Hello, there. This is Emanuela from Accademia Riaci.
Today I would like to share with you this delicious idea of holding a Chocolate Festival in the center of Florence, Piazza della Repubblica.
In this cold season, a sweet bite of chocolate that gives you energy is exactly what you need! What is more, it is also the St. VALENTINE’s day!
Surely, lovers will be passing this day, giving sweet gifts to each other.

Hello, there. How are you?
It is very cold, so take care not to catch a cold (if you are in the norther hemisphere, of course).

Today, we would like to introduce our Sculpture course. 
In Accademia Riaci, the lessons of sculpture course are held mostly in actual sculpture laboratory!
It is like you become apprentice under Italian maestro.

You can study various materials, such as Frame Making (for paintings), Furniture Decoration, Wood Carving, Stone Sculpture, Clay Figure, etc. In the photos, you can see the works of our student who studies Furniture Decoration with our Art Short Course with Interpreter. Aren’t they beautiful?

The student commented:
“Thanks for a great experience. The work of grape was realized according to my desire to carve something with depth and decorative, and the maestro and I decided on grape as the theme…It was also useful to learn how to sharpen the chisel. The lessons were just as I wanted, and the maestro had a great personality, and I spent really fruitful 16 hours.”

She said that she would like to come back again next year, and she started saving budget already.
It is good to have a clear objective to plan a successful studying abroad, indeed, and we are happy to hear students wanting to come back.

As our lessons are held on individual basis (max. 8 students per professor) both those with experience and those without any previous experience can participate to our Sculpture course and get customized instructions!

If you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Accademia Riaci Staff

You can overview the city of Florence and lessons at Accademia Riaci. Check it out!
 

It’s Coooooooooold!!!
Here in Toscana, we are all half frozen! From the night of January 31st, it is snowing and the temperature has lowered under zero grades Celsius.

The morning of February 1st, I woke up to find the city of Florence as another world…all white! It was hard to believe my eyes, because in Tuscany, it is rare that it snows in the city.

Anyway, my awe continued when I arrived to the station; all the trains are delayed and no one had any idea when the train would depart… even the train mechanist said “I don’t know when it will depart, because the train conductor is gone!”

So, I was stuck in the train station for almost 2 hours, moving from one train to another (all still as ice), from one platform to another, together with other people in the station…why moving? Because people were in panic, and were eager to be on the first train that would depart.

-“Look! That train is preparing to depart!” Shouted one, and all the others were getting off their train and moving toward the other train.
-“No!, That other train is departing instead.” And people were running to another train. And people who had no idea saw people marching to another train, and joined the line. -“Why are they going toward that train?? Surely, it will be the first one to depart!! Let’s go!!!”

In the end, I remained in the same train and was able to go with less crowded train…. Patience wins in Italy, what with Italy or Italian…

Hello everyone! This is Emanuela from Accademia Riaci!

Did you know that in many regions in Italy, there is a tradition to make sausage, at home during January?  
It is the time for family to get together, and at the same time, we can enjoy home-made product that we never able to buy in stores.

Normally we prepare bunch of sausages at once because this process takes long hours, including preparation of meat, grinding, seasoning, then stuffing…  
Finally, we let them dry.  Here we go, best home-made “salsicca”!   Good appetite through winter!

*This tecnique is taught also in our Professional Cooking Course.

Hello, there. A Happy New Year!

Again, the centre of Florence offers us an opportunity to see exhibition in an open air to ease the cold winter days, if you opt for taking a walk: from 8^th January to 15^th January, you can take a walk in streets of city centre and simultaneously visit the exhibition of “Firenze&Fashion Art”. It is about mobile artworks realized by various artists of Graphic Street Art, and they are truly interesting!

This exhibition is dedicated to the theme of Fashion: in fact, it is not a coincidence that this exhibition is held in the period of the famous Pitti Immagine, the historical event of Fashion, to which experts from all over the world participates. Especially in the field of men’s fashion, this is the most important international platform.

It is very nice to stroll in the city these days, despite the cold, full of open-air arts and the participants to the international fashion event.

Hello, there! This is Nakaba from Accademia Riaci Florence.
The last time, I showed to you some photos of the city just started to dress up in Christmas mode.Now,
it is in full decoration all over the city.  This is photo taken in front of the Duomo,
with the decoration of the symbol of city of Florence.

The home-cooking lessons are teaching Christmas special dishes, they must be so delicious. In Italy,
there are traditional food for Christmas, as well as for New Years, I hope to show them in the blog sometime.

Among christmas gifts and sweets in the shops, you will see many underwear shops with red underwear.
Also, there is a superstition in Italy that if you wear red underwear on New Year’s eve, you will the next year happily.
That is why the underwear stores display red underwear all over. Not only couples,
but also friends and family members give each other red underwear.  

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Hello everyone!
As you may already know, the historical center of Florence is registered
as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982 …..
And this is one of the reasons why Accademia Riaci offers “Art Visits” for students of long-term courses (4 months or more).
Once a week, our students go out with a guide that shows various interesting locations in Florence, our beautiful city.
Students have the opportunity to deepen the artistic, cultural and historical knowledge of “Cradle of the Renaissance.”
The visits from last period was really exciting and popular among students:
Museum delle Pietre Dure (Museum of semi-precious stones), Orsanmichele (Orsanmichele Church),
Spedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of innocents) ….
Let me share with you a curiosity from last visit:
a bit peculiar name of the Spedale degli Innocenti comes from the episode of the biblical “Massacre of the Innocents.
” Today, in the tradition of fostering infants, the building hosts two kindergardens, a nursery,
and three group homes for the adopting children from families in difficulty, and also UNICEF research office.
In addition, since 1997, government has appointed the institute as the national centre for documentation
and analysis of children and adolescent, and also a centre of promotion for child care and children’s rights across Europe,
not only in Italy. Actually, among the most common surnames in Italy, such as Innocenti, Proietti, Esposti, and Esposito,
mean orphaned children.
The institute is located in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in the church of the Santissima Annunziata,
and the church has an ancient myth that an angel painted the ancient Annunciation fresco painting.
You might see young married couples offer flowers to the painting for fertility wish. On 25 March,
the Annunciation Day, they celebrate and sell traditional biscuits called “brigidini” in Annunciation Square.

   

  

Hello, there.

Today, we would like to introduce some of our school professors and staff.

Here we proudly present two of Accademia Riaci’s greatest maestros.

On the left is Prof.Fioroni who teaches Graphic Design,
and on the right is Prof. Angelo who teaches Shoe Making.

Prof.Fioroni teaches graphic design, on various themessuch as advertisement,
illustration, publishing design, package design, etc.
His character and earnest in teaching is very popular among students.

Prof.Angelo has experience in shoe making for more than 50 years,
and he is said to be the best maestro in Italy.
The shoes he made are sold for from $2,000 to more than $4,000, 
and his students are succeeding in all over the world.

The one behind is Prof. Daniele who teaches Jewelry Making.
This photo has been taken in a Pizzeria (Pizza restaurant) near the school.

He was born to a family that has prospered as jewelry maker for generations,
and he has started learning jewelry making and design at 14 years old.
He has since then mastered jewelry making techniques at highest level, 
including Florentine traditional techniques such as incisione and Florentine open work. 
His teaching style is thorough, and teaches to produce hand-made high quality jewelries
that cannot be reproduced by machine.

On his left is Prof.Sara who teaches Italian Language, and on his right is Prof.
Monica, who teaches painting. On the right is Emanuela, who’s in Accademia Riaci’s secretary office. 
She is very friendly and helpful.

At Accademia Riaci, there are much more teachers for each course,
all of whom are top-level working professionals.

Please come to Accademia Riaci in Florence to brush up your artistic skills and senses, 
with best professors and friendly staff.