Autumn and winter reveal an intimate and restful side to the region. Tinged with warm hues, the rolling hills lead you to a quiet and welcoming Florence that’s far from the frenetic pace of the high season, while historic villas, villages, and centuries-old residences breathe their authenticity once again. It’s against this backdrop that The Art of Winter, the new Tuscany for Weddings project promoted by Fondazione Destination Florence, comes to life, launching in November. Chiara Gheri deails more.
The Art of Winter was created with the ambition of telling the story of Florence in a less conventional season. What cultural and strategic vision guided Fondazione Destination Florence in building this project?
The cultural and strategic vision that guided Fondazione Destination Florence is rooted in the desire to present a more authentic and less conventional Florence, enhancing winter as a fascinating, intimate, and elegant season. The Art of Winter was created to promote a more balanced and sustainable tourism model, capable not only of redistributing visitor flows throughout the year, but also of strengthening the continuity and resilience of services, offering new opportunities to a business ecosystem that often operates intermittently over the year. An emotion-led storytelling approach that connects the territory, craftsmanship, and professionals, positioning Florence and the wider Florentine area as a destination of excellence even during less conventional months.
How does The Art of Winter seek to take a more contemporary focus, without losing the connection to the city’s deep-rooted identity?
The Art of Winter shifts attention away from major iconic symbols toward a more intimate and sensory narrative that enhances the lived experience of the territory. The city’s historical identity is reinterpreted by bringing to the forefront intimate dimensions, craftsmanship, local knowledge, and territorial operators, allowing visitors to experience the city from within and to tell the story of a living, productive culture, not merely a legacy of the past. The winter season is a time of slower rhythms and quality experiences: a contemporary approach aligned with a more conscious and less “hit-and-run” tourism. Through digital content and storytelling, the project uses current languages to present Florence in a new way, while maintaining a strong connection with its cultural identity.
The project fits into the debate on deseasonalization and the quality of tourism. What kind of audience does The Art of Winter reach, and what kind of city experience does it offer compared to more traditional tourism models?
The Art of Winter reaches a diverse audience: on the one hand, couples, families, and small groups seeking a more intimate and authentic experience; on the other, industry professionals, agencies, tour operators, wedding planners, and event professionals interested in enriching their winter offerings by exploring the potential of the territory and enhancing lesser-known experiences, places, and services. Compared to more traditional tourism models, the project proposes a city experience focused on quality, the enhancement of less conventional places, and strong dialogue with the territory. This approach strengthens deseasonalization and promotes a more balanced, sustainable form of tourism distributed throughout the year.
A central element is the involvement of cultural institutions, independent spaces, and local operators. How important was networking, and what kind of cultural ecosystem emerges from this collaboration?
Networking is fundamental to this project, bringing together institutions, operators representing event spaces, hotels, local agencies, tour operators, and industry suppliers. Within a shared project framework, it becomes possible to enhance diverse skills, places, and bodies of knowledge, strengthening the overall quality of the offer. This creates a widespread, collaborative cultural ecosystem that supports deseasonalization and makes the cultural and tourism system more robust and sustainable.
