Extra-Ordinary Experiences in Florence & Italy
In Italy, we celebrate Ferragosto on August 15th and it’s a catholic feast to celebrate the Assumption of Mary. This is a public holiday and most museums, offices, shops, and restaurants are closed. Here is a list of the museums in Florence opened on Ferragosto. (updated in 2024) Continue reading “Ferragosto in Florence: the museums open on August 15th”
A recent study on the famous and enigmatic painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci has confirmed the existence of the bridge seen in the background of the painting.
Continue reading “Mona Lisa bridge is real and is in Tuscany”
We visited the exhibition “Pre-Raphaelites: Modern Renaissance” at San Domenico Museum in Forlì, open until June 30th. It’s a must-see for the quantity and quality of the selected works.
Continue reading “Pre-Raphaelites. The Modern Renaissance in Forlì”
On January 19th, the Orsanmichele Museum in Florence reopened to the public. A captivating place, rich in history and artworks, with breathtaking views of the city. A must-visit destination in Florence! Continue reading “The new Museum of Orsanmichele”
An interesting book for jewellery enthusiasts that winks at painting lovers has recently been published by our friend and colleague Silvia Malaguzzi. In “Diamanti rubini e smeraldi, il linguaggio dei gioielli nei dipinti degli Uffizi” (Diamonds, rubies and emeralds, the language of jewels in the paintings of the Uffizi) she transformed into a method the idea that many very famous paintings could reveal something new if one analyzes its precious details with the jeweler’s lens. Continue reading “The jewels in the paintings of the Uffizi”
After more than 10 years of activity and many changes, we decided it was time to renew our corporate image.
A lot has changed since Lucia opened Exclusive Connection in 2012: we started with group tours of the Vasari Corridor in Florence and we evolved to special guided tours for art lovers and celebrities, but not only that.
It has been a journey through our passions, as well as an important growth of our professional skills. Today Exclusive Connection is a different company from the one of 10 years ago, and for this reason, we decided to renew our corporate image. Continue reading “A new brand identity for Exclusive Connection”
This July began with the opening of 12 new rooms of the Uffizi Gallery that house the selfportrait section. The extraordinary exhibition presents 255 works from the rich collection of selfportraits, previously exhibited in the Vasari Corridor.
The collection was started by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici in the 17th century and has never been interrupted since then. In fact, it is the largest, oldest, and most important collection of self-portraits in the world.
The selfportraits are exhibited in 12 new rooms on the first floor of the Gallery, characterized by a splendid bright pink, which wants to allude to Cardinal Leopoldo’s robe, whose statue welcomes visitors.
The works will be exhibited in rotation so that all the masterpieces in the collection can be admired, as well as for necessary conservation constraints. The current exhibition also features 36 selfportraits of women who have made a great contribution to the history of art.
How many times have you seen Botticelli’s Spring? Probably thousands of times, right? In fact, who does not know about Sandro Botticelli’s Spring? It is no coincidence that thousands of people visit the Uffizi Gallery every year to see it in person.
It is certainly a symbol of Renaissance and of ideal Beauty, as well as one of the most loved works by our art historian Lucia Montuschi who often defines it as “the Breath of Renaissance”. A definition inspired by the complex symbology that we find in the painting, a celebration of love, peace and prosperity.
If we look carefully at the painting we can see the outline of two lungs in the vegetation. The first to notice them were the American researchers Blech and Doliner in 2009, who saw this detail right behind the figure of Venus in the center of the famous masterpiece. Can you see them now?
An anatomical representation of a lung was also discovered in the Birth of Venus. According to Davide Lazzeri, a researcher in the study of medicine in art, in the particular shape and color of the cloak held by a figure identified as the Hora of Spring or one of the Graces, a lung can be seen quite clearly. To learn more about the news click here.
A new study says that visiting museums can boost your happiness. We know it very well, and we’re grateful for visiting museums every day thanks to our job.
So we’ve selected 3 not-to-be-miss exhibits for this Spring in Italy. Continue reading “3 not to be missed exhibits”
Our 2023 exciting news is the launch of our Art Club, a new project starting on March 6th, the day Michelangelo was born.
In the last two years, we have mainly focused on culture and art lovers who, together with us, strive to deepen their innate curiosity about the people and the works, key to our art history. Thanks to their thirst for knowledge and our dedication to cultural expression, we have decided to start this new adventure by planning 10 art history rendez-vous, which will deal with very original and exciting topics expressly conceived and researched by Dr. Lucia Montuschi.
The Art Club program offers 1 video-recorded lesson per month, for a total of 10 lessons, summing up to almost 5 hours. New content will be released every month, and it will always be available to our subscribers on our video platform.
The Art Club is a subscribers-only service, and it will be held in English by Dr. Lucia Montuschi. The annual cost will be €299 VAT included but, for this first year, we have decided to launch it at a promotional price of €199 VAT included.
We are very proud to present this program:
The first talk about Michelangelo is free. Watch it here
https://lucia-s-school-2dd9.thinkific.com/
