Archive for 'Events'

Once you have found a vacation rental in Pistoia you might be looking for ways to fill your days while in this beautiful city.

Between the music festivals, historic and artistic gems, pretty views of the Tuscan landscape and local cuisine, you'll never be short on interesting (and delicious) things to see and do (and eat) but one event that we can particularly recommend is the traditional Feast of Saint Bartholomew that takes place on the 24th of August each year and combines a lot of the best parts of Pistoia in one event: good food, beautiful buildings, local tradition and the partying spirit of the city's inhabitants.

If you are planning on visiting this summer, this is one event that you won't want to miss!

Altopascio is a charming small Tuscan town which is famous for its great tradition of bread making that has survived for centuries in the area.

In fact, though it may be little-known to tourists and a little off the beaten track, it is a bit of a mecca for bakers and even hosts a bread festival each year.

For this reason, it is known as the “town of bread”. In addition to delicious baked goods, however, the town has a lot more to offer and to be discovered.

If you like your holidays authentic and undiluted by tourist crowds and selfie sticks, this is a perfect destination, just find a vacation rental in Altopascio.

Gelato is a staple of most people's idea of Italy. One imagines children eating it while dashing around historic old piazzas and couples sharing some while walking pretty strands. It is deeply entwined with Italian culture and first appeared during banquets at the Medici court in Florence. It is said that Bernardo Buontalenti invented the ice cream for the court of Catherine de’ Medici in 1565. With a cold cream made from a base of milk, honey, and egg yolks with a splash of wine and aromatized with bergamot, lemons and oranges he wowed guests and the rest, as they say, is history.

Florence remains a great place to get gelato to this day with famous shops such as Edouardo's and Perche No! being musts. The Gelato Festival began in Florence last month and continues to travel around Italy, adding to why ice-cream lovers should find a holiday rental in Florence or in Italy and follow the delicious festival on its tour of the country this year!

If you are a perfume lover, Florence has an annual event that you will not want to miss, the Boboli Perfume Fair.

Florence is already a destination to go for highly unique cosmetics and perfumes due to one of the world's oldest active pharmacies being located in Santa Maria Novella which is still popular and continues to produce perfumes and remedies. Still located on-site, the pharmacy now also has branches in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo and much is still made by hand. If you have stocked up on queen-approved cosmetics in Santa Maria Novella then you should head to the Boboli Perfume Fair.

Just find a luxury villa in Florence and treat yourself, and your nose, to a magic experience this May.

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual arts festival in Florence, most notably important as an opera festival, which was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui.

Gui wished to stage both contemporary and forgotten operas in visually dramatic productions and his idea went on to become the first music festival in Italy. Today, it is a Florentine institution and is held each year usually beginning late April, continuing through May and into June.

Generally there are four operas staged over this period but lots of other events related to the festival also take place in the city over the two months. If you're a music lover and have a particular fondness for opera be sure to find a luxury villa in Florence and check this festival out for yourself.