The Sigfrido Bartolini House (1932-2007) presents a mirror of this superlative, eclectic, and original artist: painter, engraver, and writer. This was the family home but first and foremost the studio and workshop for his many, varied activities, every room on the three levels of the house on Via Bigiano,5 is redolent of Sigfrido Bartolini. Arranged throughout the house are the Plaster Moulds (life-size) of Venus de Milo, the Aphrodite of Cyrene, and the Parthenon Frieze, attesting to his debt to classical antiquity; the collection of amphorae, coming from the various Italian regions to his admiration for the cultures of manual dexterity. The house became a Museum, allowing us to enter his world and that of Pinocchio, where the fairy-tale, illustrated by him in 309 black-and-white and coloured xylographies, mixes with concrete reality in the form of the artist's instruments: the chisels and gravers for wood-engraving; the work-bench with the wooden planks, printer's proofs, rollers, etc.; the model of the wooden puppet which he built, like Geppetto, in order to draw it; the objects which he depicted in the book to re-create the fantastic but very real world of Collodi's Tuscany; the press for copperplate- engraving and lithography. The Collection of paintings on the walls of the House is an intriguing and largely new itinerary through the artist's works: from large, detached Frescoes, to the fascinating Monotypes, from Xylographies and their related Stencil, to Oils; while also from maestri such as Sironi, De Chirico, Soffici, Maccari, Viani ect.. In short, the visitor is offered an original and fascinating permanent exhibition with nothing of the cold context of a museun display. The well-furnished Library, the Twentieth-century Magazine Collection, the Archive, and the Epistolary Archive of Sigfrido Bartolini offer both the curious visitor and the scholar a panorama and supporting records of that part of twentieth century Bartolini had a part in forming. Also on display are the 14 Modern Stained-glass Windows of Lead-bound Glass Tesserae which he created in 2005 for the Church of the Immacolata, some 200 metres from what is now his house and museum; they were to be the last large-scale project before his death.

In this “humble and glorious cottage” (according to the happy definition of the archivist and historian, Cesare Guasti), located in the still intact medieval village of Savignano, was born Lorenzo Bartolini on the snowy day of January 7, 1777.
At the age of twelve Lorenzo went to Florence to attend the Academy of Florence; at twenty he went to Paris then capital of the figurative arts. At the School of David, he befriended the young Ingres and received important commissions. In 1808 Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon, appointed him teacher of sculpture in the Academy of Carrara. When the empire fell, Bartolini moved to Florence. He was disliked for his past connections with Bonaparte and for his innovative character: sustaining the imitation of nature against the neoclassic academic taste. His most famous piece, Trust in God (1835, Milan Poldi Pezzoli Museum) was from this period: a reduced version of this work exists in the Cariprato collection (Prato, Palazzo degli Alberti Museum). He began teaching in the Florence Academy of the Fine Arts in 1837, where he resumed his anti-classics battle. By then famous, member of the Honour Legion and the French Institute for the Fine Arts, Lorenzo Bartolini was considered the real successor of Canova. His death in 1850 prevented him from finishing the monument to Columbus in Genoa and that of Prince Demidoff in Florence.
According to the narratives of Giorgio Vasari in his famous work, The Lives of the most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors, Bartolomeo della Porta was also born in Savignano in 1469, as a plaque placed byAntonio Marini in 1855 also recalls. Bartolomeo was a pupil of Cosimo Rossellini and a follower of the teachings of Girolamo Savonarola whose precepts of austerity influenced his artistic activities. (Text by Adriano Rigoli)

The marriage of Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett was carried out secretly in 1846, because of her father’s strong objections. The Brownings reached Florence when Elizabeth had already reached fame as a poetess, while her husband, who was several years younger, was as yet to become known. They were attracted by the history of the city, but also by the struggle for Italian independence.
The Brownings stayed in Florence for fourteen years, until the death of Elizabeth. They fit into the British colony of numerous ex-pats present there and befriended many famous Italians.
Elizabeth died in 1861 and was buried in the English Cemetery in Florence, which dedicated a plaque to her memory, describing her poetry as a golden band uniting Italy and England.
The home in Piazza San Felice was dubbed “Casa Guidi” by the writer herself to render the idea of a family residence. The Brownings purchased at a high price a few valuable pieces, but most of the paintings and furniture were bought at the Florentine secondhand stores. The décor was considered simple and functional.

The owners, Landmark Trust and Eton College, have attempted to maintain the original atmosphere and avoid that the apartment take on the appearance of a museum. Some of the furniture comes from the Barrett family and some from the Browning family, but on the whole the apartment remains as it was in the nineteenth century.

The XVI century  Palazzo Da Cepparello (later called “dei Da Verrazzano” and in the XIX century “dei Casamorata”), close in style to the type of buildings done by Giuliano da Sangallo and by Baccio d'Agnolo, was purchased in 1946 by the writer Piero Bargellini (1897 - 1980), becoming state apartments for fulfilling his literary and civic duties.
The Study is the most characteristic room, because it still has the ancient, remarkable dimensions and very high caisson ceilings. A magnificent cycle of six large XIV century frescos may be admired that were detached from the Chiesa delle Busche in Poggio alla Malva. However, it is not beauty that has made memorable these rooms, but the indefatigable activity of Bargellini. Appointed Councilor responsible for the Fine Arts from 1951 to 1956, Mayor of Florence in 1966, member of parliament for many years first in the Senate and then in the Chamber, his home was always open not only to friends, intellectuals and functionaries, but also to all Florentines who could ask him for advice or help. In the Study, where he worked up until the last day of his life, were written more than sixty books (Belvedere, I Santi del Giorno, Cento Tabernacoli a Florence, La Splendida Storia di Florence, Le Strade di Florence, I Medici), an incalculable number of essays, articles, prefaces, conferences, radio transmissions, and tens of thousands of letters.
For more than thirty years the Study was a stage for the encounter of writers and artists. Many were also personalities of cinema and theatre: Spadaro, Carla Fracci, Volonté, Rosi, Jean Gabin, René Clair, and Rossellini. In memory of this rich cultural life, in these rooms left unchanged, are exhibited hundreds of letters and inscriptions dedicated to Bargellini.

In January 1921 Gabriele d’Annunzio, a war hero who’d returned from the endeavour of Fiume, left Venice to reach his new “refuge” on the shore of Lake Garda: Villa Cargnacco in Gardone Riviera, which was “once property of [the] deceased Doctor Thode.

It is full of beautiful books and this opulence makes me tolerate the German traces I cannot easily suppress. The garden is mild, with its slope arbours and terraces. And the warm light makes me yearn for Rome. I will remain here for a few months, to finish the Notturno”, he wrote to his wife Maria Hardouin di Gallese.

He would not remain there for more than a few months, however, for the Poet decided to have his own house – his legendary houses were always rented – and so he bought the estate of Cargnacco, the cottages, the objects, the precious books which had belonged to Thode, and the garden, where the fragrance of the roses reminded him of the beloved atmospheres of his novel Il Piacere, set in Rome.
Amidst the lake’s tranquillity, d’Annunzio devoted himself to his last great work, which was composed of words and “living stones”, namely the transformation of Villa Cargnacco into the “Vittoriale degli Italiani”, a vast house-museum that he will love like “one of my poems, one of my dramas, any of my political or military acts, any of the proofs of my straight and undefeated faith”.

Casa Cuseni in Taormina was built by the English painter Robert Kitson at the beginning of the 900th and became soon an important International Artistic Centre. Von Gloeden, Alfred East, Albert Liberty, Charles Ashbee, Cecil Hunt, Frank Brangwyn, Charles Baskerville, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalì, Henry Moore, Ezra Pound, Tenneesse Williams, Rohal Dahl, Bertrand Russell, Greta Garbo are just few of the celebrities leaving here a memory of their stay.

The house keeps collections of paintings testifying the English Grand Tour in Sicily, and the famous Sir Frank Brangwyn’s dining-room, the only one existing in the world. In this secret room, Frank Brangwyn appears a mural representing homosexuality, in England at that time oppressed and persecuted, while in Taormina was free and protected.

An exceptional representation of a young male couple with an infant, the first civil partnership with adoption in the world art history; a shocking representation for the moral of the time, an issue still nowadays controversial. Casa Cuseni is nowadays official Museum of Fine Arts in Taormina. Its historical garden is part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani. The whole architectural complex, thanks to its high artistic and historic value, has been declared Italian National Monument.

The Isabella Scelsi Foundation houses the Casa Scelsi Museum, occupying 100 squared metres of the building and first opened to the public in 1996. The project derived from the express wish of the Maestro himself, who left not only his music, his poetry, and his writing, but also the place where he lived and worked for many years.

The apartment boasts an imposing panoramic view of the Forums. Inside, we find his piano (played by Scelsi the virtuoso and still in use), the legendary “ondiole”, the rare oriental miscellanea, the antique Tibetan trumpets (which were a souvenir from his travels in the Far East), and a copy of Dali’s celebrated diptych “Coppia con le teste piene di nuvole”. The original is in the Mart Museum of Trento and Rovereto. A beautiful flowered terrace gives visitors a charming view of Rome.

Giulio Turci’s house is located in Via Don Minzoni at No. 49 in the heart of Santarcangelo di Romagna. It is an attic built in the early 1960s, hidden on the roof of his family house, a building from the 20th century. It can be reached through a wooden staircase inside. Bright and discreet, it preserves the original character of the house, being filled as it is with objects, tools and personal belongings such as paintbrushes, colours, paintings, inks, spatulas, palette knives, chalks, easels, oil paints, books, records, toys, and essentially everything the artist loved. Turci chose this place in the early 1950s, after having lived in the old contrada, in Via della Cella, nearby the Rocca Malatestiana (Malatesta Fortress). Then he moved to the centre of the village, near the central square, eventually settling in this house at No. 49 of Via Don Minzoni.Even today it isrepresents the family gathering place, as his wife Anna Terza Giorgetti still lives in this house. The family takes care of the upkeep of the original furnishings and personal belongings. The artist’s life is still present within the rooms of this house-museum, as the artist personally chose the collection of paintings displayed on the walls, which date from the early 1940s up to his last works in 1978, along with their composition. The two floors on which the everyday life took place seem to present the same result: the artist’s life breathed and was fed on the daily experiences that are still encountered today. In this regard, we could almost smell the coffee wafting up from the kitchen into the attic, where two friends would sit, as if in a sparrow’s nest, whispering ideas on painting, music, the wind, and recollecting memories while out of the small windows they would gaze at the beauty of the hills, the distant mountains, the contrada and the ancient village... In May, the pleasant smell of the lime trees bordering the beautiful village avenue blends with the scents of oil paints or of turpentine.

Venturino Venturi’s house was built at the end of the 1960s. Today it preserves his artwork, along with an archive, photo library, media library and newspaper library. The artwork is displayed in every room of the house, just as Venturino left it. The house also contains a 20th century art library. Among the main artworks, there are: Donna Seduta, made in gypsum and whose bronze version is in the Uffizi Gallery; the bronze Silvana al Sole; the portrait of Giuseppe Ungaretti; the scale model of Pinocchio for Collodi’s park; and the studio, full of sculptures and charm, inspired Mario Luzi’s poem, ‘Atelier’, written for Venturino in 1978.