I Love Mondays Tour

Florence, The Place Where Modern Tuscan Sculpture and Hollywood Converge

What has Hollywood to do with Tuscan modern sculpture?
This is definitely the most unconventional private guided tour of Florence I’m always glad to organize to discover Marino Marini, one of my favorite Tuscan sculptors whom also the gotha of Hollywood loved.

Marino Marini: the Most Appreciated Tuscan Sculptor in Hollywood

Marino Marini Museum is hosted in the former church of San Pancrazio, first built in the early Christian age, then restored and devoted to the artworks by Marino Marini, one of Italy’s most celebrated sculptors of the 20th century.

Best known for his figurative equestrian sculptures, his artworks appeared in films such as Sabrina by Billy Wilder (1954) and Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner by Stanley Kramer (1967), featuring iconic actresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Katrine Hepburn.

Not to mention one of the most appreciated American film makers in Europe, Woody Allen, appearing next to Stravinsky’s bronze portrait by Marini in Play it Again, Sam in 1972 with the unconventional Diane Keaton.

A Hidden Renaissance Gem to be Savored: The Rucellai Chapel

Discover the most well-hidden Renaissance gem of Florence here, the Rucellai Chapel with Giovanni Rucellai’s tomb, designed by Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, in imitatation of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Symmetry, simplicity, classic style and sobriety make the visit as almost spiritual, creating a very tight bond between Renaissance and modern art.

This tour is also about money, power and unconventional Florentine rustic architecture: the most exclusive Florentine neighbourhoods wouldn’t be the same without the ancient palazzi built by bankers and merchants.

The ambitious nouveaux riches, the new rising class, transformed Florence into an austere town where to keep marvellous masterpieces hidden inside their palaces, while having the fronts as almost bare. Arrogance? I would call it wisdom.

Santa Maria Novella and the Famous Farmacia

Tour highlights include the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, the only church of Florence enriched with a magnificent Renaissance front designed by architect Leon Battista Alberti for the Rucellai family who had the patronage of the neighbourhood.

There’s no better way than ending our tour with the visit to the famous Farmacia of Santa Maria Novella. The apothecary was first opened to the public in the 17th century and since then it has been the place to find organic products made in Florence with local herbs, according to the secret remedies developed by Domenican apothecaries in the past centuries.

Its best sellers havent’ changed since medieval and Renaissance times: the Rose Water produced since 1381, the Queen’s Water made for Catherine de Medici in 1533 when she married the King of France Henry II becoming the Queen and the Water of Santa Maria Novella since 1614, also known as anti-hysterical water in the past.
A Florence private guided tour like no other.