VIP Private Car tours to Maremma Tuscany from Rome or Florence
THE MAREMMA TOSCANA – TUSCANY PRIVATE TOUR WITH LOCAL GUIDE
Private and individual car excursions in Tuscany and tours around Rome
Luxury car excursions in Tuscany
The Maremma – Tuscny car excursions from Rome
The Maremma — the coastal plain that runs south from the Piombino headland — was the northern heartland of the Etruscans, whose drainage and irrigation canals turned it into an area of huge agricultural potential. Their good work, however, was largely lost under the Romans, who abandoned much of the land and left it to revert to marsh — a decline that continued through the Middle Ages, when war and further dereliction turned the region into a malarial swamp. For years, virtually the only inhabitants were migrant charcoal burners and shepherds (who in summer abandoned the infested lowlands for the hill-villages of Amiata — and the famous butteri, the cowboys who tend the region’s oxen and horses. Modern attempts to revive the Maremma were started in 1828 by Grand Duke Leopoldo of Tuscany, who instigated new drainage schemes and introduced a crude health service, with free quinine for malaria sufferers. At the turn of last century, though, Grosseto’s regional council still had to more its offices annually to the healthier surroundings of Scansano, and real progress only began under Mussolini, The malarial mosquito was finally banished in 1950, and something of the Maremma’s grim legacy Ives on in its common Italian nickname, La Miseria.
Drainage has returned a measure of prosperity to the Maremma, but at the cost of destroying its ancient landscapes and prompting the expansion of Grosseto, one of Tuscany’s more miserable towns. A few efforts have been made to preserve the old world, mainly in the Monti dell’Uccellitta but also in the nature reserves at Ennui(‘ and Orbetello, two of the finest birdwatching spots in the country.
You’ll also stand a chance of seeing wild boar; a hoary-skinned sub-species (Sus scropha majors) of which has developed in isolated, swamp-encircled habitats. There are plenty of seaside diversions here as well, with glorious beaches at Marina di Alberese and in the Uccellina, and moderately upmarket resorts at Punta Ala and around Monte Argentario. Increasingly well known are the idyllic island of Giglio, via ited from the Argentario, and the area around the Lazio border, both suffering slow col-onization by Rome’s bourgeoisie. Massa Marittima is the area’s most historically interesting town, its medieval centre a fine example of Romanesque architecture.Almost everything you’ll want to see
clings to the coast, which is served by the main Rome—Pisa rail line and the old Roman road, the Via Aurelia (SSD. To cut across country, there’s a rail link from Grosse to Siena, and a few buses that run inland from Grosseto, Orbetello and Massa Marittima.
THE MAREMMA IN THE CINEMA
IL SORPASSO E LA MAREMMA – DINO RISI 1962
BARABBA – Richard Fleischer – 1961
Anthony Quinn e Vittorio Gassman
Anthony Quinn and Vittorio Gassman – Maremma – Tuscany car tours
Towns in Maremma Tuscany
Central Italy luxury private tours from Rome or Florence with local guide and car
Daily car tour of Florence from Rome with local driver guide
VIP Florence private tour from Rome: Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax – car with private english guide – Tuscany Car tour from Rome R
FLORENCE individual and private VIP CAR EXCURSION with LOCAL GUIDE
Florence from Rome individual private tour with private guide and car
Inside the guided tour experience you can choose to visit important archaeological areas like dungeons, catacombs, ancient walls, sacred places and secret areas accessible to limited number of people. The car tour includes short walks on foot for visits of monuments and stops for taking pictures and a lunch or a coffee break. The sequence of monuments and their choice will display a historical and artistic evolution of Florence. As well as a perfect overview of the different types of styles in the arts of architecture and sculpture and painting. Many monuments, private art collections, entrances to palaces are offered exclusively by RUSRIM TUSCANY CAR EXCURSIONS FROM ROME
FLORENCE PRIVATE VIP TOUR with GUIDE and CAR or on request with only ENGLISH speaking DRIVER
In the 19 century Florence has been celebrated as the most beautiful city in Italy. For most people Florence cames close to living up to the myth only in its first, resoundin impressions.
The pinnacle of Brunelleschi’s stupendous dome is visible over the rooftops the moment you step out of the central square, and when you reach the Piazza del Duomo the close up view is even more breathtaking, with the multicolored duomo with the marble clad baptistery. Wander from there down towards the river Arno and the attracion still hold beyond the Piazza della Signoria, site of the immense Palazzo Vecchio, the water is spanned by the shopladen medieval Ponte Vecchio, with georgeous San Minato al Monte glistening on the hill behind it.
Private tours in Florence – Cattedrale S. Maria del Fiore
Florence flag – Il giglio
The fact is, the best Florence is to be seen indoors. Under the rule of the Medici family – the greatest patrons of Renissance Europe – Florence’s artist and thinkers were instigators of the shift from the medieval to the modern world view, and the churches, galleries and museums of this city are the places to get to grips with what they achieved. The development of the Renaissance can be plotted stage in the vast picture collection of the Uffizi, and charted in the sculpture of the Bargello, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo and the church of Orsanmichele. Equally revelatory are the fabulous decorated chapels of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, forerunners of such astonishing creation as Masaccio’s restored frescos at Santa Maria del carmine. Fra’ Angelico’s serene paintings in the monk’s cells at San Marco and Andrea del Sarto’s work at Santissima Annunziata.
Renaissance – La città ideale – Rinascimento italiano
Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called “the Athens of the Middle Ages. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. Due to Florence’s artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world
Cappelle Medicee – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Florence individual car tour from Rome
Cappelle Medicee – Brunelleschi – Florence car tour
The Cappelle Medicee Michelangelo’s most celebrated contribution to the San Lorenzo building’s forms part of the Cappelle Medicee. After filing through the subfuse crypt where many of the Medici are actually buried, you climb into the larger of the chapels, the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes), a gloomy, marble-plate,1 hall built as a mausoleum for Cosimo I and his descendants. Morbid and dowdy. with tank-like tombs, it epitomizes the notion that magnificence is directly proportional to expenditure. This was the most expensive building project ever financed by the family. and the Medici were still paying for it when the last of the line, Anna Maria Ludovica, joined her forebears in the basement. It could have looked even worse — the massive statues in the niches were intended to be made from semiprecious stones, like those used in the heraldic devices set into the walls. Begun in 1520, the Sagrestia Nuova was designed by Michelangelo as a tribute to, and subversion of, Brunelleschi’s Sagrestia Vecchia. Architectural connoisseurs go into raptures over the complex cornices of the alcoves, the complex relationship between those alcoves and the plane of the wall, and other such sophistication, but the lay person will be drawn to the fabulous Medici tombs, carved by Michelangelo between 1529 and 1533.’1’o the left is the tomb of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, the grandson o’f Lorenzo it Magnifico; he is depicted as a man of thought, and his sarcophagus bears figures of Dawn and Dusk, the times of day whose ambiguities appeal to the contemplative mind. Opposite is the tomb of Lorenzo it Magnifico’s youngest son, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours; as a man of action, his character is symbolized by the clear antithesis of Day and Night. As a contemporary writer recorded, these are not true portraits: lie did not take from the Duke Lorenzo nor from the Lord Giuliano the model just as nature had drawn and composed them, but he gave them a greatness, a proportion, a dignity … which seemed to him would have brought them more praise, saying that a thousand years hence no one would be able to know that they were otherwise.. They were very nitidi otherwise, flattered by their ducal titles and genealogies as such as by these noble memorials action man Giuliano was an easy-going but feckless individual, while Lorenzo combined ineffectualness with insufferable arrogance. Both dieand unlamented — Giuliano being killed by tuberculosis, Lorenzo by aTonrib,ination of the same disease and syphilis. Their effigies were intended to face the equally grand tombs of Lorenzo it and his brother Giuliano; the only part of the project realized Michelangelo is :he preogcupied Madonna algid Child, the last image of the Madonna he ever sculpted. In 1534, four years after the Medici had returned to Florence in the unfathomably wretched form of Alessandro, Michelangelo decamped to Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life. There are more Michelangelo drawings behind the altar which can be seen on supervised (free) trips every thirty minutes.
Santa Maria del Fiore – Duomo di Firenze – Florence –Tuscany private tour
Car tour in Florence from Rome in english with private guide
The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto’s Campanile. These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy’s largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.Guide in Florence – Private tour Florence from Rome
Ponte Vecchio – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Private tour in Florence from Rome in english
Ponte vecchio – Florence – Tuscany
Pontevecchio is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence.
Built in the 1345 to replace an ancient wooden bridge, the Ponte Vecchio has always been loaded with shops like those now propped over the water, but the plethora od jewellers dates from 1593 when Ferdinando I evicted the butchers- stalls then in occupation. Florence had long revered the art of the goldsmith, and several of its artists were skilled in the craft: Ghiberti, Donatello, and Cellini. Guide in Florence – Car tour Florence from Rome
Fountain of Neptune – Piazza della Signoria – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Private car tour in Florence from Rome with private guide
Fountain of Neptune – Florence
This work by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1563–1565) and some assistants, such as Giambologna, was commissioned on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de’ Medici with Johanna of Austria in 1565. The assignment had first been given to Baccio Bandinelli, who designed the model but he died before he could start working on the block of Apuan marble. The Neptune figure, whose face resembles that of Cosimo I de’ Medici, was meant to be an allusion to the dominion of the Florentines over the sea. The figure stands on a high pedestal in the middle of an octagonal fountain. The pedestal is decorated with the mythical figures of Scylla and Charybdis. The statue of Neptune is a copy made in the nineteenth century, while the original is in the National Museum. Guide in Florence – Private tour Florence from Rome
The Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia – Florence – Tuscany private tour
The Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia – Tuscany car tour
The Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia Running off the west side of Piazza San Marco, Via Arazz.ieri soon becomes Via XXVII Aprile, where the former Benedictine convent of SaneApollonia stands at no. 1. Most of the complex has now been turned into flats, but the former refectory houses one of Castagno’s masterpieces, the Last Supper (Tues—Sat 9am-1.50pm, plus same hours first, third & fifth Mon of month & second & fourth Sun of month; free). Painted around 1450, after the artist’s return from Venice, the cenacolo was white-washed out by the nuns, before being uncovered in the middle of the last century. It is perhaps the most disturbing version of the event painted in the Renaissance. Blood red is the dominant tone, and the most commanding figure is the diabolic black-bearded Judas, who sits on the near side of the table. The seething patterns in the marble pan-els behind the Apostles seem to mimic the turmoil in the mind of each, as he hears Christ’s announcement of the betrayal. Above the illusionistic recess in which the supper takes place are the sinopie of a Crucifttion,Depositi. and Resurrection by Castagno, revealed when the frescoes were taken off the wall for restoration.
Leonardo Da Vinci – Annunciazione – Uffizi – Firenze – Florence private tour by Rusrim.com Original music
Palazzo Pitti – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Private car tour in Florence from Rome in english guide
Pitti Palace – Florence
The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.
In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon, and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919. Guide in Florence – Car tour Florence from Rome
The palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of this design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below.
Is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker. Guide in Florence – Private tour Florence from Rome
Santo Spirito church – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Santo Spirito church – Florence car tours from Rome
Santo Spirito Some indication of the importance of the parish of Santo Spirito is given by the fact that when Florence was divided into four adminstrative quartieri in the fourteenth cen-tury, the entire area south of the Area was given its name. The slightly run-down square in front of Santo Spirito church, with its market stalls and cafes, encapsulates the self-sufficient character of Oltrarno, an area not hopelessly compromised by the encroachments of tourism.
Santo Spirito church Designed by Brunelleschi as a replacement for a thirteenth-century church, Santo Spirito church (daily 8am-noon & 4-6pm; closed Wed pm) was one of his last pro-jects, and was described by Bernini as “the most beautiful church in the world”. The paper-smooth facade is just a plastering job to disguise the unfinished front, but inside it’s so perfectly proportioned that nothing could seem more artless. Yet the plan is extremely sophisticated -a Latin cross with a continuous chain of 38 chapels round the outside and a line of 35 columns running without a break round the nave, transepts and chancel. Only the Baroque baldachin, about as nicely integrated as garden gnome in a Greek temple, disrupts the harmonics. The best paintings are in the transepts: in the right there’s Filippino Lippi’s Nerli Altarpiece, and in the left a St Monica and Augustinian Nuts by Verrocchio that’s vir-tually a study in monochrome, with black-clad nuns flocking round their black-clad paragon. Also worth a peep is the sacristy, which is entered through a vestibule that opens onto the left aisle; both rooms were designed at the end of the fifteenth century by Giuliano da Sangallo. A fire in 1471 destroyed all the monastery with the exception of its refectory, now the home of the Museo Santo Spirito (Fuel-Sat 9am-2pm, Sun Sam-lpm; (4000), a one-room collection comprising an assortment of carvings, many of them Romanesque, and a huge fresco of The Crunfixion by Orcagna and his workshop.
David – Michelangelo
Car excursion in Florence from Rome in english with private guide
The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504.
Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. Private guide in Florence – Car excursion Florence from Rome
Galleria dell’Accademia – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Private tour in Florence from Rome in english with guide and car
I Prigioni di Michelangelo- Florence – Tuscany
Florence’s first academy of drawing indeed Europe’s first – was founded in the mid ssixteen century by Bronzino Ammannati and Vasari. Initially based in Santissima Annunziata, this Accademia del Disegno moved as 1164 to Via Ricasoli 66, and soon afterwards was transformed into a general arts academy, the Accademia di Belle Arti. Twenty years later the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo founded the nearby Galleria dell’Accademia (May-Sept Tues-Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 8.30am-8pm; Oct-April Tues-Sat 8.30am-6.50pm, Sun 8.30zun-1.50pm; L12,000), filling its rooms with paint-ings for the edification of the students. Later augmented with pieces from suppressed religious foundations and other sources, the Accademia has an extensive collection of paintings, especially of Florentine work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Yet the pictures are not what draw the crowds in numbers equalled only by the Uffizi. The real attraction is Michelangelo, half a dozen of whose major sculptures are here, among them the David – symbol of the city’s republican pride and of the illimitable ambition of the Renaissance artist. Finished in 1504, when Michelangelo was just 29, and carved from a block of marble whose shallowness posed severe difficulties, it’s an incomparable show of technical bravura. But the David is a piece of monumental public sculpture, not a gallery exhibit After being considered as an adornment far the exteri-or of the duomo, it was instead installed outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where it remained until 1873, when it was removed to the Accademia’s specially built tribune. Close by is another unfinished work, St Matthew, which was started immediately after completion of the David as a commission from the Opera del Duomo; they actually requested a full series of the Apostles from Michelangelo, but this is the only one he ever began. The Accademia’s picture galleries are big but unexciting, with copious examples of the work of “Unknown Florentine” and “Follower of … “. The pieces likeliest to make an impact are-Trointormo’s Venus and Cupid, Botticelli’s attributed Madonna of the Sea and the painted fifteenth-century Adimari Chest, showing a Florentine wedding cere-mony in the Piazza del Duomo.
San Minato al Monte – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Car excursion in Florence from Rome in english with private guide
Standing atop one of the highest points in the city. It has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany and one of the most scenic churches in Italy. There is an adjoining Olivetan monastery, seen to the right of the basilica when ascending the stairs. St. Miniato was an Armenian prince serving in the Roman army under Emperor Decius. He was denounced as a Christian after becoming a hermit and was brought before the Emperor who was camped outside the gates of Florence. The Emperor ordered him to be thrown to beasts in the Amphitheatre where a panther was called upon him but refused to devour him. Beheaded in the presence of the Emperor, he is alleged to have picked up his head, crossed the Arno and walked up the hill of Mons Fiorentinus to his hermitage. A shrine was later erected at this spot and there was a chapel there by the 8th century. Construction of the present church was begun in 1013 by Bishop Alibrando and it was endowed by the Emperor Henry II. Private guide in Florence – Car excursion Florence from Rome
San Miniato al monte FIRENZE – Florence private tour with local guide- Car excursion Florence from Rome
San Minato al Monte – one of the most scenic churches in Italy – Tuscany private tour
Arguably the finest Romanesque structure in Tuscany, San Minato is also the oldest surviving church building in Florence after the baptistery. It recently began to show sings of its age, though, and the authorities become so concerned about the dangers of subsidence that a project was initiated to shore up the downhillside of the church and the adjoining cemetery. Then in a depressing rerun of the Piazzadella Signoria fiasco, it was discovered thata degree of financial impropriety may have been involved in awarding the contract; work has now been suspended for an indefinite period.
San Minato al Monte – Florence car excursion
Loggia dei Lanzi – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Private tour in Florence from Rome in english with guide and car
The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery.
It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines, that Michelangelo even proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.
The vivacious construction of the Loggia is in stark contrast with the severe architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art.
The name Loggia dei Lanzi dates back to the reign of Grand Duke Cosimo I, when it was used to house his formidable landsknechts (In Italian: “Lanzichenecchi”, corrupted to Lanzi), or German mercenary pikemen.[1] After the construction of the Uffizi at the rear of the Loggia, the Loggia’s roof was modified by Bernardo Buontalenti and became a terrace from which the Medici princes could watch ceremonies in the piazza. Guide in Florence – Car excursion Florence from Rome
The Chiostro dello Scalzo – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Rome to Florence car tour in english
The Chiostro dello Scalzo – Florence car tour from Rome
The Chiostro dello Scalzo ‘In the north of San Marco, at Via Cavour 69, is Lo Seat, the home of the Brotherhood of St John, whose vows of poverty entailed walking around barefoot -scal-zo. The order was suppressed in 1785 and their monastery sold off, except for the clois-ter (Mon and Thurs 9am-lpm; free; ring the bell). This was the training ground for Andrea del Sarto, an artist venerated in the nine-teenth century as a painter with no imperfections, but now regarded with slightly less enthusiasm on account of this very smoothness. His monochrome paintings of the Cardinal Virtues and Scenes from the Life of the Baptist occupied him off and on for a decade from 1511, beginning with the Baptism, finishing with the Birth of St John. A couple of the sixteen scenes – John in the Wilderness and John meeting Christ – were executed by his pupil Franciabigio in 1518, when del Sarto was away in Paris.
Piazza Santissima Annunziata – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Rome to Florence car tour in english
Piazza santissima Annunziata – Florence car tours
Nineteenth-century urban renewal schemes left many of Florence’s squares rather grim places, which makes Piazza Santissima Annunziata, with its distinctive arcades, all the more attractive a public space. It has a special importance for the city, too. Until the end of the eighteenth century the Florentine year used to begin on March 25, the Festival of the Annunciation — hence the Florentine predilection for paintings of the Annunciation, and the fashionableness of the Annunziata church, which has long been the place for society weddings. The festival is still marked by a huge fair in the piazza and the streets leading off it; later in the year, on the first weekend in September, the square is used for Tuscany’s largest crafts fair.
Galleria Uffizi private tour with local guide in Florence – Florence individual private car tour from Rome – original music by Adel karanov RusRim.com video
Palazzo Medici – Florence – Tuscany private tour
Florence car tour from Rome in english with private guide
Palazzo Medici – Florence excursion with private guide from Rome
On the edge of the square in front of San Lorenzo stands the Palazzo Medici-M(7.1 (Mon, Tues & Thurs-Sat 9am-lpm & 3-6pm, Sun 9am-lpm), built for Cosim il Vecchio by Michelozzo in the 1440s, and the family home un61Cosimo I installed the clan in the Palazzo Vecchio. With its heavily rusticated exterior, this monolithic palaz-zo was the prototype for such houses as the Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Stroz.zi, but in the seventeenth century it was greatly altered by its new owners, the Riccardi. Of Michelozzo’s original palazzo only the chapel remains intact, its interior covered by lively frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli, of which the centrepiece is the Journey of the Magi, painted around 1460 and recently restored to blazing colour. It shows the pageant of the Compagnia dei Magi, the most patrician of the city’s religious confraternities; their procession took place on Epiphany, with members of the Medici usually partici-pating. It’s known that several of the Medici household are featured in the procession, but putting names to these prettified faces is a problem. The man leading the cavalcade on a white horse is almost certainly Piero it Gottoso, sponsor of the fresco. Lorenzo it Magnifico, eleven years old at the time the fresco was painted, is probably the young king in the foreground, riding the grey horse detached from the rest of the procession, while his brother, Giuliano, is probably the one preceded by the black bowman. The artist himself — almost impossible to find — is in the crowd on the far- left, his red beret signed with the words “Opus Benotii” in gold. Finally, the bearded characters in among the gallery of faces might be portraits of the retinue of the Byzantine emperor John Paleologus III, who had attended the Council of Florence twenty years before the fres-co was painted. Stairs ascend to the first floor, where a display case in the lobby of the main gallery contains a Madonna and Child by Filippo Lippi, one of Cosimo de’ Medici’s more trou-blesome proteges. Even as a novice in the convent of Santa Mafia del Carmine, Filippo managed to earn himself a reputation as a drunken womanizer: in the words of Vasari, he was “so lustful that he would give anything to enjoy a woman he wanted … and if he couldn’t buy what he wanted, then he would cool his passion by painting her por-trait.” Cosimo set up a workshop for him in the Medici palace, from which he often absented himself to go chasing women. On one occasion Cosimo actually locked the artist in the studio, but Filippo escaped down a rope of bed sheets; having cajoled him Into returning, Cosimo declared that he would in future manage the painter with “affec-tion and kindness”, a policy that seems to have worked more successfully. ‘Me ceiling of the main room is covered by Luca Giordano’s fresco of The Apotheosis of the Medici, from which one can only deduce that Giordano had no sense of shame. Accompanying his father on the flight into the ether is the last male Medici, Gian Gastone (d. 1737), in reality a man so inert that he could rarely summon the energy to get out of bed in the morning.
WINE BARS IN FLORENCE – Tuscany private tour
Florence car tour from Rome with private guide
winr bar in Florence – Tuscany car tour from Rome
Wine bars Cantinetta dei Verrazzano, Via dei Tavolini 18-20r. Owned by Castello dei Verrazzano, a major Chianti vineyard, this is a good spot for a drink or a slice of pizza. The glass-fronted display inside oozes with outstanding pizza, focaccia and cakes – pay at the cash-desk and eat sitting on the bench provided. Otherwise, tables beyond the white-tiled oven or in the pleasant wood-lined room to the left are perfect for an early evening glass of vino. Busy at lunch. Closed Sun & Aug. Casa del Vino, Via dell’Ariento 16r. Located just west of the Mercato Cenaale, del Vino is passed by hordes of tourists daily – yet it’s probably visited by only a handful. Patrons are mostly Florentines, who pitch up for a drink, a chat with owner Gianni Migliorini and an assault on various Mobil, crostini, and saltless Tuscan bread and salami. Closed Sun & Aug. Enoteca Baldovino, Via San Giuseppe 18r. An offshoot of the excellent Scottish-run Baldovino restaurant just across the road (see p.148), this is a stylish place to buy gastronomic goodies or drink wine at the bar or one of the tables to the rear. The small menu of sandwiches, soups and home-made cakes changes daily. Very convenient for Santa Croce. Closed Mon. Fiaschetteria, Via degli Alfani 70r, corner of Via dei Servi. The university nearby ensures that this otherwise low-key place is often heaving at lunch thne, when students pile in for the pasta-and-a-salad for around 1.15.000. There’s also a fair variety of wines by the glass. Closed Sun. Fuori Porta, Via del Monte alto Croci. If you’re climbing up to San Miniato and regret your deci-sion halfway up, console yourself at this superb wine bar-osteria. There are over 400 wines to choose.
Restaurats in Florence – Tuscany private tour
Florence car tour from Rome with private guide
Ristorante la loggia – Florence car tours with private guide
In gastronomic circles, Florentine cuisine is accorded as much reverence as Florentine art, a reverence encapsulated in the myth that French eating habits acquired their sophistication in the wake of Catherine de’ Medici’s marriage to the Islam Henry ll of France. In fact, Florentine food has always been characterized by modest raw materials and simple technique — beefsteak (bistecca), tripe (trippa) and liver (tegato) are typical ingredients, while grilling (alla Fiorentina) is a favoured method of pre, ration. In addition, white beans (fagioli) will feature on most menus, either on their own, garnished with liberal quantities of local olive oil, or as the basis of such dishes as
Caffe Gilli – Florence car tours from Rome
ribollita soup. Unfussy it might be, but quality cooking doesn’t come cheap in Florence — most of the restaurants that meet with local approval cost L40,000-plus per person, wine included. Yet there are some decent low-budget places serving food that at least gives some idea of the region’s characteristic dishes, and even the simplest trattoria should offer bistetva alit; Fiorentina — though you should bear in mind that this dish is priced per hwidred grams, so your bill will be considerably higher than the figure mitten on the menu. Another thing to be aware of is that many restaurants will only serve full meals — so check the menu outside if you’re thinking of just popping in for a quick lunch-time plate of pasta. Asa very rough guideline, the cheapest places tend to be near the station, the best places on or near the main central streets, and the best mid-range restaurants tucked away in alleys on the north of the river or over in Oltrarno. 7 he restaurants below are defined by area — west and north of the immediate city centre (around the station, Santa Maria and San Lorenzo), the city centre, east of the city centre (around Santa Croce) and south of the river (Oltrarno). Prices are defined as Inexpensive (under L35,000 a head for three courses plus water, wine and cover charge), Moderate (135,000-65,000) and Expensive (over L65,000), but these are loose defini• dons, because you can keep costs down even in more expensive places by having just two courses (pasta and main), and retiring to a bar for ice cream or coffee and digestif, Remember, too, that you often needn’t buy a whole bottle of wine: ask fora half-bottle or quarter-bottle/jug of house wine (tnezza bottigliet or un guartino).
TOP TUSCANY PRIVATE TOURS
Florence private tour from Rome ,with private guide and car (Tuscany private tour)
Siena private tour from Rome , with private guide and car (Tuscany private tour) (Tuscany private tour)
The Birth of Venus – La nascita di Venere – Uffizi Florence – Original color sounds with magic wind and water noises
Original soft electronic music made in Tuscany – Florence (the land of art) by Adel Karanov– rusrim.com Private art tours in Tuscany
Of august gold-wreathed and beautiful Aphrodite I shall sing to whose domain belong the battlements of all sea-loved Cyprus where, blown by the moist breath of Zephyros, she was carried over the waves of the resounding sea on soft foam. The gold-filleted Horae happily welcomed her and clothed her with heavenly raiment
Original Arts for rusrim.com 30Individual tours in Rome – Tivoli – The Roman castles – Lazio – Tuscany – Florence Siena and Capalbio
The Birth of Venus – La nascita di Venere
is a painting by Sandro Botticelli generally thought to have been painted in the mid 1480s. It has long been suggested that Botticelli was commissioned to paint the work by the Medici family of Florence, specifically Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici under the influence of his cousin Lorenzo de’ Medici, close patron to Botticelli.
For Plato – and so for the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy – Venus had two aspects: she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the godly. A Neoplatonic reading of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus suggests that 15th-century viewers would have looked at the painting and felt their minds lifted to the realm of divine love.
More recently, questions have arisen about Neoplatonism as the dominant intellectual system of late 15th-century Florence, and scholars have indicated that there might be other ways to interpret Botticelli’s mythological paintings. In particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms.
Yet another interpretation of the Birth of Venus (whose title derives from Vasari but whose action perhaps better represents the Arrival of Venus) is provided here by its author, Charles R. Mack. This interpretation has not been adopted by Renaissance art historians in general, and it remains problematic, since it depends on the painting being commissioned by the Medici, yet the work is not documented in Medici hands before 1550. Mack sees the painting as an allegory extolling the virtues of Lorenzo de’ Medici. According to his reading of the painting, the scene was inspired by the text in a Homeric hymn published in Florence in 1488 by the Greek refugee Demetrios Chalkokondyles:
Individual and private tours car excursions in Rome – around Rome – Florence – Siena – Amalfi – Pompeii – Assisi – Orvieto and all central Italy
Original music by Adel Karanov Rome private guide Video Rusrim.com
Exclusive Daily Rome private tours – excursions in English, Frech, German, Bulgarian, Russian and Ucrainian
Our guides are also graduates having obtained painting, dance, music or literature diplomas and are active artists working in Italy.
1. Sightseeing car excursion of Rome and Vatican
Excursion of main squares, fountains, churches and museums of Rome selected for you. The tour includes short walks on foot for visits of monuments and stops for taking pictures and a lunch or a coffee break.The sequence of monuments and their choice will display a historical and artistic evolution of the Eternal City. Rome and Vatican
Rome and Vatican private tours – excursions , with english private guide and car Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax Daily excursion or Min 3/h
Individual Rome and Vatican excursion : Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax Guide and car
Rome and Vatican monuments in this excursion with guide
Daily private tour – excursion or 3/h min
Piazza Barberini, Palazzo del Quirinale, Fontana di Trevi, Colosseo, Piazza Esedra, Fontana delle Naiadi, Basilica Santa Maria degli angeli, Circus maximus, Avenitino hill, Basilica di Santa Sabina, The orange garden, Rome rose garden, Order of Malta, Pyramid of Cestius,Piazza Venezia, Campidoglio hill, Bocca della Verità, Temple of Portunus, Tempio di Ercole Vincitore, Janiculum Hill, Tempietto del Bramante, San Peter square and basilica San Pietro
Individual and private tour in Rome: Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax – excursion with guide and car
Rome monuments in the car tour excursion with private guide – min 3/h
Piazza di Spagna – Spanish square, Pantheon, Piazza Navona square, Piazza Barberini square, Fontana del Tritone, Palazzo Barberini, Palazzo del Quirinale, Piazza della Repubblica,Piazza Esedra, Fontana delle Naiadi, Republic square in Rome,Basilica Santa Maria degli angeli e dei Martiri, Basilica di San Giovanni Laterano, Colosseo – Anfiteatro Flavio, Arco di Costantino – Arch of Costantine, San Clemente and Catacombs In the basilica, The Palatine Hill, Circus maximus, Museo delle mura Aureliane, Avenitino hill, Basilica di Santa Sabina and Porta lignea di Santa Sabina, The orange garden, Pyramid of Cestius, Centrale Montemartini,Best Roman ice cream shop, Piazza Venezia Venezia square, Fontana delle Tartarughe,Mercati Traiani – Trajan’s Market, Campidoglio hill – Piazza del Campidoglio,Foro Romano – Roman forum panoramic view,Piazza della Bocca della Verità, Tempio di Portuno,Fontana dei Tritoni,Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Tras Tevere,Janiculum Hill, Tempietto del Bramante,Fontana Paolina o Fontana dell’Acqua Paola
Night – evening car excursion in Rome: Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax – Guide and car
Rome monuments in this excursion with private guide – min 3/h
Piazza Barberini, Palazzo del Quirinale, Fontana di Trevi, Colosseo, Piazza Esedra, Fontana delle Naiadi, Basilica Santa Maria degli angeli, Circus maximus, Avenitino hill, Basilica di Santa Sabina, The orange garden, Rome rose garden, Order of Malta, Pyramid of Cestius,Piazza Venezia, Campidoglio hill, Bocca della Verità, Temple of Portunus, Tempio di Ercole Vincitore, Janiculum Hill, Tempietto del Bramante, San Peter square and basilica San Pietro – MIN 3h
4. Civitavecchia to Rome – Exclusive car excursion with private guide – Half and daily excursions
Rome monuments – Civitavecchia car excursion, with art guide min 5/h
Piazza Barberini, Palazzo del Quirinale, Fontana di Trevi, Colosseo, Piazza Esedra, Fontana delle Naiadi, Basilica Santa Maria degli angeli, Circus maximus, Avenitino hill, Basilica di Santa Sabina, The orange garden, Rome rose garden, Order of Malta, Pyramid of Cestius,Piazza Venezia, Campidoglio hill, Bocca della Verità, Temple of Portunus, Tempio di Ercole Vincitore, Janiculum Hill, Tempietto del Bramante, San Peter square and basilica San Pietro
5. Shopping excursion in Rome with private guide
Individual shopping excursion Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax – english guide in Rome – Min 3h and Daily excursion in Rome – Castel Romano – Lazio
Daily excursions around Rome
6. North Lazio excursion from Rome: Etruscan city of Sutri, Caprarola Palace and the Vico and Bolsena Lake
Individual car excursion from Rome to Bolsena, with english private guide Eur 60 / h Max 6 pax
Min 5h and Daily excursion from Rome to Viterbo – North Lazio
7. Florence and Siena tour from Rome – exclusive excursions Rome to Florence
Min 6h and Daily excursion from Rome to Argentario – Tuscany
Tarot Garden – Giardino dei Tarocchi – Niki de Saint Phalle
Excursion from Rome to Capalbio Tuscany private tour with car and guide
Influenced by Gaudí’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, and Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, as well as Palais Idéal by Ferdinand Cheval, and Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, Saint Phalle decided that she wanted to make something similar; a monumental sculpture park created by a woman. In 1979, she acquired some land in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about 100 km north-west of Rome along the coast. Niki de Saint Phalle has created a large number of “Nanas” in her career with different materials, in different shapes and dimensions. The garden, called Giardino dei Tarocchi in Italian, contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The garden took many years, and a considerable sum of money, to complete. It opened in 1998, after nearly 20 years of work. Her main benefactor of the period was the Agnelli family. This original exclusive excursion in the Tarot Garden – Capalbio
Luxury dream destination in Tuscany – Capalbio and Monte Argentario – The Silver peninsula
Individual excursion from Rome to Tuscany Monte Argentario with guide and car
Monte Argentario is a promontory stretching towards the Tyrrhenian Sea in correspondence of the two southernmost islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, Giglio and Giannutri. Argentarola cave lies close to Argentario promontory. The high quality speleothems that have been collected from this cave have allowed scientists to study the 215,000 year history of sea-level oscillations in this region.
The Acquario Mediterraneo dell’Argentario (Mediterranean Aquarium of Argentario), founded in 2001, comprises a total of 17 tanks, which hold from 4000 to 20.000 litres of sea water, 50.000 litres in total.
Over 100 Mediterranean species are displayed in realistic habitats from local shorelines to offshore environment, such as: Grouper, Moray, Seahorse, Octopus, Catshark, Dogfish, Lobster, Anthias, Sea bream, Amberjack, Molluscs, Gorgonian, Posidonia and many others.
A part of the Aquarium is also devoted to underwater photography and to shell and Cetacean bones exhibitions and history of underwater tecnology.
Tuscany Daily car private tours from Rome and Florence to: Siena – Florence – Chianti – Arezzo – Argentario and Capalbio
Individual car private tours with local guide in Tuscany – 8/h to 10/h, max 8 pax Еур 60/h (from 1- to 6 pax) TUSCANY PRIVATE VIP TOURS with GUIDE and CAR or on request with only ENGLISH speaking DRIVER
Tours of main squares, fountains, churches and museums of Florence, Siena, Assisi and others, selected for you. The tour includes short walks on foot for visits of monuments and stops for taking pictures and a lunch or a coffee break. The sequence of monuments and their choice will display a historical and artistic evolution of Florence, Siena and other towns. As well as a perfect overview of the different types of styles in the arts of architecture and sculpture and painting. Many monuments, private art collections, entrances to palaces are offered exclusively by RUSRIM. tour guides.
Tuscany private car tour from Rome to Argentario Tuscany with private guide
Tarot Garden – Giardino dei Tarocchi – Niki de Saint Phalle
Influenced by Gaudí’s Parc Güell in Barcelona, and Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, as well as Palais Idéal by Ferdinand Cheval, and Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, Saint Phalle decided that she wanted to make something similar; a monumental sculpture park created by a woman. In 1979, she acquired some land in Garavicchio, Tuscany, about 100 km north-west of Rome along the coast. Niki de Saint Phalle has created a large number of “Nanas” in her career with different materials, in different shapes and dimensions. The garden, called Giardino dei Tarocchi in Italian, contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The garden took many years, and a considerable sum of money, to complete. It opened in 1998, after nearly 20 years of work. Her main benefactor of the period was the Agnelli family.
Private and individual car excursions in Tuscany and tours around Rome
MAREMMA – TUSCANY PRIVATE TOUR
DAILY PRIVATE TOURS WITH LOCAL PRIVATE GUIDE AND CAR FROM ROME OR FLORENCE
Private tours in English – French – Bulgarian – Russian – Ucrainian
The Maremma – Tuscny car excursions from Rome
The Maremma — the coastal plain that runs south from the Piombino headland — was the northern heartland of the Etruscans, whose drainage and irrigation canals turned it into an area of huge agricultural potential. Their good work, however, was largely lost under the Romans, who abandoned much of the land and left it to revert to marsh — a decline that continued through the Middle Ages, when war and further dereliction turned the region into a malarial swamp. For years, virtually the only inhabitants were migrant charcoal burners and shepherds (who in summer abandoned the infested lowlands for the hill-villages of Amiata — and the famous butteri, the cowboys who tend the region’s oxen and horses. Modern attempts to revive the Maremma were started in 1828 by Grand Duke Leopoldo of Tuscany, who …. Maremma tuscany excursion
Ansedonia and Lago di Burano ANSEDONIA crouches under a rocky crag at the end of the Tombolo di Feniglia. Peppered with holiday villas, it has a long beach and, on the hill-top above the village, the remains of Cosa, founded by the Romans in 273 BC as a frontier post against the Etruscans. It was one of their most important commercial centres in the area until its population — according to the historian …… Ansedonia tour
Capalbio Stranded in empty country, the hill-village of CAPALBIO is virtually unknown to outsiders, though not to Rome’s cultural and political elite, many of whom have homes in the locality. Most are attracted by the almost perfectly medieval interior, which at night is a deathly quiet maze of streets straight out of the Middle Ages. Views are superb, and though there’s little to see apart from a few frescoes and the Aldobrandeschi fortifications, it definitely warrants ……. Capalbio individual excursion from Rome
The largest of the Tuscan islands after Elba, GIGLIO is visited by an ever-increasing number of foreign tourists and is . popular with Romans that in high season there’s standing room only on the boats. Yet it’s well worth making the effort to stay on this fabulous island. The rush is fairly short-lived, most visitors are day-trippers, and few of them explore the tracks acr6ig tliaiispoilt interior, a mix of barren rock and reforest-ed upland. The island is rich in fauna such as peregrine falcons, mouflon, kestrels and buzzards, and in wild flowers too — this is the only place outside North Africa to shel-ter wild mustard, and the sole spot in Tuscany to support the yellow flowers of artemisia …… The island of Giglio
Drainage has returned a measure of prosperity to the Maremma, but at the cost of destroying its ancient landscapes and prompting the expansion of Grosseto, one of Tuscany’s more miserable towns. A few efforts have been made to preserve the old world, mainly in the Monti dell’Uccellitta but also in the nature reserves at Ennui(‘ and Orbetello, two of the finest birdwatching spots in the country.
You’ll also stand a chance of seeing wild boar; a hoary-skinned sub-species (Sus scropha majors) of which has developed in isolated, swamp-encircled habitats. There are plenty of seaside diversions here as well, with glorious beaches at Marina di Alberese and in the Uccellina, and moderately upmarket resorts at Punta Ala and around Monte Argentario. Increasingly well known are the idyllic island of Giglio, via ited from the Argentario, and the area around the Lazio border, both suffering slow col-onization by Rome’s bourgeoisie. Massa Marittima is the area’s most historically interesting town, its medieval centre a fine example of Romanesque architecture.Almost everything you’ll want to see
clings to the coast, which is served by the main Rome—Pisa rail line and the old Roman road, the Via Aurelia (SSD. To cut across country, there’s a rail link from Grosse to Siena, and a few buses that run inland from Grosseto, Orbetello and Massa Marittima.
