Month: October 2020

Alchemical Visions – The Hidden Side of Masterpieces

Alchemical Visions – The Hidden Side of Masterpieces In Florence, an association was created which proposes twelve alternative itineraries to help you look at monuments in a different way. An alternative to the hit and run tourism routes, and an opportunity to look at monuments in a different way: monuments that we think we understand, without having ever grasped their secret “aura” … Article by “La Repubblica”, 05 January 2018. We are thankful for this profound, timely and prestigious review.  

Impressions on the guided tour to the alchemical park of Pratolino on 30 June 2018

Impressions on the guided tour to the alchemical park of Pratolino on 30 June 2018 A warm thank you goes to Enrico Gotti, who wrote this comment after visiting the alchemical park of Pratolino on June 30th! With Costanza Riva in the large park of the disappeared villa of Francesco I dei Medici and Bianca Cappello in Pratolino: a tragic love story, which after their sudden death, saw the destruction of the villa, the waterways, the caves and the results of cutting-edge engineering, labyrinths, today perhaps unrepeatable if not with augmented reality. All according to the direction of an alchemical [...]

The Pratolino Park the daring project of Prince Francesco I de’ Medici

(text Taken from Pratolino, the alchemical dream of Francesco I de 'Medici, myths, symbols and allegories, by Costanza Riva) "Wonder or amazement is nothing more than a great desire to know the cause of some effects." This is how Francesco de ’Vieri, a philosopher with deep hermetic knowledge at the court of Francesco I, expresses himself in his "Of the wonderful Works of Pratolino & Amore", describing the feelings that he was able to provoke at the time. He himself considers the art of "wonder" as the first result of all human activities and all sciences, a feeling of sudden [...]