Marco Tofani, a business man from Prato who works in the textile industry.That’s one side of his personality. He is not only a passionate historian who believes in the cycles of life, but he's also interested in history and goes to cemeteries thriving to attempt to understand something about the people beyond their grave stones. Marco always questioned what had happened to the soldiers after the second world war, were their loved ones informed, were their records found, what happened to those foreign soldiers who had died on Italian soil? One grave stone in particular at the American cemetery in San Casciano caught his eye:

John Spiegel was his name
From New Jersey he came
In Udine he was shot down
Today in the Falciani cemetery
John Spiegel’s name is found

It’s not the Spoon River Anthology, but Marco Tofani who would make annual visits to the American Cemetery in San Casciano, starting from the sixties.
Certain tombs caught his interest. He would always go back to them, year after year … He would eventually get acquainted with their names and was always interested in their unwritten stories ...until one day he actually found the nephew of Sergent John Spiegel…

Giuliana Paolieri, founder of the Associazione Fabio Jonathon, onlus

Following the accidental death of her son, Giuliana Paolieri found herself at a crossroad to "go mad or react."  She chose to react  ". . . [it's] certainly easier to let go and be overwhelmed by things. Reacting means making a huge effort to collect what is left of you and reduce it to something or someone. No matter what, the important thing is to act."

She choose Sri Lanka as the focus for transforming her personal pain into a beautiful service and has been working to help improve the lives of children and families there since 2006. In 2009, Giuliana started the Associazione Fabio Jonathon to realize her goal of building a school for them.  When accepting our invitation to speak this is what she wrote:   "It is unbelievable how the human being can find the strength to transform a pain into a positive act, when you feel so bad you deeply need to do something to realize you are still alive and you can be useful to someone else."  Giuliana will be sharing her journey with us.

Francesco Civita, curator of the Japanese collection in the Stibbert Musem will be speaking to us on THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE SAMURAI CULTURE.

Ever wonder what all the women were doing while men were waging wars?

Ever wonder what it might have been like to a female warrior?

Ever wonder if there were women samurai?

Well, wonder no more because these questions and more will be answered March 14th when Francesco Civita, curator of the Japanese collection in the Stibbert Musem will be speaking to us about the role of women in the samurai culture.

Malò dal Verme, whose small farm, about a mile down a dirt road from Poggio alla Croce, between Greve and Figline, is perched on a hilltop wedge shaped like the bow of a ship, with spectacular views over the Arno valley and of the mountains of Pratomagno and the Appenines. This delightful place specializes in producing extravirgin olive oil and irises (although they also have very photogenic chickens!) Malò will tell us how she renovated her farm and restored the olive groves, devastated by the freeze of 1986. 
We’ll be able to taste the results, and learn the nitty-gritty about olive oil since she is also a professional olive oil sommelier. We’ll also see and hear about two of her other “products”; irises, which are used to create high-end perfumes and cosmetics, and traditional woven baskets, the art of which she learned from an ancient Tuscan basket weaver named Giotto (!). During the restoration of her farmhouse, the central part of which dates from the 11th century, Malò created two charming small apartments on the ground floor which host guests who come to completely relax or to take part in the activities of the farm (an agritourism with the emphasis on agri!) 
To read more you can visit www.poggiopratelli.it but better yet, come and experience Malò in person! 

SIMONE TADDEI  8th generation Florentine will be bring a piece of his leather workshop to our meeting.  He will demonstrate how he makes his beautiful hand-crafted leather boxes using traditional Florentine products and techniques that he learned from his father who learned from his father.   So in essence we will have three generations of tradition present.  Simone is an interesting man and a true Renaissance man. It will be a fascinating and fun evening, so do plan to come hear his presentation on the Renaissance craft of leather box making! 

Taddei Leather
via Santa Margherita, 24
50122 Florence
055 2398960