Blog

Join us (in Italian) on Friday, November 21 at Villa La Quiete for a half-day seminar and garden tour: ‘The Happiness of Gardens: The extraordinary lives of women garden designers’ scheduled from 9.30am to 1.30pm. This lecture series, organised by the University of Florence, as part of the ‘Eredità delle Donne’ festival, focuses on several noteworthy women who lived and worked in the 19th and 20th centuries, creating gardens – either in reality or in literary fiction – that c

This 6pm 'Wednesday Lecture' at the British Institute of Florence, on December 3, 2025, is sponsored by the Calliope Arts Foundation.   In an age where women had little public power, Isabella d’Este (1474 – 1539) stands out as a formidable figure. She was born into one of Italy’s most illustrious dynasties and married into another. Her husband, Francesco Gonzaga, was a warrior and a philanderer, but their partnership – she ran the state while he was away fighting – lasted ove

At 5.30 pm on November 26, 2025, join us at Il Palmerino Cultural Association, in the Colonica di Villa Il Palmerino, for a lecture by US writer and professor Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, entitled: The Art and Life of Francesca Alexander (1837 - 1917) , after her recently published book by the same name. Francesca Alexander and her parents moved from Boston to Florence in 1853 and became part of the city's thriving international community. She was a largely self-taught artist,

With independent curator and archivist Carla Danella Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 6pm Il Palmerino Cultural Association, Via Il Palmerino 6 Reservations required: associazione@palmerino.it Vanessa Nicolson is an author and journalist, and a former art historian. Her most recent book, Angels of Mud , is a multi-generational novel set in London’s Italian/Irish neighbourhood of Clerkenwell in the aftermath of World War Two and in Florence at the time of the 1966 Flood. Vanessa’s gr

3 June 2025, 4pm to 7:30pm Admission is free, registration required: linda@restorationconversations.org The Accademia delle Arti del...

14 May 2025, 10am, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital Elizabeth Wicks and Marina Vincenti restoring Ferroni's artwork, ph. F. Cacchiani, 2020...

A 'living memory' event At 11am on April 9, author and La Foce manager Katia Lysy  will accompany our guests through the garden of her...

Elizabeth Von Arnim, author of  The   Enchanted April pens a green space of her own. Join us on March 11, 2025 , for a lecture in Italian...

Goals like 'Decluttering', 'shaping ambition', 'paying attention to domesticity', 'discarding fatal prettiness', ring like New Year's...

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at the British Institute of Florence An interview-style 'lecture' with Il Palmerino president Federica...

Four young grant-awardees of German, American, Egyptian and Slovakian descent have completed their paper restoration workshop at the...

Inside Issue 1 of The Curators' Quaderno Three’s a charm! With the advent of the Festival dei Popoli cinema festival in November,...

A New Course starting 18 March 2024: A Century of Women in the Arts (1866-1966) It’s time to discover Florence like never before. Join us...

November 29 2023 at 6pm Lecture by Francesca Baldry (online and on site) British Institute of Florence, Wednesday Lecture Series....

October 18, 2023 at 6pm Lecture by Linda Falcone (online and on site) British Institute of Florence, Wednesday Lecture Series. Lungarno...

This 'Wednesday lecture', at the British Institute of Florence, is sponsored by Calliope Arts, as part of our mission to expand public...

Though virtually unknown today, the epistles of Brigida Baldinotti circulated widely in Florentine manuscript collections during the 15th...

Broadcast now online Scholar Angela Oberer continues the lecture series sponsored by Calliope Arts, at the British Institute of Florence,...

March 1, 2023, now online A Calliope Arts-sponsored lecture at the BIF In 2023, Calliope Arts kicked off its first lecture series at the...

This 2023 lecture series, supported by a Gold Sponsorship from Calliope Arts, at the British Institute, aims to share insight and...