by Dianne Hales | May 19, 2020 | amore, art history, Books, books on Italy, culture, Current Affairs, Florence, food, Food and Drink, history, Italian language, Italy, Language, Leonardo da Vinci, literature, love in Italy, Music, Renaissance, Romance, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Tuscany, Web/Tech, Weblogs, wine
Not even a global pandemic can stop people from doing what they love. Over the last few months, we’ve seen dancers dance; singers sing; actors perform—wherever and whenever they could. The same is true of writers. While sheltering at home in California, I...
by Dianne Hales | Apr 14, 2020 | art, art history, Books, books on Italy, culture, history, Italy, Language, Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Leonardo da Vinci, the consummate Renaissance man, was born on April 15, 1452 near the town of Vinci. Nothing about this artist and architect, musician and mathematician, scientist and sculptor, engineer and inventor, geologist and botanist was ever ordinary. The...
by Dianne Hales | Feb 4, 2020 | art, art history, Books, books on Italy, Florence, history, Italy, Language, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Six hundred years ago, in 1420, construction began on one of the world’s architectural marvels: the long-unfinished dome of Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Winning the commission for this task proved almost as challenging as the work itself for Filippo...
by DHales | May 1, 2018 | art, Books, culture, Florence, history, Italy, Language, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) The Da Vinci Code transformed his last name into an international phenomenon, but Italians have always referred to the ultimate Renaissance man simply as Leonardo. Next year the world will commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death on...
by DHales | Jun 12, 2017 | art, Books, culture, Florence, history, Italy, Language, Religion, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo June 15, 1479 — July 15, 1542 On a mid-June day in Florence in 1479, a midwife—called a levatrice for her “lifting” (levare) of a baby into the light — gently washed the newborn daughter of Antonmaria and Lucrezia Gherardini...
