ISHOTEL
LUXURY HOTEL & RESORT MANAGEMENT
THE UFFIZI GALLERY

THE UFFIZI GALLERY

by | Culture & History

“The Renaissance Rooms” For anyone spending part of a tour in Florence, visiting the Uffizi Gallery is a must. When we speak of the “Galleria degli Uffizi”, we refer to one of the largest art collections in the world and, in particular, to its masterpiece-rich painting gallery. The celebration of Florence begun under Cosimo I de’ Medici.  In order to better control the city’s administration, Cosimo decided to accommodate the uffizi (offices) of the “Magistrature Fiorentine” (the city’s administrators, judiciary and guilds) in a single government building other than the Palazzo Vecchio, and  which would eventually extend as far as the Lungarno. The political and military glory of Florence after the conquest of Siena had to be publicly acknowledged and, to this end, Cosimo entrusted the project for the construction of the Uffizi to one of the greatest artists of the time: Giorgio Vasari. To make room for the new building,  Cosimo ordered the demolition of the old river port area, which included a working class neighbourhood. The huge U-shaped palace was to incorporate the ancient Romanesque Church of San Pier Scheraggio, a small area on the Arno and part of the Zecca Vecchia (the old Mint). Due to Cosimo’s tendency to economize on both material and human resources –  he wanted even waste materials to be recovered and imposed servitude on certain workers -, Vasari had considerable difficulties in carrying out the project. Works began in 1560 and were completed in 1580 (after Vasari’s death in 1574, architects Bernardo Buontalenti and Alfonso Parigi took over), giving us this architectural and town-planning masterpiece of the late Renaissance. The construction...
EMILIANO CRIBARI

EMILIANO CRIBARI

by | Lifestyle

“Photography, from Florence to the South”   Emiliano Cribari was born in Florence in 1977. His eclecticism immediately attracted our attention and he is now one of our closest collaborators. He is the author of the photos depicting Villa Tolomei and the event “Hero a Firenze”. In this interview, we have asked him about the world of photography and images.   Hi Emiliano, what is the current state of photography? If you look at it from the viewpoint of end users, well, photography is in great shape. There is a proliferation of images, exhibitions, courses, cameras… Photography has never been so popular! However, if you look at it from the point of view of photographers (by which I mean professional photographers), you come to a different conclusion: digital photography is literally killing the professional market, tricking people into thinking that taking photos is easy, or that it’s just a game… Today images are viewed at a crazy speed, which belittles the work of photographers and the long time they dedicate (or should dedicate) to each image. Quantity has become more important than time and quality. It is mortifying. From Florence to “Piccolo Sud”: why the South? Because it is in my blood and in my memories: my father is from Calabria, and I have been lucky enough to spend almost every summer of my life somewhere in the South, in many different places that touched me deeply. So many years later, I am trying to tell the stories of those places through the photographic filter of memory. Do you consider the decision to use of photography as a narrative medium as a...