Born and raised in Catania, between the sea and Mount Etna, Francesca graduated with a degree in Art History with a thesis on Italian maiolica. She continued to cultivate her passion for this decorative art form by studying the scientific aspects of ceramics. After a masters course and a specialization, she currently is completing a Ph.D on the application of archeometry to cultural heritage and is working as a junior researcher at the National Research Centre. She firmly believes in transmitting her study findings, and therefore finds herself teaching at various levels. Gifted with a communicative and organizational spirit, Francesca also cooperates in the setting up of exhibitions and events; she recently has acquired experience with creating events and educational material, especially for children.

Niall Atkinson is completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in the social history of Florentine urban space in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. From 2004-2006 he was the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, during which he delivered papers on the reception of urban space, social insurrection, and the soundscape of Renaissance Florence.

Originally from the U.S., Anne Barbetti came to Florence many years ago to study art history at the University of Florence. She became enmeshed in a long-term project researching Renaissance and Baroque embroidered fabrics, during which she has personally uncovered many hitherto unknown collections of antique fabrics. She is currently working on a catalog and book based on this work.

Sheila completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2002, in the field of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. She has published and lectured extensively on Italian plagues and plague art since writing her dissertation on the topic. She has also undertaken the study of the influence of the Italian Old Masters on 19th century American art.The history of medicine in the 16th and 17th centuries is her current area of research, and to this end she is working on a book entitled "Drinking for Health in Renaissance Italy: Waters and Wines in Science, Art, and Society."

Filippo Bartolotta, a wine journalist, holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Florence and a Diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust of London. Bartolotta teaches various aspects of wine at the University of Siena, writes for major European and American wine publications, and serves as one of Decanter Magazine's and IWCC's wine tasters. He is the editor of the English version of L'Espresso Italian Wine Guide and also owns his own company, Le Baccanti, which does various wine excursions and tastings in Tuscany.

Originally from Germany, Christine Bekker holds an international B.A. in European Civilization from Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland and an M.A. in Art History from Gottingen University in Germany. For the past four years, she has been living in Florence, where she is preparing her doctoral dissertation on the religious iconography of Medieval Italian floor mosaics and engaging in a range of scholarly interests that include work on medieval world maps and Italian palace architecture.

Monica Berce was born in Trieste, a city by the sea in northeast Italy. She moved to the hills of Florence more than ten years ago to study textile conservation. Since then, she has worked as a textile and leather conservationist in both Florence and Rome, and now owns her own conservation company. She has had the privilege to work on some of the most important Italian tapestry and textile collections of the Pitti Palace, Uffizi Gallery and Quirinale Palace. Monica graduated with a degree in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine, specializing in the History of Decorative Arts at the University of Florence and did additional training at the Leather Conservation Centre of Northampton. Presently, she is attending a post-graduate course in History of Fine Arts Education. She continues to study and write on interior decoration, particularly tapestries and gilt leather. She hopes to pass on her love for the arts to her little boy, Neri.

Originally from Pisa, Erika Bianchi holds a degree in Classics and a doctorate in Ancient History from the University of Florence. She is particularly interested in the history and politics of classical Athens and imperial Rome and Greek and Roman historiography. Currently, Bianchi teaches Roman History for various American universities in Florence and Rome. Besides publishing several articles in national and international reviews, she has also become a novel-translator for an important Italian publishing company.

Elizabeth Ann Butler recently received her Masters degree in Florentine Renaissance Art from Syracuse University in Florence. Her interests include women's history, as well as women artists, particularly by women in convents. In addition to leading walks, she also lectures at various universities and institutions in Florence.

Cornelia Danielson has a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation on Renaissance city planning. She is especially knowledgeable about Medici patronage. In addition to her research and teaching, Cornelia, a mother of a disabled child, runs an association dedicated to barrier-free travel in Florence and is author of "The Accessible Guide to Florence."

Dr. Waldemar H. de Boer completed his Ph.D. on a 17th century art guide of Vicenza at the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence in 2005. Nowadays, he is conducting post-doctoral research on 19th and early 20th century art auctions in Italy, teaches Florentine Renaissance art and architecture to study abroad students at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai and also works as a private art history teacher.

Slow Food Florence is the local convivium of Slow Food - a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

Sean Forester is a painter, poet, and lecturer based in Florence. Originally from San Francisco, he has a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College. The St. John's "Great Books Program", a study of the Western classics using Socratic inquiry, provides an ideal background for understanding Dante, Leonardo, and other Florentine masters. A Rotary Scholar, Sean received his M.A. in English Literature from Cambridge University before coming to Florence five years ago. He is Director of Art History and Humanities at the Florence Academy of Art where he studies old master techniques of oil painting. Sean draws upon his experience as an artist and writer when leading walking seminars for Context.

Dr. Andrea Galdy completed her Ph.D. "Con bellissimo ordine", on the antiquities in the collection of Cosimo I de' Medici at the University of Manchester (forthcoming with Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2008). Andrea is one of the three founders of the working group Collecting & Display (100 B.C. to A.D. 1700) based at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and has been teaching at Florence University of the Arts since June 2006.

Mary Hewlett was born and educated in the United Kingdom before obtaining her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She taught at universities in the United States and Canada as a professor of European History with a special interest in the social and sexual history of the Italian Renaissance, before moving to Lucca, where she continues her historical research. Her most recent publication deals with a brave but unfortunate hero of Lucca. She is currently working on a semi-autobiographical work about her research experiences in Italy and on a children's book about a stray dog.

Allison Levy holds a Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. Her specialty is Florentine visual culture and, within that broad theme, portraiture and representations of the body. She is the editor of Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe (2003), winner of the Society of Early Modern Women Book Award; and author of Re-membering Masculinity in Early Modern Florence: Widowed Bodies, Mourning and Portraiture (2006). Her third book is a collection of essays on sex and sexuality in Renaissance Italy (forthcoming, 2009). She is currently studying the art of misbehavior. Professor Levy has taught at Bryn Mawr, Tulane University, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, University College London and, in Florence, at The Institute at Palazzo Rucellai.

Alessandra Marchetti is a native Florentine. She received her Masters degree from the University of East Anglia in the UK, and has been lecturing and guiding in Florence for nearly ten years. She lived many years in the United States before returning to Florence and her little house in Settignano that was once owned by Michelangelo.

Riccardo Margheri, wine sommelier since 2002, has written for top wine publications as well as participated in tastings for the Espresso Wine Guide and the De Agostini Guida ai Vini Buoni d'Italia. Riccardo has also traveled extensively, tasting wines of many lands and adding to his already prestigious reputation.

Emma Molignoni earned her master's degree in art history from the Warburg Postgraduate Institute of the University of London, with a special interest in early Renaissance art. In addition to leading walks for Context Florence, she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Florence.

Elizabeth Molina holds a B.A. in the history of art and education, and an MA from the University of Massachusetts in the history of art. Her primary area of research has focused on Florentine fifteenth century cassoni depicting Petrarch's Triumphs and Boccaccio's Decameron. After teaching at the University of Massachusetts and working in the Smith College Imaging Center she is most interested in merging the history of art and the public sector.

Lucia Montuschi is a University of Florence Ph.D. art historian, who completed her thesis on Eastern art. She's worked in the many state museums of Florence, with a particular focus on art therapy. She's also taught for Pepperdine University and the International Art University. Currently, Lucia teaches Venetian art at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Florence. Lucia's a charming, extremely knowledgeable docent and a lover of ideas.

Frank Nero is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching fellow in Renaissance art history at the Florida State University's campus in Florence. He is currently researching his dissertation which deals primarily with the function, symbolism, and patronage of glazed terracotta sculpture in the charitable institutions of Renaissance Tuscany. Frank's general field of research centers upon how the disenfranchised classes of the Italian Renaissance were depicted in the visual culture of the period. His minor area of study is the art of the Italian avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. Frank is also an instructor and chair of faculty at the Center for Academic Programs Abroad, a consortium of American universities in Florence. He has been married to a Florentine since 2003 and has lived off-and-on in Florence since 1998.

Valerie Romana Niemeyer received her B.A. degree with highest honors in art history and museology at the University of Florence, focusing on the Renaissance art market. Although German, Valerie was born and brought up in Rome, making her eager to build bridges across different cultures. Niemeyer also works for the educational department of the state museums in Florence. Her mission is to communicate art and culture as a means of understanding the visual signs that surround us.

Jane Nyhan first came to Florence as an undergraduate art student at the Maryland Insitute of Art. She fell in love with the city, the region, and an Italian man; and returned soon after to continue her graduate studies at the University of Florence and settle. Jane spends a lot of her time outside of the city, leading groups on trekking holidays through Tuscany; and therefore has gained a broad knowledge not only of the art and artistic traditions of Tuscany but the entire cultural context of the region. She lives with her husband and their two children in the Mugello area north of Florence.

Cristina Pinton, a studio artist and teacher, has received a BFA in Photography/Printmaking, an MSAE in Art Education, and an MA in Printmaking/Book Arts from the Scuola di Grafica in Venice, Italy. Originally from Connecticut, she moved to Florence in 2004 to create a renewed familial, emotional, and artistic relationship with the Italian culture that her father, originally from the Veneto, first shared with her. Cristina currently teaches photography, sculpture and drawing courses at a private study abroad program in Florence. She has exhibited her art work in Venice, Rome and Florence and is both inspired and challenged by her experiences abroad, especially with the idea of identity in relationship to travel, personal history, memory, childhood, and culture.

Sally Quinn received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Western Australia in 2004 and specialises in 16th century Italian art history and theory. She wrote her dissertation on the critical reception of Italian women artists in early modern Italy with particular focus on the writing of Giorgio Vasari. In 2001, she was awarded the Harold Wright Scholarship for study in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum and has also undertaken extensive research in Bolognese archives under an Italian Government scholarship. Sally has worked as a curator and academic in major Australian institutions and published in areas ranging from early modern sculpture to contemporary Australian painting. She is currently undertaking research on 16th century Bolognese sculptor Properzia de' Rossi.

Hector is a Scottish-born artist living in Florence, Italy, who began his training in 1985 under Leonard Pardon in London. In 1995, he specialized in the ancient art of fresco painting, participating in the leading course of its type in the world, at the Laboratorio Per a fresco Tintori in Vainella, Prato, Italy. Upon graduation, he moved to Florence where he further deepened his skills of the old technique of gilding, and in 1997 he returned to Vainella to further his studies of auxiliary tempera painting. His style has developed to include the complete spectrum of fresco and mural techniques - from Roman fresco painting to early Renaissance and Baroque, as well as reinterpreting his expertise in a contemporary fashion. He has completed many works for private clients in Italy, Great Britain, Portugal and the U.S., and is a regular participant in International Competitions. In 2002 he was awarded the Silver Medal at the prestigious "Omaggio a Masaccio" in Valdarno.

Originally from Siena, Luca Santiccioli has lived in Florence since college. Luca studied the history and restoration of monuments at the University of Florence and restoration of historical gardens and parks in Siena. Luca was also co-author of the "Guide to Villa Demidoff and the Pratolino Park." He has continued to study Florentine traditions, arts and crafts, collaborating with the Agency of Tourism on the initiative "Re-Discovering the craftsmen of the Oltrarno." Over the past 5 years, Luca has collaborated in several projects focused on the relationship between artisan skill and local traditional tastes in Tuscan food specialties.

Since opening her own restoration workshop in 1986, Bettina Schindler has been able to focus on her specialty of restoring antiques in ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, horn, wood and other natural materials. She has been featured in museums such as the Bargello and Museo degli Argenti in Pitti Palace, among others. Bettina has studied and taught at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (State Institute for Restoration and Conservation), and teaches conservation and restoration for the Washington University in Saint Louis. Her workshop is situated in the San Niccolo neighborhood, in one of the most ancient constructions in town.

Born in Siena, Stella Soldani received her B.A. in humanities from the University of Siena and her MBA in tourism economics from Bocconi University in Milan. At the conclusion of her studies, Stella received an MPS grant to study art and anthropology in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Her interest in culture and art eventually led her back to Europe where she worked for Kult magazine (Milan) as a film critic covering the Berlin and Cannes film festivals. Fluent in Italian, English, French, and Spanish, Stella lives in Siena with her Spanish husband Jaume and their daughter Blanca, and their son, Elias. When she's not exploring the cultural treasures of Siena or leading one of Context Florence's itineraries in the countryside (she is a truffle hunter par excellent), Stella writes a regular column for the Chianti News. She's currently researching the use and development of the pilgrimage trail, the Via Francigena.

After traveling extensively through Europe, Linda arrived in Florence to study Italian at the Institute of Dante Alighieri. Her love for the city led her to remain and continue studies as a certified guide. She has worked throughout Italy, specializing in active, gourmet excursions and organizing trips in Sicily, Puglia, Umbria, Veneto and Tuscany. She also has completed her second level sommelier certification with the AIS Association of Italian Sommeliers.

Kristin Stasiowski is originally from Wellesley, MA and is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University in the Department of Italian Language and Literature. Her first taste of Italy came during a semester in Florence with the Georgetown University program at Villa Le Balze, where she developed her love of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. After teaching Italian at Yale University, Kristin returned to Florence, where she is currently researching and writing her dissertation on the Italian poet Clemente Rebora. In addition to leading walks for Context Florence, she regularly takes groups of students to Siena to participate in the Palio from the "inside" with the Contrada dell'Onda, into which she was 'baptized' in June 2006.

Allie Terry received her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art History from the University of Chicago in 2005, and is now a professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Her research focuses on fifteenth-century Florentine art and politics, and she has published on topics ranging from Medici patronage to Renaissance torture objects. Currently, she is completing a book on Ritual Frames of Humanist Viewing: Fra Angelico and the Library of San Marco and is performing new research on the viewing experience of the Renaissance criminal.

Maurizio Tocchioni studied architecture at the University of Florence. He led itineraries in Florence and Pisa for several years, before joining Context Florence. He is interested in the social and political realities behind art and architecture, and how one can use these as tool to understand culture.

Jane Zaloga is working on her dissertation for a Ph.D. in architectural history from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. She currently teaches art history and architectural history as an adjunct faculty member at Syracuse University and New York University. She has lived in Florence for ten years, and has a young daughter named Olivia.