"The Italian School"

Living in Florence is to live and breathe the air of renaissance in your everyday life.  The renaissance is in your everyday perspective, it's in your love of art, history, culture, architecture, design, and it's definitely in your food!  Beauty is everywhere!  I've lived in Paris, so I know more than just a little about "beauty"... Nonetheless, the "Renaissance lifestyle" in Firenze is very different than the beauty of Paris.  Living in a Renaissance time capsule is an experience that has completely changed the way I look at life.

My home environment located within the courtyard of the historical Brancacci Chapel, for example, is a museum and features the walls with artists from the renaissance such as Masaccio, Masolino and even Filippino Lippi. Inside the cathedral of Santa Maria del Carmine, the church bells (on the other side of my dining room wall) are constantly vibrating as I draw, paint, eat and drink good Italian food and wine in the tradition of the renaissance.

This home environment inside the Brancacci courtyard feels "ancient".  Infact, I often describe my Brancacci home environment, with its frescoed walls and ancient wooden beams and murals, like living in ancient Pompeii.  When I open my windows, there are constant concerts in the courtyard.  One of the consequences of living in a famous chapel, however, is that I find tourists looking up into my window and taking pictures of me, but I've accepted that it comes with the territory... Sometimes I just wave at tourists taking pictures of me as I look out my window.  This mural seen on the right is an original fresco that I see everyday while having dinner in my dining room here. Now let's return to my home in New England to see the influence that made living in Firenze is making in the "American in Paris" Gallery.

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