ItalyStories.com Michelangelo Buonarroti, born in 1475 in Caprese and raised largely in Florence, stands as one of the most formidable creative figures in the history of art. Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, he embodied the Renaissance ideal of the universally…
The Sculptor Who Brought Stone to Life ItalyStories.com Donatello changed sculpture before the Renaissance had even fully learned what it could become. Born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi in Florence around 1386, he belonged to the first generation of…
Poet of Beauty and Myth ItalyStories.com Sandro Botticelli painted some of the most beautiful and mysterious images of the Italian Renaissance. The Birth of Venus and Primavera have become universal symbols of Florence, of classical myth reborn, and of a…
ItalyStories.com — Great Italian Artists Masaccio's career lasted scarcely more than six years, yet he changed the direction of European painting. He died in 1428 at only twenty-six or twenty-seven, leaving behind a small body of work. But in those…
The Angelic Light of the Early Renaissance ItalyStories.com — Great Italian Artists Fra Angelico, born Guido di Pietro around the end of the fourteenth century in the Mugello region north of Florence, occupies a unique place in Renaissance art. He…
Storyteller of the Decameron ItalyStories.com — Great Italian Writers Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, probably in or near Florence, into a world in which merchants, bankers, clerics, nobles, and ambitious city republics were transforming medieval Italy. He would become…
The Mind Behind The Prince ItalyStories.com — Great Italian Writers Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469 into a republic famous for its art, wealth, factional rivalries, and political danger. Few names in history have acquired an adjective as…
The Father of Pinocchio ItalyStories.com Carlo Collodi is remembered throughout the world as the father of Pinocchio, yet behind that name stood a sharp, restless, politically engaged Tuscan writer whose life was far more varied than the fame of a…
The Poet of the Divine Comedy ItalyStories.com Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and became the writer through whom medieval Italy found one of its most powerful and enduring voices. Poet, political thinker, exile, philosopher, and creator of…
Fiona May’s story is one of movement, reinvention and belonging. Born in Slough, England, on 12 December 1969 to Jamaican parents, she grew up in Britain and first entered international athletics wearing the colors of Great Britain. Yet the country…