Jacopo Carucci, called Pontormo, (Pontorme, Empoli 1494 – Florence 1556) is among the greatest artists of Italian art: the emblem of that extraordinary season that Giorgio Vasari called the “modern manner”.

The Renaissance Ring is a hiking and mountain bike proposal: 178 km around Florence, focussing on Filippo Brunelleschi’s Dome, which is the Cathedral’s Dome, through woodland and cultivated country.

To celebrate the twentieth birthday of the initiative, 700 cultural sites in all Italian regions will be open and it is possible to visit hundreds of special sites, that are often inaccessible to the public.

An Idea of Beauty, on view at the Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina (CCCS) at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, sets out to explore the work of eight contemporary international artists and will encourage visitors to reconsider the concept of beauty and to question not only the ‘need’ for it but also its function, value and purpose.

Snow, ice and rain over the Italian general elections, even in Tuscany. The bad weather will continue across much of Italy through early Monday, according to the Tuscan Protezione civile.

Italian police said Wednesday they are investigating the bullying of a young woman of colour who suffered a beating and endured racial slurs – all captured on video and later shared on the Internet.

Marrying in Florence is the dream of many foreign people like Americans, British, Japanese, South Americans who come to Florence to legally marry. Now it is possible to legally wed open air and in the magnificent Garden of the Roses and in other beautiful places in the heart of the Tuscan city.

Benvenuto Cellini (1500 – 1571), sculptor of the Perseus in the Loggia degli Uffizi in Florence and of the famous salt-cellar (known as Saliera) made for Francis I, speaks of the home and farm purchased in Vicchio in his autobiographical memoirs.

A real challenge for those who thought they have already seen and read everything about kitchen’s world. A way to test one’s knowledge and belief culinary submitting the verification of the tuscan “guru” Beppe Bigazzi. His newest book will be presented Saturday, February 2nd at the Villa Medicea in Artimino.

Viareggio Carnival, celebrating in 2013 140 years of life under the sign of a vivid tradition such as the long-established European tradition of Carnival festivals, is no doubt one of the best known events in Italy. Masked Parades are scheduled 3th February, 10th February, 12th February, 17th February, 24th February.