This week, Villa La Pietra, an outstanding historical villa home of the New York University Florence program, launched its annual city-wide event “The Season”, a series of concerts, theater performances and readings with contemporary Italian and American authors.
The rich program of events will continue until August 7 and will feature readings from novels and poems as part of the NYU Creative Writing Department's program. Some of the readings will be held at Palazzo Strozzi in downtown Florence.
Besides literature, “The Season” features an interesting calendar of live music concerts and theater performances, including “Iliad: Guerrillas of Troy” performed by the Continuum Company of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts on June 19, an insight into Homer's epic through the eyes of English literature greats, from Alexander Pope to William Shakespeare.
The event will conclude on August 7 with Shakespeare's “The Tempest” presented by the Aquila Theater Company.
Set in the Montughi hills of Florence, Villa La Pietra dates back to the 15th century and was bequeathed to New York University and its School of Fine Arts by British-American scholar and writer Sir Harold Acton when he died in 1994.
Sir Acton's parents bought La Pietra in 1907, and laid out the villa and its grounds in the Renaissance revival style. Intellectuals and artists, as well as the British royals, were regular visitors.
Today, the villa functions as NYU’s Florentine study abroad campus, consisting of 5 historic villas and 57 acres of gardens and olive groves. Villa La Pietra, the Acton Collection, and the Garden are maintained as they were by the Acton family.
All events are free, but must be booked in advance. For further information, visit "The Season" website.
