Category Archives: local culture

February is a mad month in Florence!

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February is carnival time. The last day of Carnival, (Shrove Tuesday) falls on the 9th of February this year. In all the bars and pastry shops in Florence now you will be able taste some wonderful goodies that are not available at any other time of the year: Cenci (fried dough smothered in icing sugar), Frittele   …Continue Reading


It’s beginning to look a lot like …

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Christmas is coming and everyone is getting just little over-excited, including us!


Hot, hot and them some more hot!

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In case you haven’t heard, it is hot in Mediterranean Europe this summer. Hot. All the time. Hot! Here follow some useful tips for keeping your core temperature from exploding if you are visiting Florence this summer. if you have a quiet place with air-con to go in the very hottest hours (between about 2   …Continue Reading


Something really quite beautiful, made by hand!

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We came aross this rather exciting sketch on the web and thought that we would share it with you. Just how lovely is this?! Credit to Alvin Mark     Sunset over the Arno River sketch after watching Mad Max. The movie was intense and the concept art brought me back to my animation days!   …Continue Reading


Winter fruits – all bursting with flavour and goodness

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Food in Italy is fabulous all year round but there is definitely some extra love put into all the dishes and desserts around Christmas time! For dessert the most simple Italian sweet is fresh fruit. Freshly picked mandarins and melograno (pomegranate) that come straight from the orto (fruit and vegetable garden) and are all bursting   …Continue Reading


What to look forward to in the next month in Florence!

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November and December are special months in Florence! As the weather cools down everyone starts to get ready for winter and the holidays. Lights will go up in the streets, all the high end shops start displaying their Christmas windows and so much more happens in this incredible city. If you are planning to stay   …Continue Reading


Italian food culture: our liquid gold

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Olive oil is known to be the “king of ingredients of Italian cuisine,” especially in Tuscany where the climate is perfect for the cultivation of olives. The craft of turning olives into oil has stayed in the Mediterranean Tuscan region over thousands of years and the techniques have been the same and passed down from   …Continue Reading


Eating Italian Style – when it’s hot!

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2014 will certainly never go down in the archives as one of the hottest years on record, and will certainly be remembered as one of the wettest, but even with the rain and semi-tropical storms that have overtaken our peninsula of late, temperatures still climb into the low 30s (upwards of 86°F). In much the   …Continue Reading


Italian food culture: dining out in Firenze!

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While food is universally loved, we like to think that we are extra passionate about it here in Italy. For us, it means so much more than putting something on a plate – food signifies family, celebrating, a way of expressing love and care. The way we dine is a little bit different from the   …Continue Reading