Pronto," to indicate that he was ready for the connection.
The habit stuck even after operators became obsolete, and italians stand on the "Pronto" to this day, whenever they get a phone call!

HOWEVER... when I posted this 10 years ago, a follower of this page made the following comment...
This story is false. The telephone was invented by Meucci who worked at Pergola theater here in Florence. He came up with the idea as an easy means to talk to the stage hands underneath the theater. So on the day of testing his new invention he sent an assistant down to the other end of his telephone. When the assistant got down there he picked up the device and said "pronto" (ready) to let Meucci know he could start his experiment. But Meucci heard him loud and clear. So basically "pronto" became the very first word ever pronounced over a telephone and it just stuck. True story. If you go to the Pergola today there is still his original phone (might be a replica of the original).

So which story is true???

02/09/2024

This lovely building in the middle of the Casentino Forests, secluded and miles from anywhere, surrounded for kilometres by thousands of centuries old trees, is the hunting lodge built by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II mid-1800s. Now a 3 star hotel with restaurant, pool and spa. Fantastic!

02/09/2024

This memorial stone commemorates the tragic death of the Australian ace flier, Bert Hinkler. It was January 7, 1933 when Hinkler disappeared while trying to establish a new flight record from London to Australia aboard his Puss Moth. The monument marks the location of “The Hinkler Ring” – a circular 8.4 km hiking track for tourists, on Mt Pratomagno in Casentino, Tuscany.
Hinkler was a true pioneer of aviation and set several aviation records, including being the first man to fly solo from London to Australia.
He crashed on 7th January 1933 in the locality of Prato alle Vacche in an attempt to reach Australia from England and his body was found in the spring, near the remains of the plane, close to his flying jacket. He rests in the Florentine cemetery of the Allori, after being honoured by a state funeral.
Hinkler is still remembered in the small community near where his plane crashed. His contributions to Italy during the First World War (he was based here) are not forgotten.
The monument and walking track pay a lasting tribute to Bert Hinkler’s magnificent flying achievements, and also to his bravery, heroism and innovative genius during the First World War in which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
The stone for the monument came all the way from Mon Repos near Bundaberg, where Bert was from.
I was there for the unveiling of the stone in 2015 and very proud!

02/09/2024

When you come to Tuscany, make sure you visit my favourite part...
About 50km east of Florence is Casentino, full of forests and castles steeped in history. It is untouched by most tourist routes today, but hasn’t always been so peaceful; Arezzo and Florence bitterly fought for the territory, notably in the 1289 Battle of Campaldino, in which Dante played a part. You can see a white column on the site of the battle, known to locals as ‘Dante’s suitcase’, and the nearby Poppi castle has information about the battle.
But Dante’s experiences on the battlefield didn’t put him off returning to the area. He stayed in the towns of Poppi, Romena and Dovaldo to work at court, and if you choose to recreate these trips, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful scenery and majestic castles.
Casentino had a special place in Dante’s heart, and he ensured local citizens fame by including them in his Comedia – even giving the enemy leader who died at the Battle of Campaldino, Buonconte da Montefeltro, a favourable portrayal in Purgatorio.

02/09/2024

On my morning run in Poppi...

02/09/2024

01/09/2024

Do you know what I am doing?
Mark Twain, who wasn't a great fan of Venice, wrote in his 'Innocents Abroad':
"These were the terrible Lions’ Mouths. … these were the throats down which went the anonymous accusation thrust in secretly in the dead of night by an enemy, that doomed many an innocent man to walk the Bridge of Sighs and descend into the dungeon which none entered and hoped to see the sun again."
The bocche dei leoni, the lions’ mouths, or boche de le denuntie, similar to modern post boxes, can still be found in various locations around Venice.They were either the face of a lion (the lion of St. Mark being the symbol of the Venetian state) or a grimacing face.
In place of the mouth there was a hole where you could insert sheets of paper with secret complaints against a fellow citizen or against the authorities.
The complaints could relate to various types of crimes including the non-compliance of health regulations, blasphemy or tax evasion. There was at least one in each district, near places where the Judiciary were (the Doge’s Palace or the churches) and were used to collect information, reports or accusations against those who had allegedly committed crimes.
Since the bocche date to the 15th century, and were around during some major waves of the Black Death, you can presume that the “public health” complaints left here were not limited to neighbours who failed to attend to their garbage. Those with the plague were carted off to the quarantine island of Lazaretto Vecchio, a place from which few returned.
While these lions’ mouths were a pipeline to the State, they were not, despite popular lore, sinister snitching posts where your enemy could anonymously rat you out – fairly or unfairly – and wait for the Council of Ten’s reps to pop by and drag you off to swing from a gibbet. On the contrary, there was a sophisticated process through which anonymous denunciations were considered. Serious evidence and investigation were always needed before any action was taken.
Of course, these days you can simply email your denunciations directly to the Comune di Venezia, though I have to wonder if anyone still checks the bocche for random grievances left by a less techno-literate veneziano in the dead of night.
For more: http://veniceblog.typepad.com/.../05/the_lions_mouth.html

01/09/2024

If you're lucky enough to be in Venice today, you can watch the Historical Regatta!

Held every year on the first Sunday of September, Venice's historical regatta (or Regata Storica) is one of the lagoon's oldest traditions, commemorating the Venetian Republic's glorious past.

The first regatta on record dates back to 1841 but similar rowing races have been held across the lagoon as far back as the late 13th century.

As by tradition, the regatta will feature six separate rowing races, which will be preceded by a floating parade along the Grand Canal, with colourful boats and locals decked out in full Renaissance garb.

01/09/2024

TODAY... like every first Sunday of the month, you can watch this traditional military ceremony, the change of the guard, outside Palazzo Vecchio on the hour from 10am to 1pm.

01/09/2024

Sunday lunch at the Trattoria Piccolo Trianon in the hills above Florence - known for their home cooking and especially their fried mix of chicken, brains and pork!
Fabulous views, friendly service and totally yummy food!
Via Dante da Castiglione, 20, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (on the hill above Careggi)

01/09/2024

It's September and the first day of Autumn in Italy!
This is a page from the calendar of the Très Riches Heures, a generalised calendar (not specific to any year) of church feasts and saints' days, often illuminated with representations of the Labours of the Months.
In the foreground, it is grape-picking time. The woman in a white and red apron looks pregnant. Other young peasants are picking the purple bunches, while one of them is tasting the grapes. A further character holding a basket is walking towards a mule which is carrying two panniers. The grapes are being loaded either into the mules' panniers or into the vats on the cart pulled by two oxen.
In Italy, September is a time of cooling temperatures, dissipating crowds, and historic festivals. From long-running regattas to harvest festivals, horse races, medieval fairs, and small-town celebrations of patron saints - making time to attend one of these unique festivals can help you find a closer connection to Italian culture during your visit to Italy.

31/08/2024

Love frescoes? You'll love this Freya's Florence tour!
This private tour is not only for lovers of frescoes, but for lovers of Florence in general as we visit places that are often overlooked, quite simply as the list of things to do in the city is too long!
We visit a monastery, the first Medici renaissance palace, a little chapel of a local confraternity & a merchant’s house from the 1300s.
We start the walking tour visiting the Dominican monastery of San Marco, a masterpiece of renaissance architecture & outstanding example of artistic & political patronage by the Medici family, where the cells are frescoed by the great master & fellow friar Beato Angelico.
We continue to the Medici Palace, the prototype model for palatial architecture for the 1400s in Italy, with an exquisitely frescoed cavalcade depicting the three Magi. Afterwards we visit the St Martin Chapel of the Florentine confraternity, which is frescoed with delightful street scenes of Florence during the renaissance & finally we finish with a virtual step back into time, with a tour of Palazzo Davanzati – a house from the 1300s, full of furniture and frescoed decoration, which brings to life how a family lived six hundred years ago.
If you choose this tour on a day when one of the sites is closed we will substitute the closed site with Santa Maria Novella Church or Palazzo Vecchio.
http://www.freyasflorence.com/.../fabulous-frescoes.../

31/08/2024

One of my favourite places to visit in Tuscany...
Il Giardino dei Tarocchi
Prepare to enter the magical world of the Tarot Garden, a personal gift by the artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) to visitors of the Maremma area of Tuscany. Picture: A hilly area of land so far south in Tuscany you’re almost in Lazio, and close enough to the sea to smell it. Twenty-one statues, some small and made of resin, some large enough to live inside, all decorated entirely in mosaics. Every colour imaginable, but also a lot of mirrors, in a work of art that reflects the artist and the viewer.
You enter through a rather serious gate designed by the architect Mario Botta as a purposefully masculine and austere contrast to the art that one encounters on the other side. A scrub-lined path leads you uphill until lo and behold, you see something big and blue through an opening in the trees. You come upon this strange new world, a fantastical piazza in which water runs down the front of a big blue two-headed monster and moves metal creations. A gigantic pink-breasted sphynx looms to the left, and other mildly diabolical structures complete the picture. You are engaged in every way, by the colours, the light glinting off the mosaics, the sound of the water and the squeaking of the moving metal sculptures.
Each of the sculptures represents one figure from the major arcana (aka trumps major), 21 cards in the tarot deck that regard majorly significant aspects of life. The artist writes: “I am convinced that the cards contain an important message… The tarot cards have given me a key to better understanding my spiritual life and to dealing with life’s problems.” Niki reveals her innermost emotions and gives us everything – her heart, her body, her mind – through these works. This is written on a tile on the outside of The hangman.
In her words:
"This garden was made with great difficulty, with love, with crazy enthusiasm, with obsession, and more than anything else, with trust. Nothing and nobody could have stopped me."
Perhaps the most intimate space in the garden is the Imperatrice (card number III), the female sphynx-like structure. Niki lived inside this structure for about a year, and you can go inside it now. It has a kitchenette, sleeping loft, and bathroom with a shower that comes out of a monster’s head. The whole inside is covered in mirror mosaic, every single surface, even the dining table. On the outside, female symbols predominate, the shapely women for which the artist is famous.
The garden is open in the afternoons from April 1 to October 15 each year, 2:30 to 7:30pm.
Pescia Fiorentina, località Garavicchio, province of Grosseto, Tuscany
Best time to visit: late afternoon, early in the season! The park has finally been discovered by families and groups (when I went 10 years ago we had the garden to ourselves) and it can be quite hot and crowded. I suggest going to the beach at Marina di Capalbio in the morning, and then to the garden in the late afternoon, armed with floppy hat and sunscreen.
The official site is: http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/
(Tuscany Arts)

31/08/2024

There's nothing like a platter of Tuscan cold cuts...

Finocchiona IGP (throughout the region): This soft, scented salami is made with top quality meat cuts and seasoned with wild fennel seeds or fennel flowers and pepper. Its origins date back to the Middle Ages, when wild fennel seeds were used as a cheap alternative to pepper, which was more expensive. It is said that Machiavelli was particularly fond of Finocchiona.

Mortadella Bologna IGP (throughout the region): This is the classic Italian mortadella pork sausage, pink in colour, strong in smell, with a touch of spiciness. It is produced in Emilia Romagna, Piemonte, Veneto, Tuscany, Trento, Marche, Lazio and Lombardy.

Mortadella di Prato IGP:This mortadella is produced in the area around Prato. It is noted for its spiciness and the addition of an ancient alcohol: alchermes, which are normally used only in sweets, such as the so-called "Prato peaches". Prato Mortadella goes very well with aperitifs or in traditonal recipes like sedano alla pratese (Prato celery).

Tuscan Ham - Prosciutto Toscano DOP (throughout the region): Prosciutto Toscano is made only with fresh meat of the highest quality from six regions of central and northern Italy, including Tuscany. After a long seasoning, Tuscan prosciutto emerges with a delicate flavour, an optimum sapidity and rich aromas.

Colonnata lard – Lardo di Colonnata IGP (Colonnata, Massa Carrara): This highly prized and fragrant product is made from pork lard, which is cured in marble basins in Carrara, before the layers of lard are alternated with salt, pepper, sage and rosemary. What originated as a meal for marble quarrymen has become a delicacy known throughout the globe.

Small Italian salamis alla cacciatora (hunter-style) - Salamini italiani alla cacciatora DOP (throughout the region): Different types of small salamis are produced all over Tuscany and throughout central and northern Italy. They are known as cacciatori or cacciatorini and are usually dry, compact and ruby red in colour.

https://www.visittuscany.com/en/ideas/pdo-and-pgi-products-of-tuscany/

31/08/2024

Can't believe this was more than 10 years ago... with my brother and cousin in Piazza della Repubblica

31/08/2024

Arriving for the 81st Venice International Film Festival which will take place at Venice Lido from 28th August to 7th September.
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.

30/08/2024

In Florence, another Starbucks... the fifth store opens on Via del Corso!!!!

And just how did the American chain avoid restrictions within the centre?
A bar in Piazza Salvemini closes, a Starbucks on Via del Corso opens. Not just anywhere on the central shopping street, but inside Palazzo Portinari, the historic headquarters of Banca Toscana.
Making "room" for Starbucks was the license of Caffè Salvemini, which closed suddenly a year ago, warning customers with a note placed in the window at the last minute: the Curia, owner of the building, had decided not to continue with the lease. And so Starbucks was able to avoid the restrictions that Palazzo Vecchio is trying to insert into its regulations designed to slow down the Unesco centre's rush towards the unstoppable proliferation of food outlets.
They didn't apply for a new license, but bought an existing one!!!
The Percassi group, on behalf of Starbucks, has in fact acquired the license of Piazza Salvemini to transfer it to Via del Corso. A street that is not included among those “locked down” by the new mayor Sara Funaro to prevent the transfer of existing licenses.
Via del Corso is increasingly losing its traditional points of reference, to open up to large international chains.
Poor Florence.

https://corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/notizie/24_agosto_29/firenze-un-altro-starbucks-in-via-del-corso-apre-il-quinto-store-con-la-licenza-del-caffe-salvemini-99ab666e-ff81-4317-9144-a134841dcxlk.shtml?fbclid=IwY2xjawE-Al1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWNeeI6icUamEJ6q-JtuPd3z9Es-qodirNECB5ZHL2H0I7xmGST2kzo4tw_aem_3w6r3jfTdeCbaYbyteelSA

30/08/2024

Yeaaay! It's Schiacciata con l'Uva time!
Schiacciata con l'Uva is a flat bread, usually salty, but at this time of year it is prepared in a sweet version using grapes that will soon be harvested! It is oven baked, filled with grapes and absolutely delicious.