March 2027

No class

Nothing is taught: you practice, or you watch how it's done. Someone who just started dances with someone who's been at it for twenty years.

Even if you don't dance

The Banco A Ristoro is open, the kitchen is cooking, and sitting down doesn't commit you to anything.

What it is

The 5 Rhythms are a movement practice born in the Seventies from Gabrielle Roth. There are no figures or choreographies to learn: you follow the music through five rhythms — flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness — which one after the other form a wave. You dance on your own and among others, and everyone moves however it comes.

No rush

A moment made for taking your time and sharing it, in a space that's elegant, unusual and welcoming.

Book a table

From 12:00 to 3:30 pm. If you're coming as a group you can book, and you should: the second Sunday the lounge fills up.

From the outside you see little

The legs stay close and almost everything happens in the weight and the connection to the floor: that's how the pioneers told it apart from “dancing for spectators.” It's a dance that gives more than it promises when you watch it, and you only get it by trying it.

Four afternoons a season

One in November, one in January, one in March and one in May, always on a Sunday. From 2 to 4 pm the first level, for anyone who has never done Balboa; from 4:30 to 5:30 pm an open class on one topic, for those who have. The afternoon social dance starts at 5 pm.

What it is

Seven Sundays of dancing in the afternoon instead of the evening. Five have a theme — the opening, the newcomers, the showcase, Valentine's Day, the competition — the other two are just themselves: music, dancing and the counter open.

Then you stay

Drinks and snacks are included, and so are the icebreaker games. The swing night follows.

Who comes

Students, expats, people here on Erasmus, travelers — and anyone who wants to meet new people in Florence.

What it is

A Sunday in March at the table, in a setup that shouts spring. The dress code is simple: one radiant color, solid.

From three to seven

The afternoon runs from 3 to 7 pm, and inside it you move around: you come for one thing and stay for another.

What goes on

The constant is the Circolo di Lettura. The others change and take turns — pastry, sewing and embroidery, painting, sign language — and any Saturday can bring a new one.

It ends at the table

Every session ends with a friendly aperitivo, the moment when people who didn't know each other start talking.

The first book

“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grow up in a boarding school in the English countryside, where everything seems safe and in order.

A truth that arrives slowly

Ishiguro doesn't need plot twists: the novel's strength is the calm with which it leads you toward something that becomes hard to ignore.

After the meeting

Anyone who wants to stops by the Banco A Ristoro for a drink and keeps the conversation going. The pages matter, says Giulia, but the conversations matter even more.