Monthly Markets: The Florence Flower Market

It’s my favorite time again. Time to talk markets in Florence. In our posts thus far, we have covered the large monthly markets in the city. For those of you who can’t plan a journey around the second or fourth or whatever Sunday of a given month, we have a solution: weekly markets! Going forward, we will be highlighting some of Florence’s best weekly markets. Unlike the monthly markets, which tend to be during the weekends, most of the weekly markets fall on weekdays. For those of you whose schedule will permit a visit to one or more of these, I highly recommend it! These market “staples” are some of my favorite weekday activities. Although, word to the wise, those who can’t resist trinkets and treasures when they are sold in outdoor market form, may want to get in the habit of leaving their wallets at home.
Considering today is the first of April and the sun is shining outside, the Florence Flower market seems an especially appropriate start to this series. This particular weekly market falls on Thursdays and, as the name indicates, specializes in one thing: flowers & plants.flower_market Continue Reading…

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Photo of the Week: Buona Pasqua! (Happy Easter!)

Photo of the Week: Buona Pasqua! (Happy Easter!)

Happy Easter!

From your team at Select Study Abroad

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Study Abroad in Florence with Select Study Abroad

We’re proud to present our brand new (and very first, ever) Select Study Abroad program video! We hope you don’t mind if we debut it right here on the blog. We’re just so overwhelmed with love and appreciation for cameras and film and the internet! Extra special thanks to Heather Longerbeam and her amazing team at Invisible Children for helping put this incredible piece of movie magic together for us. We continue to be floored by their talent and are eternally indebted to them. Balls of mozzarella are on the way!
 
So without further adieu, we present our newest video. An ode to what we do and why we love it and why we think you, yes you, should be spending your summer abroad with us in Italy.
 
With endless gratitude,
 
The Select Team.

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Photo of the Week: New Room No.35

Photo of the Week: New Room No.35

Red.
The dramatic new color of the walls in Room No.35 of the Uffizi Museum in Florence. This room is one of the first to get a facelift after the gorgeous renovation of the famous Tribune and, hopefully, not the last. Walking through the many other spaces of the museum with their (now by comparison) drab walls is, admittedly, not quite the same since this room got its upgrade.
 
So what’s so special about Room No. 35? Well, it just happens to be home to one of the Uffizi’s most important works: the only finished panel painting by Michelangelo, known as the Doni Tondo (seen at the back of the room in the above photo). Keeping company with this stunning work is the eye-catching Roman sculpture of Ariadne that only recently made its way into the Uffizi collection (technically, a permanent loan from the Archaeological Museum). In its original 16th century form, the Uffizi was known as the home to endless sculptures more so than painting. Today, however, we associate this world-famous museum almost exclusively with painted works. With the addition of the Ariadne, 35 is one of the few rooms that now combines sculpture and painting in one space. Hence, the new display style more closely reflects the museum’s original concept: a place where artists flocked to study the works of ancient sculpture to carve copies or, often, to use the unique poses and gestures in their paintings.
Read the rest

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Photo of the Week: Simple Beauty

Photo of the Week: Simple Beauty

Beauty…

Beauty can be found in unexpected places… in the silhouette of a dead tree, standing stark against the evening sky, or the mud on rows of dead cornstalks on a blustery winter day. Or in the oil spilled rainbow of colors swirling in the puddle of rainwater on the street.

Linda Poindexter

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