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Venice and Florence are key players in Italy’s well honed tourism industry. But the past year has proven difficult beyond belief for them, too. While the end of the pandemic is far from being “around the corner,” the mayors of both cities recently stressed it is essential to be ready when the emergency is over and to start the right way. One year o...

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The Uffizi Gallery in Florence used the winter COVID shutdown to push ahead with renovations, discovering lost frescoes that will greet visitors when the leading repository of Italian Renaissance art reopens on May 4. Uffizi director Eike Schmidt said the six months of closure were put to good use: renovating 14 new rooms that will open to the publ...

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Florence is a monument to the Renaissance, showcasing at every turn the art and architecture from that period, which continues to impress and inspire. It's clear what the Italian Renaissance looked like, but in the soaring Santa Maria Novella Basilica, "CBS Sunday Morning" got the rare chance to hear how it sounded, with music being heard for the f...

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Born in late 13th century Florence, Dante influenced the theories, political beliefs and literature during and after the Renaissance era. Although Dante meticulously practiced writing in his early life, he later rose to fame as the author of one of the greatest works of literature, the Divine Comedy. He divided the poem in three cantiche—Inferno, P...

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Piazza della Signoria, arguably the most beautiful in Florence is outfitted with Michelangelo's David, Donatello's Judith and Holofernes, and other Renaissance sculptures. It also boasts two of the most prominent names in the Italian food world: Massimo Bottura, chef of the three-star Michelin-rated Osteria Francescana,  and Frescobaldi, a noble fa...

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When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (this year is the 80th anniversary) and the United States declared war, Italy also went to war with America on the basis of the alliance pact signed with Japan. Italians who lived in America found themselves guiltless citizens of an enemy country: some were removed from the two coasts, all were asked to choose betwe...

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If you want to get away from the tourist traps and experience Florence like a local, Oltrarno is the right place to go. This part of Florence includes panoramic terraces like the Piazzale Michelangelo to beautiful gardens such as the Boboli Gardens. Not to mention the artisanal boutiques, and contemporary art galleries. Palazzo Pitti One of the mos...

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It earned its name, "Old Bridge," by surviving a long and exciting history. It's possible that the bridge existed in some form during the Roman Empire, but it was first recorded as being a defensive structure in Medieval Italy. The bridge, built of stone and wood, crosses the most narrow point of the Arno River and connects the City Center to the d...

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Secret gardens, public and private parks, and verdant hills, Florence’s reputation for being “green” goes beyond its eco - sustainability efforts.  One of the most beautiful attractions you can discover when you visit the city of Florence, or when you live there, are its historic gardens, especially in the spring, when the beauty of these lush, gre...

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Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt said Friday that the Florence museum was seventh-top in the world last year for visitor numbers despite the COVID-19 pandemic. "The pandemic hit extremely hard but the Uffizi Gallery hung in there," Schmidt told the Foreign Press Association of Italy. "In 2020 we had a total of 1,206,175 visitors, 27.5% of the number of...

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