Ciompi

If you have found a luxury villa in Florence and are spending time in that beautiful city this holiday season, there is one activity that you must make time for: ice-skating, of course! What better way to take a break between shopping and days wandering galleries and museums than to have fun on the ice?

It is the perfect activity for groups of friends, couples and families and is something everyone can enjoy. Just bundle up warm, strap on your skates, fly or flounder around the rink a few times and then warm up with some delicious Italian coffee or hot chocolate afterwards.

Florence is also a perfectly picturesque setting to go skating and there are a few different options of places to choose from.

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.

Zuccotto is a delicious semi-frozen, chilled dessert made with brandy, cake and ice cream, said to have originated in Florence, though many Italians have not heard of it before. The name means "little pumpkin" in Italian and is so-called because of the shape of the mould used for making it. Thought to have been inspired by the “Duomo di Firenze”, Florence's main cathedral, topped by a distinctive dome. Another theory says that it was inspired by a cardinal's semi-spherical skullcap or zucchetto.

Originally a “semifreddo” dessert that contained ice-cream, this is now often replaced with fresh cream. Typically, however, you can expect to find semifreddo surrounded by sponge cake. The inside is usually of two colors, a white half, which sometimes has candied fruit or bits of chocolate, and a dark half, to which cocoa is added. Finally, ricotta, sugar and cream are added. It is served cold and can be served with the same liquor used inside the dessert or with a coffee liqueur.

If the English-speaking world has Shakespeare then the Italian-speaking world has Dante Alighieri, a name familiar to many worldwide in connection to his most famous work, his so-called, “Divine Comedy,” as it is referred to in English. One of the defining works of literature throughout history, this incredibly important and influential piece is a beloved tome around the globe and many Dante-lovers hope to one day visit Tuscany and see many of the things and places that he described in his great tale of an epic journey through the afterlife. If you have found a luxury villa in Florence and you are an admirer of Dante's then there is one attraction that is, without a doubt, an absolute must-see: the Museum of the House of Dante Alighieri.

The Museum of the House of Dante Alighieri, or the House of Dante, is a medieval building located in one of the oldest parts of the historic core of the city on the street of Santa Margherita. This building, while not actually the house in which he was born, is located in the area between the Church of Saint Martino and the Piazza dei Donati that documents note was where the Alighieri family lived at the time, in the 13th century, and, though it had to be restored from a somewhat dilapidated state at the beginning of the 20th century when the museum was first planned, it largely maintains its appearance from Dante's lifetime. It was, therefore, decided upon as the best place to house a museum dedicated to the Father of the Italian Language, and is now one of the most important literary museums in the city.