May has been a pretty awesome month, we had a great friend visiting us from Barcelona, I got yet another job, and every weekend there was a cool event. Summer never really seemed to arrive until..maybe now? Which is absolutely fine by me. With just a small hint of humidity during these days, I am already psychologically working on t-man to buy a portable air-conditioning to ease the pain.
I have been writing a list of cool events around town each month, and it really is helpful to making me actually go to them instead of just writing about them. T-man does his fair share of complaining (after all he is Italian..) but when we finally go, he is just as happy as me to discover how much his city has to offer.
- 65th edition of “Summer in Fiesole/ Estate Fiesolana” in Fiesole, the beautiful historical Etruscan city overlooking Florence, this rich calender of events taking place in the Roman amphitheatre will take place from now until September. Dance, concerts, opera, jazz , why not spend a night under the stars in such a beautiful setting. The website has the complete list of events and this year they have a special exhibition showing the history of this summer festival.
- MUV Festival (May 29- June 3rd), electronic music, digital arts, audiovisual experimentation this festival includes many concerts around Florence and this year’s theme is “the digital renaissance”. They have a pretty good website with a program list, http://www.firenzemuv.com/.
- 19th Medieval Festival Of Malmantile, Lastra a Signa, Fi, June 2nd and 3rd. This hamlet close to Florence will come alive as the town becomes “medieval” for a weekend, locals will dress up in 15th century garb while going about their daily business.On the inside of the castle, visitors will meet ladies-in-waiting, knights, archers, poets, acrobats, jugglers, weavers, painters, alchemists and many other characters of past times.The programme of the event is rich in performances, duels among knights, dances, archery shows and, in addition, the historical parade with musicians, flag flyers and courtiers will march through the streets of Malmantile. I’ve heard it’s pretty awesome and you can check out more details here at the official website.
- New World Exhibit (June 5th- June7th) Palazzo Vecchio, Sala d’Arme, Florence. This is something I am really excited to check out, especially considering the subject matter, I got this synposis from the official website.
In a time of growing racial intolerance fueled by the economic crisis, the exhibit and its underlying initiative, Non Sono Clandestino, seek to provoke awareness of the positive contributions of new Italians, too often portrayed in the media in a negative light. Through visual media, we seek to demonstrate the immense value that immigrants provide their new country in the form of cultural exchange, diversity, innovation, tourism and labor.
- Lari Cherry Festival, Lari, Pisa May 23- June 2nd (weekends). This festival is a pretty big tradition in the municipality of Lari, a small village in the hilly area near Pisa (Tuscany, Italy). The Florentine wrote an entire article devoted to this over 50 year old festival . Lari has cultivated cherries for centuries, but the fruit has only ever been grown in enough amounts for local consumption. This means that the only time you are likely to find and taste Lari’s cherries are at this festival-one of Tuscany’s oldest sagre. One of the yummiest items happens to be the frittelle di ciliegie, doughnut holes with fresh cherries cooked inside.
- Florence Wine Event, June 8th – June 10th. Palazzo Pitti. Friday 4pm-9pm, Saturday 11am – 9pm, Sunday 11- 8pm. I would describe this as as the less pretentious cousin to Winetown in Florence. I love that we have so many neat festivals but like the gelato fest this year, Winetown for me has become less of a “public” affair and more of a snobby expensive event aimed at the higher crest of Florentine society and tourists with deep pockets. Florence wine event has decided to not overcharge (yay!) and their tasting kit remains only 10 euros.
- Madonna in concert: June 16th at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, Viale Manfredo Fanti, 4, 50137 FLORENCE. 8pm. Yes the queen on pop will be in our city in June playing for what I am sure will be a huge amount of people. There are still tickets available, for around 90 euros and up. Buy them here!
- Festa di San Giovanni and Calcio Storico : Florence will celebrate Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city with fireworks around 10:00pm on June 24th. This is also the closing day of the famous Calcio Storico (Historical soccer, which starts on the 17th of June), also a pretty incredible event worth watching.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miu6dgkBaiM&w=560&h=315]
Check back periodically as I tend to add events as I see them published throughout the month. There is obviously a multitude of sagre/food festivals that I have yet to add (besides the cherry onein Lari).
