Tag: Renaissance

A Guided Journey Through the City’s Creative Underground

written by Alison Sweeney

This blog feature is an exclusive bonus installment to our Spring issue of Blending Magazine. After you finish reading, be sure to explore the rest of the magazine online—just follow this link to download the full Spring 2025 edition:
https://jschoolfua.com/images/BM/BM_151.pdf

From literary cafes to rebellious music movements, uncover the lesser-known artistic history behind some of Florence’s modern-day cultural hot spots.

Florence’s Underground Artistic and Creative Scene

Though Florence is known for its Renaissance art, grand architecture, and famous landmarks, the city has a hidden artistic scene that offers a different kind of cultural perspective and experience. While many of the venues that once hosted this creative underground scene have become more commercial over time, their roots tell hidden stories of rebellion, reinvention, and the key to discovering true Italian culture. This travel guide invites you to step into Florence’s underground, not just physically but historically, creatively, and culturally.

Caffé Giubbe Rosse: A Literary Revolution is Brewed 

Start your journey at one of the most famous historic literary cafes in Florence, Caffé Giubbe Rosse, where famous poets and writers sat to scribe and exchange radical ideas. According to the article, “Grand Re-opening of Caffé Giubbe Rosse” by Accord Italy Smart Tours, Caffé Giubbe Rosse is located in the Piazza della Republica and was established in 1896 by two German brothers. The cafe earned its current name, meaning Red Jackets, because it was inspired by the red uniform worn by the waiters. 

Caffé Guibbe Rosse grew to become a hub for intellectuals, artists, and writers. The cafe played a pivotal role in the Futurist movement and served as a gathering place for avant-garde thinkers like Baccio Maria Bacci, who looked to challenge traditional artistic roles. 

Today, visitors can still visit the cafe and bar to experience the Italian cultural experience and legacy, where you can find some original Futurist writings still on display! 

Teatro Verdi: Reinventing the Stage

Next, step into the dimly lit Teatro Verdi of the 1980s, where the stage is filled with redefined Italian performance and shortly became a prestigious turnpoint in the uprise of the futurist avant-garde movement. Teatro Verdi transformed into a space for the most sophisticated pop and rock music and for unconventional drama. 

According to the Teatro Verdi website, the theater was inaugurated in 1854 and is the largest “Italian-style” theatre in Tuscany. Located in the historic Santa Croce district, it was built on the remnants of the 14th-century Carcere delle Stinche. In the early 20th century, the theater embraced the futurist avant-garde movement, which challenged traditional theatrical norms. These weren’t just performances but protests, celebrations of youth, and identity in a space of avant-garde reinvention.

Today, Teatro Verdi remains a diverse cultural venue, offering classical music, contemporary performances, and pop and rock concerts, reflecting the artistic landscape Florence has to offer.

Tenax: A Hub for Florence’s New Wave Movement

Last but not least, explore one of the music venues that fueled the cities’ New Wave movement in the 1980s, Tenax. Tenax quickly emerged as a hub for new artists and musicians by influential New Wave and post-punk bands and today remains a symbol of Florence’s alternative music history. Picture this: it’s September 1981, and amid Florence’s enthusiasm for new wave, dark, and punk sounds from the UK, Tenax emerges as a pioneering nightclub. According to the Tenax website, the club was founded by a group of young entrepreneurs and quickly became an innovative and alternative hub for emerging artists, fashion designers, and musicians. Tenax’s stage has hosted an impressive number of acts, including Spandau Ballet, Bauhaus, and New Order, becoming a cornerstone of Italy’s music scene. Bands like Litfibia and Neon, formed in Florence in 1979, found a platform at Tenax for their innovative sounds. 

As the music landscape evolved, Tenax adapted and began to embrace other genres like house music. The club’s ability to reinvent itself while maintaining its core identity has ensured a lasting influence on Florence’s cultural aspect. 

All of these examples of Florence’s underground cultural scene offer a rich and nuanced perspective of the city’s artistic evolution. These places, now more visible, carry with them the same legacy of those underground revolutions. So, next time you find yourself in this beautiful and magnificent city, look closer. Look beyond the espresso machines, beneath the stage lights, and in the echoes and flashing lights, and maybe you’ll find the story of a city whose past reflects a magnificent creative rebellion. 

La Fiorita: A Florentine Tradition

Photo by author

By Dara Hernandez

Journalism student Dara Hernandez digs deeper into the life of Girolamo Savonarola and the meaning behind the yearly Florentine celebration of “La Fiorita.”

One of the main reasons I was drawn to Italy is for the amount of history that it possesses. Walking through the streets of Florence is like walking through a book with a chapter for every building, every piazza, and every sculpture.

Of Italy’s countless traditions, there is one in particular that has existed since 1498. It is known as Florence’s “La Fiorita” and is meaningful to the people of Florence.

The person who inspired this event was a man named Girolamo Savonarola. He was born September 21, 1452 and grew up to eventually become a Dominican friar and preacher here in Florence. He was an extremely radical preacher yet was loved by many Florentines. At the time, he became well-known for his prophecies of civic glory, destruction of secular art and calls for Christian renewal. He was also notorious for organizing “bonfires of vanities” in which artworks, books, musical instruments and other objects were burned.

Savonarola’s passion-filled beliefs led him to getting excommunicated by the Pope. He was no longer allowed to participate in services of the church. Regardless, he chose to defy the Pope. Due to issues of this sort, he ended up being hanged and burned along with two followers on May 23, 1498 in Piazza della Signoria. The next day, his followers filled the area with flowers to honor his life and thus the tradition was born.

In fact, “La Fiorita” is an entire morning dedicated to the memory of Girolamo Savonarola. The people of Florence begin with a mass, proceed to spread flowers on the ground and finally, hold a costume parade to toss rose petals in the river.

As I was learning more about Savonarola, I found myself constantly wondering why people would praise someone who was famous for the destruction of, what he defined as, immoral art and someone who burned secular objects. However, seeing the roses over the plaque in memory of this man made me realize that not only are people drawn to radical, unordinary humans striving to make a difference, but also that Florentines simply accept Savonarola as part of their history. They recognize that walking through Piazza della Signoria holds stories with meaning that should be remembered.

Therefore, despite the unconventional and radical ways of his preaching, Florentines have continued celebrating his life on May 23, year after year.

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I Wish I’d Been Here When: My Home Was a Nunnery

Artwork from my apartment’s walkway depicting angels and other religious imagery. Image courtesy of apartment building.

By Isabel Pellegrino

My apartment used to be a convent dating back to the 15th  century. I can’t help but wonder about the way the nuns lived here. I wish I was able to go back in time to better understand their lives and how they perceived Florence and its future.

I wish I had been in Firenze when nuns gathered in my apartment’s kitchen. In the 15th century, my apartment was a convent. It is hard to picture this space as home to a religious community. While I try to embrace the Italian culture in all of it’s beauty and class, I am not sure the way I live could ever be compared to the grace of a Renaissance nunnery. Yet, here I am. Through an old wooden door, rod iron gates and a few flights of stone stairs, you will find us cooking and practicing our Italian; sometimes we feel like it’s the best we can do to connect with those who occupied this space before us.

During the 15th century, Florentine convents were evolving from small communities to large institutions, according to historian Sharon T. Strocchia in her book “Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence.” It became common practice for highly- educated unmarried women to congregate in convents. As a result, nunneries became hubs for research, academic dialogue and political influence. As I sit at the kitchen counter of my apartment, I dream of traveling back in time to speak with these women. I can see them now gathering around tables with their noses in books and crosses around their necks. Question after question would flow from me: What is it like to be women leaders of a religion often dominated by men? What do you see your legacy as? What does Firenze mean to you and your faith? How can I honor your lives in my time?

But more than anything else, I wish I had the chance to roam the Florentine streets with them and see the city through their perspective. In the midst of the Renaissance, I wonder how they felt about the art and how it influenced their faith. I wonder if they had any idea of what the convent space would become in the centuries afterwards. While I will never have a time machine during my fleeting few months in Italy, my roommates and I have pledged to take time every day to be grateful for our apartment and our lives in Italy. When we sit around our dinner table and discuss culture, religion, politics and philosophy, it’s almost as if we have been transported back in time by the everlasting art of conversation. I like to imagine the nuns doing exactly this, just centuries ago. Our apartment bridges our times together. So maybe, we aren’t all that disconnected after all.

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Renaissance Reminiscing: Arte della Lana

Coat of Arms of the Arte Della Lana, the guild of wool merchants during medieval and Renaissance Florence. Produced by Andrea della Robbia. Photo by Jastrow.

By Bailey Hubacher

If I could travel back in time through this history of Firenze, my first stop would be the Renaissance due to strength and importance of the textile industry.

As both a Fashion Merchandising and Journalism major, I’ve always been interested in the beauty of Italian history. Now, this may sound cliché, but I wish I could have experienced Italian life during the Renaissance period and not just because it was one of the first cities in Europe to experience the beauty of the era. So let me break it down:

During the Renaissance, there were merchants, bankers, and an entrepreneurship tradition that worked together to make some of my personal all-time favorite fabrics: wool and silk. I am obsessed with the textiles in today’s fashion industry, but I can only imagine the beauty and craftsmanship that went into the early wool and silk industries. The whole process of carding, spinning, dyeing, and weaving wool into beautiful garments is amazing, and back in the day artisans made wool that you can only dream of today.

The textile industry in Firenze during the Renaissance made up a lot of the wealth and the city was dependent on the textile workers who specialized in the manufacturing and trading of wool. In fact, one third of the Florentine population was involved in the wool industry. Firenze during this time had guilds and for those of you who don’t know them, guilds were corporations established in the Middle Ages that basically governed the arts and professions.

The guild of the wool merchants was one of the most powerful in Firenze, and alongside the guild of bankers – who, in turn had their own financial networks – they were the powerhouses of wealth during this time. It was an era of prosperity and growth as well as the creation of beautiful art and literature. Who wouldn’t want to experience everything the Renaissance had to offer? It was during this time that some of my favorite fabrics of silk were introduced: lampas, brocades, and velvets. The silk industry experienced an expansion during the 15th century, which was much later than wool, but still a prominent part of this time period.

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