AT FLORENCE'S DOORSTEP

«Florence is, after all, my city. [...] I have no room left in my heart for Venice, because Florence filled it all.»
- Simone Weil

OIL MAKING IN CHIANTI

«If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears.»
- Mahmoud Darwish

PEACE AMIDST THE VINEYARDS

«A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what is expected a man should see.»
- Samuel Johnson

LAND OF SAGRANTINO

«Age is just a number. It’s irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.»
- Joan Collins

PERFECTION IN NATURE

«The landscape is always a testimony of the qualities of social order and a society that doesn’t respect nature doesn’t respect humanity either.»
- Pietro Porcinai

MODERN HOME FOR MODERN WORLD

«There is no doubt that the Modern World, by freeing the man, led subjectivism and individualism to triumph.»
- Martin Heidegger

A THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY

«Every great building once begun as a building plan. That means, sitting in that building plan on the table is a mighty structure not yet seen. It is the same with dreams.»
- Israelmore Ayivor

BIZARRE BEAUTY

«The idea of beauty does not descend into matter unless this is prepared as carefully as possible. This preparation consists of three things: arrangement, measure, and aspect or form.»
- Nicolas Poussin

THE PROMISED LAND

«Tuscany was the only country in the world to be “home”: the rest of Italy, and France, England, Spain, Germany, they were republics, kingdoms, empires, but not “homes”.»
- Curzio Malaparte

TIMELESS BEAUTY

«The Tuscan countryside was built as a masterwork by a refined people: it is incredible how these men built their own rural landscapes as if they had no other concern than beauty.»
- Henri Desplanques

THE LAND OF LEMONS

«Do you know the land where citrons bloom, golden oranges glow among dark leaves, A gentle wind blows from the blue sky, the myrtle is still, and the laurel stands tall? Do you know it well?»
- Wolfgang Goethe

AN UMBRIAN GARDEN

«The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies, but never grows to the enduring happiness that the love of gardening gives.»
- Gertrude Jekyll

THE LAND OF WONDERS

«Tuscany is a land that since old ages has seduced visitors and bewitched its own inhabitants, to the point that many artists praised its beauties.»
- Ilaria Giannini

THE GREEN HEART OF ITALY

«And then, the Umbrian God, found an amazing blue for the sky and an even more beautiful color to paint the distances and the mountains. For this reason, Umbria is so miraculously blue; the bluest of all the land.»
- Karel Čapek

A PLACE FOR HAPPINESS

«Everything here emanates greatness, taste, humanity, purity and beauty at the utmost degree. I do believe I would be happier here than in any other place.»
- Klemens von Metternich

AND SINKING IN THIS SEA IS SWEET TO ME

« Only three things are infinite. The sky in its stars, the sea in its drops of water, and the heart in its tears.»
- Gustave Flaubert

A NEOCLASSICAL GEM IN CHIANTI

«There is nothing fundamental to be found in art after Phidias and Raffaello, but there is always something to do, even after them, to preserve the cult of truth and perpetuate the tradition of beauty.»
- Jean-Auguste D. Ingres

LAND OF WINE

«Chianti, like the rising sun, possession gains, and drives the mist of dullness from the brains. The gloomy vapor from the spirit flies, and views of gaiety and gladness rise.»
- Peter Lamberg

A GEM IN THE HEART OF NAPLES

«Naples, what a strange city: to live it to its fullest we should erase all the surprises it offers you day after day, but then it would no longer be the same...»
- Giovanni Scafoglio

A FLORENTINE HIDEOUT

«Through these old streets I wander dreamily; around me Florence sweeps her busy tide of life»
- William Leighton

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

«Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other. »
- Virginia Woolf

BUONTALENTI'S LEGACY

«Among all the foreign cities, Florence is the one I prefer. The longer you live here, the more you find yourself loving it. There is something so welcoming here that I feel like I were home.»
- Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij

THE WATERWAYS OF MILAN

«Yes, Milan is really beautiful, my friend, and believe me when I say that sometimes you really need a strong will to resist its seduction and carry on with your work.»
- Giovanni Verga

CITY OF CANALS

«Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.»
- Italo Calvino

IN THE SHADOW OF THE DOME

«And when I thought of Florence, it was like a miracle city embalmed and like a corolla, because it was called the city of lilies and its cathedral, St. Mary of the Flowers.»
- Marcel Proust

A BALCONY IN VENICE

«At the break of dawn, stars are filled with envy when they see the beauties of Venice emerging from the mist.»
- Mieczysław Kozłowski

OF MADNESS AND BEAUTY

«To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius»
- Alexander Herzen