India Calling: visual notes on India in Florence

Florence, 24 November 2025

The connection between Florence and India is rooted in the story of the young prince Rajaram Chuttraputti, who died in the city in 1870. His ashes were scattered at the confluence of the Arno and Mugnone rivers, the place from which the toponym L’Indiano originates. From this episode came the Monumento all'Indiano and the namesake Palazzina; about a century later, in 1972, the bridge of the same name was built, which still stands today as an iconic element of Florence’s urban landscape.

The project developed by the students of the Photography department at Accademia Italiana is part of this historical and cultural framework. The result is an exhibition that will be presented within the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, which renews this symbolic connection between the two cultures every year. The exhibition will be held on the occasion of the 25th edition of the festival, taking place at Cinema La Compagnia in Florence from December 5 to 10. Third-year Bachelor's Degree students and second-year Master's Degree students in Photography have explored and interpreted this heritage through a visual investigation that maps the presence of Indian culture in Florence and its surrounding area.

The visual journey moves through places where memory and contemporaneity meet: from the area of L’Indiano to the Gandhi Bridge over the Mugnone, and into the spaces where Indian culture is a living and evolving presence. Restaurants, shops, cultural and religious centres become fragments of a narrative that weaves together faces, stories, traditions, and everyday life.

The exhibition, titled India Calling, will be inaugurated on 5 December, during the opening night of the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival. It will be open to the public from 6 to 10 December, from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm, at the Cortile della Dogana, inside Palazzo Vecchio.

Admission to the exhibition is free, but we recommend registering at this link.

A visual journey that intertwines past and present, tradition and contemporaneity, memory and future. An invitation to look at Florence from a new perspective, through the eyes of young photographers who have captured the richness and nuance of a unique cultural encounter.