About
Hello and welcome to my site. Thanks for dropping by.
Welcome
Beyond Looking: Understanding Art, Understanding Life
Private guided visits in Florence, Rome & Siena — for those who want to experience a city, not just pass through it.
With Lior Aviv, PhD.
About
The language of art belongs to everyone — not only to those with academic or artistic training. In a certain way, we already speak it, because it is the same language we use every day to make sense of the world: stories, relationships, time, beauty, loss, power, devotion.
What I offer are private, customized visits focused not only on what to see, but on how to see. When we learn to truly observe rather than merely look, art becomes a direct conversation with people who lived centuries before us — and a mirror through which we can understand our own lives and times more clearly.
This is not a lecture, and it is not a city tour. It is a guided conversation between you, me, and what we encounter together. No prior knowledge of art is needed — only curiosity, and a genuine wish to come away with something that stays with you.
To get in touch with me:
email:
liorinfirenze@gmail.com
WhatsApp:
+39-329-8159160
Beyond all that, my book ‘Reading works of art, for and from Ourselves’ (Original Hebrew Publisher: Speaking Words Publishing) outlines ten Tools and ten Means of reading Art. To access in English (translation by Yaron Regev), the Introduction, First and Second Chapters (excluding images), you may use this link:
Available for you in English is an AI dialogue about the first chapter of my book, which was published in Hebrew by ‘Speaking Words.’ In the following podcast, two key principles for reading works of art and transition are emphasized. Enjoy listening.
Guided visits
Who this is for
My visits are for individuals, couples, families, and small groups who want to reach the deeper layer of a city like Florence, Rome, or Siena — and who value a private, unhurried experience. No art history background is needed or assumed. We begin from where you actually are.
What to expect
Each visit is tailored entirely to you — your interests, your pace, your questions. The visit shapes itself around its participants, not the other way around. We spend real time with what we encounter, whether inside a museum, a church, a medieval house, or on the streets of the city, always following a question rather than ticking off a list — and always with an eye on what the past illuminates about the world we live in today.
When the visit includes outdoor time in the city, it is never a general orientation — the streets, squares, and architecture speak the same language as the works we encounter indoors, and we read them the same way. Where a monument requires advance booking, this is arranged by the visitors directly with the relevant institution before our visit; entrance fees are paid directly to the monument as well.
Maximum group size: 7 people, so that every member of the group is fully part of the experience.
