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Problems with street numbers in Florence?

Let’s try to understand how Via, Viale, Piazza work. These names are the Italian equivalents of Road, Street, Gardens, Avenue, etc. First of all you need to know that in Italy there is a standard group of names that are used in every single city and town. For example, every town has a Piazza del Duomo and a Via Roma or a via Cavour: a whole list of other names that seem almost compulsory it doesn’t matter where you are! Numbers are also complicated to understand, especially in Florence, where it seems that there is no logical sense in them. Let’s try to get the most important rules. 
 

florence palazzo vecchio

The “royal” home of Tuscany’s Grand Dukes

Palazzo Vecchio, the “Old Palace”, built in 1299 by Arnolfo di Cambio as the seat of the Priori (representatives of the Major Arts) is a real fortress in the heart of town: the massive dimension, the dominating tower (94 meters) and the overhanging soldiers walkway. The palace was later (16th century) modified in order to become the “royal” home of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I. 
 



More thant 500 pieces from all over the world...

The Adalberto Giazotto collection consists of more than 500 astonishing pieces, coming from all over the world: from south Africa to Brazil, from Afghanistan to China, from Alps to the Mediterranean. It is displayed at the “La Specola” Museum with a very good mounting, so that you better appreciate every single item and can get involved in an extraordinary adventure. 
 


"Affresco": what does it mean?

The “affresco” is a very old technique that was most popular in Italy, from the late thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The name derives from the Italian word FRESCO (which means "fresh"):  so the affresco is a painting done on freshly laid wet plaster with pigments dissolved in lime water. 

How can a fresco last so long?

As both dry they become completely integrated so that they will last forever. Technically speaking a chemical reaction occurs between the calcium hydrate and carbonic acid so that the painting fixes with the plaster and makes it insoluble. 
 

 
La Specola’ Museum was originally called the Imperial Museum of Physics and Natural History and it opened to the public in 1775, under the support of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine.

The Museum is now called “Specola”, that means observatory, for the astronomical tower that was added in 1789 and was then substituted, about 100 years later, by the ‘Tribuna di Galileo’ (1839) to tribute an homage to the great scientist – a rare example of late neoclassical architecture in Florence.
 
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