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I-Florence by Dotflorence staff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione-Non opere derivate 2.5 Italia License.
Based on a work at www.i-florence.com
Archive for the ‘ARTS&CULTURE&MUSEUMS’ Category
A landmark en passant…
For a great number of Florentines the familiar small, walled oval hill on piazzale Donatello is little more than a roundabout.
Granted, it is a rather mysterious roundabout, higher than most, revealing peaks of elegant cypresses and glimpses of marble tombstones, but undoubtedly a landmark en passant for the modern motorist speeding along the wide viale from piazza Libertà down towards the Arno. However, this urban island, housing the originally named Cimitero Protestante di Porta a’ Pinti, described by custodian Julia Bolton Holloway as ‘a place dense with meaning, a burning glass of history,’ is a worthy destination in itself.
As an English woman living only five minutes away from the ‘English Cemetery’ and knowing embarrassingly little about it, I decided to find out more. Unbeknown to many, the cemetery is actually open for ash burials of all faiths, the most recent having taken place over Easter 2010.
» Read more…
Villa il Gioiello…the house of Galileo
Villa il Gioiello (“The Jewel”) is a villa in Florence, central Italy, famous for being one of the residences of Galileo Galilei, which he lived in from 1631 until his death in 1642. It is also known as Villa Galileo (not to be confused with the other homes of Galileo found in Florence, which are in Costa San Giorgio, as well as a villa in Bellosguardo).
The name Gioiello was given due to its favorable position in the hills of Arcetri, near the Torre del Gallo. It was an elegant home, surrounded by many acres of farmland with a separate house for workers. It is recorded in the cadastre of 1427 to have been owned by Tommaso di Cristofano Masi and his brothers, who later passed it on to the Calderini family in 1525, where it is first mentioned as “The Jewel”. The villa and its estate suffered damages during the siege of Florence in the years 1529 and 1530, whilst the entire area of Arcetri and Pian dei Giullari were occupied by Imperial troops. Calderini I sold it shortly thereafter to the Cavalcanti family, who rebuilt the home with its original simple lines, preserving its elegant look to the present day.
This rented residence with its fields, adjoined the monastery where his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste (born Virginia) was a nun. » Read more…