Released on = January 17, 2007, 9:11 am

Press Release Author = Candice Machado / ARTEH - Hotels and Resorts

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = The city of Florence, in Italy, is promoting for the 3rd
time in a row, the concept of winter in Florence. In actual fact, it is a local
initiative to bring life to tourism, in particular to emphasize a number of
cultural, artistic and social events of winter.

Press Release Body = Lisbon, 17th of January 2007 - Florence is the city of
Renaissance and Italian art. As a result of the industrial growth, the nobles made
considerable investments in art, making Florence worldwide recognized as the birth
of Renaissance. Home to some of the most famed monuments by artists like
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Giotto, who have made history.

Not only has art made history, but the writing as well. Throughout the streets of
Florence, Dante would imagine his Devine Comedy and Maquiavel's Prince, his
strategies.

This is a city where history is present in every corner, street or square.
Discovering each area in winter is the city's invitation for the cold days from
December to March.

About winter in Florence

For the third running year, in 2006, winter in Florence promotes the calendar of the
most interesting events scheduled for the winter season in Florence.

Winter in Florence's main goal is, in fact, to attract and channel the tide of
national and international tourists, improving the overall entertainment offer in
Florence. This is possible through the creation of new events and services, and a
coordinated plan of action, which clearly illustrates the calendar of the main
exhibitions and shows planned for the period between November 2006 and March 2007.

The main theme of the review will be once again the relationship between modern
art's boldness and the stylistic harmony of classical art, while also enhancing the
value of ancient traditions still alive in the historical quarters of the city, on
both sides of the river Arno.

Moreover, 2006 is the 40th anniversary of the flood: a tragic event in Florence
recent history, which has nevertheless become a symbolic example of the
extraordinary capacity that Florentines have to face disaster with such
determination to bring the city to a full rebirth in a relatively short time.

In order to underline just this concept and to remember it, Winter in Florence has
decided to join the City's town hall to install, on the 4th and 5th of November, a
series of light displays in the areas considered the most representative of the 1966
calamity. A luminous line will run from Ponte alle Grazie to Ponte Santa Trinita,
along the river's banks as if to contain it and to frame its itinerary.

The river Arno decorations will be lit again during all the Christmas holidays, when
another stunning display will enrich the city's décor in Piazza della Repubblica.
The sparkling Christmas tree, 15mt high and decorated by 16000 light bulbs, has been
donated by the Star hotel group and boasts the same lights as the famous tree of the
Rockefeller Centre in New York.

Also in Piazza della Repubblica, winter in Florence will set up an information booth
for both Florentines and tourists: Informainverno, through which it will be possible
to obtain information on everything that is happening in the city from exhibitions,
concerts, museums and every other entertainment event.

Source: Inverno a Frirense official website
About Florence

Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy.
From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Florence
lies on the Arno River and has a population of around 400,000 people, plus a
suburban population in excess of 200,000 persons. The greater area has some 956,000
people. A center of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often
considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and was long ruled by the
Medici family. Florence is also famous for its fine art and architecture. It is said
that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350
lived or worked in Florence. In fact, the city has also been called the Athens of
the Middle Ages.

Recorded history began with the establishment in 59 BC of a settlement for Roman
former soldiers, with the name Florentia (May She Flourish) . Julius Caesar had
allocated the fertile soil of the valley of the Arno to his veterans. They built a
castrum in a chessboard pattern of an army camp, with the main streets, the cardo
and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. This pattern
can still be found in the city center. Florentia was situated at the Via Cassia, the
main route between Rome and the North. Through this advantageous position, the
settlement could rapidly expand into an important commercial center. Emperor
Diocletian made Florentia capital of the province of Tuscia in the 3rd century AD.

Source wikipedia.org

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