Buried Alive

Discover Michelangelo's Best Kept Secret, Revealed after 446 Years

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Discover Michelangelo's Best Kept Secret, Revealed after 446 Years

Today I have something extra special to share. I'm going to take you inside a very secret hiding place. It was Michelangelo’s. And it dates to 1530. It is also the setting of our coming story app tour: In the Footsteps of Giants.

This hiding place was only discovered 40 years ago, after a veil of secrecy that lasted hundreds of years was finally, accidentally lifted.

It was found because the walls of the room are covered with original sketches... by the hand of the Maestro Michelangelo himself. 

But why, you might ask, was Michelangelo in hiding? 

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On History, Creativity, Serendipity, and Gelato

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On History, Creativity, Serendipity, and Gelato

Once upon a time, my memories of Florence fell to hunting for treasures in and around the top 10 tourist attractions with a four-year-old. And, of course, gelato. My favorite flavors were the citrus sorbets, like lemon, lime, and blood orange.

Then, exactly two years ago in April 2014, both my gelato preferences and my association with Florence changed. Radically. That's when Mary Hoffman and I, as co-faculty of Julie Hedlund’s Writer’s Renaissance, first brainstormed, over una coppetta di gelato tre gusti – this time cioccolato, pistachio, and nocciola, how we might bring my time traveler tour concept to life in Florence...

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Thinking of Going Digital? Here are Five Tips to Help you Pick the Perfect Development Partner

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Thinking of Going Digital? Here are Five Tips to Help you Pick the Perfect Development Partner

We’re Engaged!

Join me in welcoming OnCell, LLC, as Time Traveler Tours, LLC's new development partner!

Now some of you might be imagining a group of guys with various color pens lined up in their pocket protectors, repeatedly pushing thick rimmed glasses back up onto the bridges of their noses. Not Team OnCell. These peeps are young, dynamic, hip, creative, and anything but a boys club. They speak the languages of code and user experience design and visual storytelling. They have made it possible for me and Team TTT&T to bring our unique storytelling concept to you on the touchscreen device of your choice. Here are a few members of the OnCell team:

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Five Steps to Creating a Story-driven App Tour

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Five Steps to Creating a Story-driven App Tour

Eureka! We’ve cracked the code as to how weave a story into the fabric of a place!

If you’re an author wishing to write for us, a museum professional wishing to consult with us, an educator or parent wishing to time travel with us, or if you’re just plain interested, please read on…

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Walking in the Footsteps of Giants

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Walking in the Footsteps of Giants

I write to you from Florence, Italy, where I am walking in the footsteps of Giants, specifically Michelangelo's and his David. Actually, I’m sort of stumbling about after them. But I’m on their trail, and getting closer all the time.

I'm here to walk the tour route suggested by Mary Hoffman's manuscript for In the Footsteps of Giants and to begin the process of weaving her story into this extraordinary historic place.

I've spent the past year researching the man and his works, his life and his times, in anticipation of reaching this stage in the creation of our next Time Traveler Tour.

I feel oddly close to him as I wander the streets whose names and stories I already know.

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