Dream of Italy Season 2: Full Florence Episode

dream of Italy is made possible by monograms all-in-one vacation packages but take care of everything because we believe travelers should spend their time enjoying the sights feeling like a local feeling completely at ease monograms the Perillo tourist foundation for 73 years we've been bringing travelers to Italy it's where our heart is first-class escorted tours and custom vacations Italy the dream destination Parrilla tours calm one eight hundred four three one one five one five the main point helps guide business owners from the road they've been travelling to the dreams they have for the next la dolce vita travel we make italy yours la dolce vita travel calm weekend in italy dot-com it's all about family italy ancestry.com my Italian family Emilia Romagna and also made possible by [Music] I'm Cathy McCain in this series we'll meet the authentic characters uncover the hidden treasures and discover what makes Italy the most fascinating country in the world join me as we dream of Italy [Music] it took a perfect storm of brilliance for Florence to change history and give birth to the Renaissance a movement bringing humanism and realism to every area of life especially art and architecture and ever since the world has been coming here travelers and expats alike all trying to soak in the magic that is Florence where Michelangelo sculpted his David a young da Vinci imagined the impossible and where Brunelleschi built his dome [Music] Monsignor Timothy Verdun director of the Opera del Duomo is an art historian who has lived in Italy for the past 50 years for 500 years of its existence Florence had one major artistic project which was when Florentines want to say that something takes an enormous ly long time they say it's as long as the Opera del Duomo is the building of the Cathedral [Music] this foundation the Opera del Duomo has always maintained the Cathedral we have stonemasons we have carpenters it is a kind of technical workshop that has existed without any interruption for seven hundred and twenty some years the facade as you see it today looking grimy is really only twenty years from its last and very splendid restoration the statues with a great problem because that they drink in the dirt our most recent statues those made for the nineteenth-century facade of the cathedral are the most fragile for simple reason by the 19th century the quarrying of the marble for these statues was done using explosives when the marble arrived in the shops of the artists it looked fine but actually it was ribbon by micro fractures that have absorbed the acid rain it's a big an ongoing project has never a moment when you're not cleaning something [Music] I'm lucky to get very special access to see the restoration up close and personal with marchello crowd yeah do I look cute see me today see so you know the Florence is actually known for fashion in addition to art and I'm experiencing some of it today oh I love it I go higher I think this is unbelievable generations of Marcello's family have worked on restoring the Duomo making this a labor of love for him yeah I can read must see my fence you're a doctor basically the part of the Duomo that hasn't been restored in a very long time the marvel is really black and study and on this side you can see the how beautiful and white and clean and you can see the stark contrast amazing under the butyrate to develop a 3d mahogany's you know see a de grado see a boy das Porco so when the piece is really degraded and it there might be a danger of it falling off the drama then the stonemasons like marchello create a whole new piece if it's just some soot they might come up here and in a cream like this and clean it no one sees Florence like this I think this is the absolute coolest thing I have ever done it is amazing a stoop and all many forms of art are being brought back to life here in Florence this is a seminal arty or restorer so here we are Cathy and Louie Last Supper Linda Falcone runs the advancing women artists Foundation today she's giving me a sneak peek at the restoration of the only Last Supper painted by a woman Renaissance nun flotillin le the restoration has been financed in a uniquely modern way crowdfunding Rossella Laurie is the restorer on the four-year project is this work lonely she sent Isola Volta a counterplot ela socially artist she feels that she's with her yes what does she think of her well what is her personality Gina protein local also personally taught a second term a +11 Adana it she was an exceptional woman in a gentle warming Sharon tini Kumi Kayla devotes Ionut personali previs so Florentine gentleman wanted her paintings because they would use them for private devotion like you know Charles people thought at that time and the Renaissance that the painting by a nun would have mystical quality yes was she unusual for her time oh she was very very unusual for several reasons the fact that Nellie was a nun she actually was able to produce art for pay because she lived in a condo did they pay the convent yeah yeah they paid the cosmic a premie a total douche even one but that is this they were able to take care of themselves these women were self-sufficient super nervous entrepreneurs exactly she was also really really important because of the size of her works so this is unusual this is really unusual because women in history for about 400 years of history though they were practicing art they were doing small-scale and for them to tackle religious themes and particularly Last Supper was was really incredible see a dad cameltoe importante para que Ella prima Dona kisi feared man chili su a fear master she's in first woman save her her name on yes so what else about this painting also makes you feel the feminine see cousin to cook as a child recipient okay to face indeed a little attencion it i'll cheap right you can find it in her attention for the food she bought she has bread for every single apostle she has abundant wine and if you see even the tablecloth is folded okay yeah this tablecloth was ironed this is sort of representative that it was done by a woman because our man would never think never on the table exactly if I should sew no because it's a good sir none of us can it so these are also because it's only Tuscan you butchered me fava beans ah yes so it's a ton of the Tuscan a meal a Tuscan meal Tuscan last supper yes I do feel like she's here yeah you know I do feel her spear and glazing tickly I can't visit any city in Italy without checking out the local market my friend Judy Franchini who has lived here for 30 years is taking me to lunch at Florence's Mercato chen trolley the tripe is probably the most famous street food of Florence what exactly is tri cow's stomach clomp risotto is the one that actually is what they make the street food out of the sandwich I've never seen it anywhere else except for Florence I was vegetarian and I eat this Wow in all of my trips to Italy I've successfully avoided eating try well this is it this is the place to try it we're at Nirvana which is one of the older restaurants is from 1872 this is Stefano he's like every day of his life for 30 years now Wow he's devoted to tribe how do they make this family this is a special kind of bread called the Rosetta that looks like a rose then he'll slice the lamp until to really finish aids because like the bikini a nice little glasses see how delicate that yeah looks extremely juicy and then he'll put chili sauce salsa verde which is parsley capers anchovies olive oil and I have them dip the top in the broth okay that sounds too lit right my mouths watering okay okay good look it's very hot and juicy hmm it's actually very good 7:01 - bon appetito buon appetito [Music] alessandra dari is a jeweler in the San Nicola neighborhood an area filled with artisans his family has been making jewelry since the 1600s accident sasame this is a minister shinzo predictable figure of 8 to10 solution gonna go vegetarian to for to the lavatory partly an emotional padlock thank you for telling me all of your pieces have a meaning a spiritual story CC to tell my story similar to lean time in real time this one the flying woman for some of us I think I stated Co the castles of course common law equally apparent a lot well that's so bad you see more of it it moves very unusual now that's a souvenir so people who buy these rings do they wear them or do they display them in their house they do a course in dojo a local thing when our uncle Attica see bellissima [Music] just across the street from alesandro's workshop is the studio of klett Abraham when did you do your first of the sign in Florence soon for the better part of a decade klett has been altering street signs with vinyl stickers but now I hear that you do this all over the world yes I talk a lot yes and I go everywhere in Europe I can find people in the street who like my love my work they supposed me the basic sign that you work with do you have one you prefer I think that no entry sign is more interesting because it's symbol of authority and I am a rebus or authorities sorry it's too easy but is the truth do you work it out in your studio first or is the first place you do it in public the first place is the draw on the little little sketch yes then I go to the studio to try to get to clean so when you change the sign you actually use you stickers yes yes just sticker because I have two rules very important in my work the first one is don't damage nothing so the ticker is easy to remove it okay and the second is don't disturb the meaning of the assignment and have you ever been arrested for doing this yes sometimes yes okay I'll trust you but I don't want to end up in an Italian jail no tension down dirty floor really good food good wine nice okay baby for a night it'll be a good story yes through we are raved here are you sure yes I'm sure please stay here and look around if the police arrived I don't know I mean no prob you get one phone call from jail yes don't worry you cannot one call I'm gonna look and make sure that police yeah they know you though right [Music] it looks pretty good you know if you're gonna do that to a sign this is the Revenge of the street sign now that's a work of art well let's get out of yes okay [Music] all of the art is not only on the walls in Florence some of it is in the kitchen a perfect example Austria DiGiovanni my old friend Giovanni and his daughter Katharina are going to teach me to make a simple local dish Giovanni generic ante so Katharina what are we gonna make today we're going to make a ribollita it's a century-old the vegetable soup and your father is gonna show me how to do it absolutely yes have fun thank you Andiamo don't be buzzer - MS degree so the onions onions so we had carrot potato kale cabbage celery celery beanies and zucchini or about you a beetle and some oh we put the wine in yes right Vito oh that's a lot yeah now it smells even worse boy oh no she wanted Tomatoes another see come on up so this is a meal where you use everything in the house in the kitchen duty so mullet intro so the bread is going into another pot Oh juicy make the wisdom so now I need to put the supa dupa right I think it's ready it smells delicious [Music] Graziella LeZion a coochie nollie Oh mein furin tina a barrow gratis grazie [Music] I'm in palazzo medici riccardi the 15th century home of Florence's famous merchant family art historian and tour guide Freya Middleton is introducing me to the most famous Florentine art form the fresco we are standing in one of the only private chapels of that time to be permitted by the Pope anything what's interesting is that did they really want to use it for religious rites really it was the fact that it was so rare and then they hired one of the most important fresco painters at the time in 1450 burn also called fully to come in with his little team and fresco the walls [Music] for this is not just painting onto the wall its painting into the wall fresco means fresh and so these painters actually paint onto the freshly laid wet plaster the pigment seeps in so it dry it dries with the actual plastic becomes part of the wall which means two things first of all they have to work like lightning secondly you can't make a mistake the moment the pigment hits the plaster it immediately stains it hey should we don't see how Frisco's made sure I'm game right Luca let me introduce you to my wonderful friend Kathy and Kathy lovely Luca the expert in frescoes who's now gonna take it away and show you how it's all done I'm not an artist so don't expect too much but I'll try you will be an artist in a couple of hours when I'm done Lucas choice for my fresco is a portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent a member of the Medici family and a great Renaissance art patron our first step is just to retrace the main lines of our subject okay so I'm just no yes the aisle the window to the soul second step you have to puncture all the lines with your needle okay our third step is using the pouncing back technique to transfer the red agra on the plastic perfect this is your first time in the technique do not I do not I'm proud of you and I hope that next time you will go to visit in Frisco you can see I know what the master did [Music] allegra antenori has invited me for a glass of wine in her ancestral home a Palazzo originally purchased from the Medici family so Allegra your family has a very long history in Florence yes absolutely we they buy to 1385 so it's over six hundred and twenty years old and the second oldest wine family in the world spectacular it took us twenty six generations but now we you're getting it right another fascinating part of your story is that it's you and your two sisters that are now carrying on the family tradition which is somewhat an unusual in Italy yes it is very unusual but there was nothing else Luke because my father had three daughters and at that time in Italy daughters would never really were supposed to work they were supposed to marry so I was still that you know a little bit of old tradition and the old mentality what is the relationship between the Antinori family and Florence well it's such an old relationship because we had very very very strong link to the Medici family and also to this town so you don't only come to Florence to see the beautiful arts right beautiful architecture but also because wine and food are part of our culture [Music] Florentine Federico Bona key wants to show me his beloved City from the Arno River just now we pass it under the terrific affixing of course it's incredible I'm never arable view I've never seen it from this perspective without all the people usually it's with a hundred people in life the man navigating our historic boat is called a Rene Oh lo these men and their vessels were essential to the construction of Florence Rene you're looking from Rana so sense so they take away the Rana from the bottom of the river and use it to to use to defeat these vacant buildings they're actually almost born out of yeah I don't know River and Florence is going together so Florence without Arno is not the same it wouldn't be the same yeah so we're coming up under the Ponte Vecchio completed in 1350 the Ponte Vecchio an enduring symbol of Florence survived both World War two and the devastating flood of 1966 it's it's so cool seeing it like this incredible you know even as a Florentine you lived here your whole life Wow this is a great moment the Ponte Vecchio is filled with shops selling jewelry and gold this is probably the one of the most famous bridges in the world and we're underneath it I think millions of people go up and down the boat really unique it's crazy you crazy that's the only word for it what's upstairs this is Poseidon corridor the enclosed passageway on the top of the bridge is now used by the uffizi museum to display South portraits but it was originally built by the Medici to connect the Palazzo Pitti to the other side of the river in this way the de Medici family can walk from their home to very Hafiz and Palazzo Vecchio without work on the street totally private you know totally private is very exclusive the family also changed the original shop tenants if they wear the better off so butchers but that was Belle yeah yeah and so the Medici family decided okay don't take away instead date go [Music] federico thank you so much for showing me florence in a way i have never seen it before it's my pleasure to introduce and show flores from this point of view and came back soon i will [Music] dream of Italy is made possible by monograms all-in-one vacation packages but take care of everything because we believe travelers should spend their time enjoying the sights feeling like a local feeling completely at ease monograms the Perillo tourist foundation for 73 years we've been bringing travelers to Italy it's where our heart is first-class escorted tours and custom vacations Italy the dream destination Perillo tours calm one eight hundred four three one one five one five the main point helps guide business owners from the road they've been travelling to the dreams they have for the next la dolce vita travel we make italy yours la dolce vita travel calm weekend in italy dot-com it's all about family italy ancestry.com my Italian family Emilia Romagna and also made possible by for more about visiting Italy additional videos and a companion travel guide please visit dream of Italy dot-com you [Music] you

Channel: Dream of Italy

Views: 246,171

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Id: hba7W529dRU

Length: 27min 16sec (1636 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 20 2018