Florence is not only a capital of the arts, but a grand cultural lab, capable of welcoming and forming students and artists from all over the world. In fact, on February 5, the city welcomed five hundred American students in the Salone dei Cinquecento. In the majestic Palazzo Vecchio, symbol of city-life, mayor Dario Nardella, US Consul Benjamin Wohlauer and the President of Aacupi, Portia Prebys, presided over the Welcome Day; an annual initiative organized by the American universities in Florence to welcome the hundreds of young people who decide to spend an educational period in the city, enrolling in one of the 42 academic programs for foreigners active in the area.

Florence is the city of art par excellence: an interweaving of history and beauty that winds through the squares in the shadow of the most majestic Renaissance buildings in the world, or along the bustling walls of tourists whom crowd the cobbled streets to visit its symbolic museums. However, that's not all: the Tuscan capital is an epicenter of creativity and culture in constant evolution, which starts from a privileged perspective - that of the city steeped in history - to interpret present and future.

A few steps from the Duomo, in via Cavour, one of the main streets of Florence, stands Palazzo Niccolini, our school headquarters. We have already told you about the stories that have taken place between its walls, but what do we know about the great Tuscan dramatist after whom this building is named?

My name is Kyriaki, I come from Cyprus and I arrived in Florence in 2015 to study dance at the Accademia Europea di Firenze. If I were to select one of the key moments for my formative training here in Italy, I can’t help but think about the evening that marked the end of my studies. A real and true event, the "AEF Evening of the Arts: Dance, Opera and Fashion", at Teatro della Compagnia, where I danced and presented choreography, while Haelan Felton, a colleague from EKU, at AEF to study Fashion, designed the costumes.

Living and studying in Florence, a city steeped in history and art, means experiencing harmony and beauty first-hand. The AEF logo represents this sense of balance, with the Brunelleschi's Dome inscribed in the square and the circle of the Vitruvian Man, and the lettering positioned respecting the proportions of the golden section.