Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Florence FREE”
For the holiday season 2025, Dream of Italy is celebrating Advent by revealing one of our favorite travel treasures for each day. See list of all days. Day 18: Florence’s Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone bridge spanning the river Arno. It was the only bridge in Florence spared from destruction during World War II. The Ponte Vecchio it is noted …
For the holiday season 2025, Dream of Italy is celebrating Advent by revealing one of our favorite travel treasures for each day. See list of all days. Day 14: Florence tour guide Freya Middleton brings Kathy to the frescoed private chapels in the 15th-century Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence which are significant because at the time, private chapels were rarely permitted by …
For the holiday season 2025, Dream of Italy is celebrating Advent by revealing one of our favorite travel treasures for each day. See list of all days. Day 1: Goldsmith and jeweler Alessandro Dari’s family has been making jewelry in Florence since 1630. Dari puts and elaborate and nontraditional spin on the craft. Rings are his specialty and each has a spiritual significance or …
Tourism to Italy hit a record high in 2023 with registered arrivals at accommodations at 134 million (with similar numbers expected in 2024) and locals and visitors alike are feeling these numbers, with streets and sites feeling more crowded, reservations harder to come by and just a general sense that certain cities and sites are overrun. Italy is the fourth …
This article originally appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. To cope with record-high tourist numbers, Italy has generated new and creative ways to welcome and entertain visitors. This coming year promises a renewed love and appreciation for locomotive travel, ancestry-inspired tours and a fresh Italian Capital of Culture sure to bring a new side of the …
This article originally appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. Read about what else is new in 2024 here! Extensive restoration of this church, former monastery and grain storehouse is complete. Florence’s Orsanmichele church and museum are now open to the public. The church’s marble tabernacle, honoring the Madonna delle Grazie, is conserved in shining splendor. This …
Under the Medici Chapels in the Bargello Museum in Florence, a secret room held a secret set of drawings on its walls believed to belong to Michelangelo Buonarroti, an artist who needs no introduction. The drawings in the room, which was accessible through a trap door, remained hidden and unbeknownst to even members of the museum staff until plans to renovate the …
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Transcript with Show Notes Embedded: Lisa Byrne: The idea of fractional ownership is that you own a share in a property. Now, it’s not a timeshare, but you actually have deeded ownership in a property where you can stay for a month a year and enjoy feeling like a local. Kathy McCabe: This is Kathy McCabe. Welcome to the …
This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the October/November 2022 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 180 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here. For the past year I’ve been hearing so many people talking about their desire to spend more time in Italy and to have that time be much more than a vacation. This post-Covid …
