Oonagh Stransky

Oonagh Stransky is a translator of Italian literature and a producer of EVOO. Read about her work here: www.oonaghstransky.com

Articles by the author

ART + CULTURE

Pietro Lorenzetti Arezzo altarpiece restored to glory

Back in May 2016, I wrote an article for this newspaper about the restoration of Pietro Lorenzetti’s Arezzo altarpiece from 1320 by RICERCA Restauro, a group of three women who ...

COMMUNITY

A chat with Elise Chapin

Before Elise Chapin and I ever met, our mothers were friends. Looking back on their era—the late 50s and 60s in Somerset County, New Jersey—their lives seems so distant from ...

THINGS TO DO

As good as gold: Piero della Francesca

Patti Smith sings about Piero della Francesca in “Constantine’s Dream”. Cezanne, Seurat, De Chirico, Morandi, Guston and Hockney all found inspiration in Piero’s masterpieces. Camus sees the great artist as ...

THINGS TO DO

Casa Museo Bruschi’s Elisabetta Bidini

Oonagh Stransky, The Tuscan Times correspondent in Arezzo, interviews Elisabetta Bidini, the assistant director of Casa Museo Bruschi to find out what life is like behind the walls and in ...

THINGS TO DO

Giostra del Saracino, Arezzo

Take out your corsets, doublets, pantaloons and gowns. Don your jester hat. Get ready for the Arezzo Saracen joust: the most riveting historical sporting event to celebrate horses, men in ...

FOOD + WINE

How to be Nobile

THE PACT Town mayor Andrea Rossi and Andrea Natalini, president of the Consortium of Vino Nobile producers, signed a pact with Qualità e Sviluppo Rurale and Marconi University in Rome ...

THINGS TO DO

Ma l’amor mio non muore

Most of us are used to seeing contemporary art in neutral settings—large, open spaces with abundant light and neutral décor—allowing the viewer to concentrate on the work, absorb its strength ...

FOOD + WINE

Sabatini Gin: Spirit of Tuscany

With eight of the nine botanicals used for the production of Sabatini Gin coming straight from the gardens of the Sabatini family estate in Teccognano, near Cortona, and one coming ...

THINGS TO DO

What to do in Arezzo: a perfect weekend

During the June 2 maxi-ponte weekend, take a day trip and get to know Arezzo. At only 1 hour 20 minutes by train from Florence Santa Maria Novella, the city ...

ART + CULTURE

Pietro Lorenzetti altarpiece restoration in Arezzo

A plucky team of professional art restorers in Arezzo have recently decided to open their laboratory for a rare and valuable opportunity to witness the restoration of a fourteenth-century Pietro ...

THINGS TO DO

12 reasons to visit the Ivan Bruschi House Museum

In addition to being an eclectic cabinet of curiosities with more than 10,000 objets d’art and rarities, the Ivan Bruschi House Museum also hosts contemporary art exhibitions, live art restoration ...

FOOD + WINE

Aglione: the return of a giant

The entire Valdichiana, which extends from Arezzo to Lago Trasimeno and Lago di Chiusi to the southeast of Florence, is rich in history. Home to Etruscan settlements 2,500 years ago, ...

ART + CULTURE

Etruscans: Masters of Writing exhibition in Cortona

Sometime around 700 BCE, needing a system of writing to commemorate the dead, present gifts, autograph works of art, gifts, produce documents and record civil codes, the Etruscans appropriated an ...

FOOD + WINE

Talking oil with Nicholas Coleman

If you live in Tuscany, chances are you’ve been called on by friends to help with their olive harvest or you have olive trees yourself. If you’re here for a ...

THINGS TO DO

A chat with Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun

In 1996, Frances Mayes published Under the Tuscan Sun, a memoir about buying, renovating and living in an abandoned villa in rural Cortona. It went to number one on the ...

THINGS TO DO

Building The Tuscan Times Book Club

By now many of you will have heard about The Tuscan Times Book Club, which meets in Arezzo and in Cortona— and hopefully soon elsewhere. In Arezzo, we gather at none other than the elegant Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi, mentioned in my market article here. Director Lucio Misuri called

THINGS TO DO

Artisans and antiques at Arezzo Antique Fair

  Many people come to Arezzo to witness the beauty of Piero della Francesca’s frescoes or to see the birthplace of poet Petrarch or Vasari, the Medici architect. Some people ...

NEWS

Rondine Cittadella della Pace nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Rondine Cittadella della Pace, a small nonprofit association in Tuscany, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the vice president of the Italian chamber of deputies, Marina Sereni. The ...

ART + CULTURE

The man behind the move

ph. Phillip Toledano – ‘Maybe’   Now in its fifth year, the Cortona on the Move Festival is a summer-long celebration of photography. This always-astonishing mosaic of exhibitions, workshops, portfolio ...

Lifestyle

Interview with Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen

Weinberg performing at the Cortona Mix Festival   “The screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways, Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays…”   I’ve written ...

THINGS TO DO

Exploring Stia’s Wool Museum

With so many museums to visit in Florence—from the famous art galleries to cultural institutions, gardens, villas, chapels and historic homes—one might be forgiven for not venturing beyond the city limits. And yet, each town or city in Tuscany has a space devoted to something unique,

Lifestyle

The Letter

Editor's note: It is with great pleasure that The Florentine publishes the winner of the 2015 Short Story Contest. Organized with The Sigh Press, we received more than 60 entries from as far afield as Washington, Los Angeles and the south of France. Themes ranged from religion to love,

THINGS TO DO

Summer music festivals in Florence 2012

New Jersey, summer, late 1970s: heat wave, gas shortages, tube tops, soccer shorts, Pel?, Bjorn Borg, teenage awkwardness. I'm stuck in the back of my grandmother's VW hatchback with my two brothers. Literally stuck: the backs of my thighs are glued to the seat with sweat. We stop

Lifestyle

The third life of art

The idea of ‘live restorations' might seem an oxymoron: how can you bring life to a static object that, at the very most, is the product of an individual's creativity? Don't get me started on Eugenio Montale's theory about the second life of art, which suggests

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