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Italian Postcards: Top Ten List for Settling In
9th April 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Not meaning to sound a know-it-all because that is far from the truth but, on reflection, having gone through it myself, I thought I would put together my own Top Ten List of suggestions about settling into a new country. It isn't easy and, certainly, this list isn't exhaustive but it may just help. Here it is and good luck:
On arriving, learn the value of networking and be thankful for... -
Italian Postcards: A Renaissance UFO?
15th March 2010 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
The Palazzo della Signoria, better known as Palazzo Vecchio, is situated right in the heart of Florence. Built in 1299 by Arnolfo di Cambio, it is still today the city's town hall and houses the office of the Mayor. But it is much more than that. It is also a fascinating museum that, sometimes, tourists fail to visit in their hurry to reach other more famous museums nearby, like the...
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Italian Postcards: Just take the tram
19th February 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
This year, Saint Valentine's Day in Florence proved to be a day for a different kind of romance. Over 40,000 tram lovers crowded the streets to take their first ride on Florence's new tram called Sirio. This was somewhat surprising because, since 2004 when work on the project began, the city and its citizens have been divided over the building of the tramway system into those who strongly support it...
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A Christmas Italian Wine List
21st December 2009 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
Last night, I called into my friend Rachel's welcoming and well-stocked wine shop here in the heart of Santa Croce. I needed some suggestions about which Italian wines I should put on my Christmas dinner table to both please and impress my guests. I was more than happy to accept her recommendations as she is an expert who has spent many years in the wine industry and who was, before...
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Whack…y the Golf Ball
7th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Describing a typical round of golf, Mac O'Grady, the American pro-golfer and golf teacher, once said 'one minute you're bleeding. The next minute you're hemorrhaging. The next minute you're painting the Mona Lisa.' And what better place to do it than at one of the world's funkiest golf tournaments in the city where Leonardo da Vinci began work on his famous portrait?
In fact, from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December... -
Pop into Poppi
26th November 2009 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
On their trips to Tuscany, many tourists visit the picturesque towns and vineyards of Chianti, the area that stretches between Florence and Siena. Fewer venture into the Casentino, in the opposite direction, between Florence and Arezzo. Less geometric than Chianti, the countryside there is more undulating and gentle, although to reach it from Florence you have to drive over a 1050 meter-high mountain. But a stop at Consuma, the village...
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To market, to market
19th November 2009 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
The Italian architect and engineer, Giuseppe Mengoni (1829-1877) is famous for having designed the Gallery Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. What is more, he tragically fell to his death from its dome shortly before its inauguration. However, before his death, Mengoni also designed several buildings in Florence. These included the Central Market, known to Florentines as the Market of San Lorenzo and, in 1873, the Market of Sant'Ambrogio in the...
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Artful Sleuthing
11th November 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Italy has a plethora of law enforcement agencies. In fact, there are eight separate ones: Arma dei Carabinieri (military police), Polizia di Stato (state police), Guardia di Finanza (financial and customs police), Polizia Provinciale (provincial police), Polizia Municipale (municipal police), Corpo Forestale dello Stato (forestry police), Guardia Costeria (coast guard police) and Polizia Penitenziaria (prison police). Reputedly Italy’s most elite law enforcement body, the Carabinieri are the police force that...
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A Stranger at their Table
22nd October 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
You have been invited to dinner by an Italian family during your stay in Florence. They are friends of your next door neighbours back home and, thank goodness, they speak English as your Italian amounts to grazie and quanto costa. So, how should you behave? What are the rules? Well, they're not too different from those anywhere else in the world.
First, arrive on time - never early and never more... -
Cool on a Stool
15th October 2009 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
It was aperitivo time in Florence – but, then, when isn't it? After meeting her Italian friend, Donatella (no relation to THE Donatella), the two of them perched ourselves on two of those impossibly high stools in a glossy bar off one of the city's main piazzas. It was then freshly off the plane Susan made her fatal error. She ordered before Donatella had a chance to speak or before...
CONTRIBUTOR
Deirdre Pirro
International lawyer and freelance writer, Deirdre Pirro recently published a book called 'Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy' and is the author of a regular column in The Florentine, the bi-monthly English-language paper in Florence, Italy (www.theflorentine.net) where she has lived in the shadow of the Basilica of Santa Croce for more than twenty years. Still trying to fathom out some of the local customs and Italian politics, she compensates by overeating the country's delicious food and drinking too much of its unique wines. But, on the theory that she must have picked up something during all this time, she wants to share a bit of what she has learnt and, maybe, even find a few new answers along the way.
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