Ciao! I am excited to announce the launch of my new travel vlogs on YouTube! Join me as I explore some of the most beautiful destinations in northern Italy. In my first video, I’ll be sharing the itinerary for my one day in Venice during February of 2022. Coming soon are packing tips for travel … More Italy Travel Videos
10 days in ITALY!! Trip details/cost is here. We will begin in Venice and visit the best vendors, historical sites, and opera/fine dining of the Serenissima for 3 days at the end of Carnevale in February 2024 (because those crowds are meh). Next we will take the train to Ferrara and have a 3-day tour … More Italy with Gigi 2024
The spread of the Covid-19 virus has triggered an epidemic of advice. This advice is important, but it seems destined to make our lives more miserable and isolated. However, there is an unusual source of counsel which offers another way to deal with an epidemic. That source is the Decameron. The Italian Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in … More Surviving the Corona Virus: Medieval Italian Style
In this portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni (c. 1475) she wears a forest green cioppa (overdress) with long dark blue sleeves, an simple edgeless linen coverciere (scarf/partlet) held in place by two gold pins, a high neckline camicia (chemise), a slice of her bright red gamurra (underdress) shows through the laces of her cioppa which are … More Lucrezia Tornabuoni Portrait
From http://www.piccoligrandimusei.it/en/blog/portfolio_page/davanzati-museum/ A rare and magnificent example of a 14th-century residence in Florence, Palazzo Davanzati represents the transitional period between the medieval tower house and the Renaissance palace. The palace was built around the mid-14th century by the powerful Davizzi family of merchants and bankers, in Via Porta Rossa where resided such wealthy Florentine families as … More Palazzo Davanzati – An Ancient Florentine Home
Lucrezia Tornabuoni: Business Woman, Political Adviser, Poet by Sharon L. Jansen (original article here) Lucrezia Tornabuoni, c. 1475, portrait by Domenico Ghirlandaio A member of one influential Florentine family, the Tornabuoni, Lucrezia Tornabuoni married into another influential family, the Medici. It is possible, of course, to write about Lucrezia Tornabuoni exclusively in relationship to the … More Lucrezia Tornabuoni
(by Susan Brunn Puett, B & J. David Puett, PhD) Image of Copies of two pages from the 1597 edition of the Ricettario fiorentino di nuovo illustrato: Page 72 showing saffron (zafferano) as one of the included ingredients. From the Swiss electronic library of the ETH-Bibliothek Zurich. The contemporary pharmacy conjures an image of a … More The Florentine Farmacia
See full post at https://italianrenaissancesalon.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/sonetti-lussuriosi-di-pietro-aretino/ Excerpts from a lovely book on Florence and the Sonnets of Pietro Aretino: “This was Mama’s city, her spiritual home, the place where it all began: Giotto, Michelangelo, Leonardo, the Medici…, the cradle of the Renaissance, the discovery of the world and of man.” “I I were to describe and … More Sonetti Lussuriosi di Pietro Aretino
Fleurtyherald’s Tidbits on Sumptuary Laws The first sumptuary office in Florence, known as the Ufficiali delle donne, was created in 1330 to enforce all of the sumptuary bans adopted that year. By the fifteenth century, secret denunciations made by Florentine citizens and placed in boxes known as tamburi, were a commonplace. The cities of Florence, … More Illegally Fashionable – Sumptuary Laws In Renaissance Florence
Here is what I wrote to a friend planning her trip to Italy after my 2006 journey to Verona, Lake Garda, Florence, Venice, and Rome… I hope you guys have a blast in Italy! I went for a few months last year and had the time of my life. Here are some suggestions (I’m not … More More Musings From Italy
La Bella Donna 