Art + Design
Manzù is undoubtedly one of the greatest 20th-century Italian sculptors. His work is displayed in the most prestigious galleries around the world – the Tate, the MoMa, the Guggenheim, the Hermitage, you name it. The Giacomo Manzù Foundation has transformed the artist’s stunning modernist home and studio in Ardea just outside Rome into a museum and sculpture garden. The museum contains around 200 pieces …
It’s not the first time that Italian furniture brand Cappellini duos with Walt Disney Signature home furnishings with exciting results. Earlier this year at the Salone del Mobile satellite event Milano Design Village they presented a ‘joint venture’ collection of chairs and stools inspired by Disney characters. Now it’s the turn of Tron, muscular armchair for urban warriors inspired by the Disney …
Never underestimate the power of the right lighting. Italian brands Artemide and Kartell provide lust-worthy options for design aficionados: their catalogues are filled with contemporary fluid shapes and pop-artsy coloured furniture and lamps. The Milan area holds some discounted surprises, well worth a little planning and waiting. Starting in the centre of town, try Emporio 31, a multibrand outlet where you …
If you happen to be on the Ponte Vecchio, well, get off the Ponte Vecchio. That’s for tourists with cheesy guidebooks that get updated once a decade! Our Urban Italy suggestion is to take a left from the Ponte Vecchio to the stunning new Gallery Hotel Art on Vicolo dell’Oro for an espresso, then walk along until you get to a …
The locals divide Florence into this side of the Arno and that side of the Arno. This side (the east bank to put it more simply) is where you’ll find most of the museums, the Duomo and the grandest Renaissance palazzi. That side is kind of rive gauche, with a less conventional feel in an area historically peopled by the working class and …
If you’re lucky enough to dispose of a stratospheric budget and are thinking of investing in a yacht, now is a good time to do it. Why? Because Frida Giannini, Gucci’s executive director, has been called in to customize Riva’s Aquariva yacht. Ok, so Gucci is actually owned by the French now, but Roman-born Giannini is still responsible for its …
French designer Yves Saint Laurent famously said “Fashions fade, style is eternal” and, let’s face it, he was probably right. Style is in many ways, the extension of our personalities and the way in which we choose to project ourselves in the eyes of ever-judging human beings. Essentially, style has little to do with labels. And this is why we …
All is not as it seems in the Tarot Garden, located in Garavicchio in southern Tuscany. Among the trees are weird and wonderful figures: a woman with a tiny head, huge body and wild blue hair; another bizarre form with two heads, one on top of the other. These distorted humanoids are Niki de Saint Phalle’s personal interpretation of tarot card figures. Her …
