Florence (Firenze in Italian), founded in 59 BC as the Roman colony of Florentia on the site of an Etruscan settlement is widely, and rightfully, regarded as the cradle of of the Renaissance. And indeed, during the early days of the Medici rule (between the 15th and the 16th century) Florence reached amazing levels of economic and cultural development. Florence’s historic centre currently covers about 505 hectares and its borders are the remains of the 14th century city walls with their gates, towers and the two surviving Medici strongholds: the Fortress of Saint John the Baptist, widely known as “Fortezza da basso” on the North and the Fort of San Giorgio del Belvedere nested among the hills on the South. The Arno River runs through the city, flowing from East to West with a series of bridges including Ponte Vecchio and Ponte Santa Trinità crossing it and linking the two shores. The Historic Centre of Florence can easily be perceived as a unique social and urban entity, the result of seven hundred years of Florence’s flourishing cultural and artistic creativity and glory, all joined together in a multi-layered yet easily readable ensemble of the city’s squares, palaces, churches, museums and monuments such as the fourteenth-century Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Church of Santa Croce, Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Pitti and also the countless masterpieces by great painters and sculptors such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Michelangelo and many others whose importance is equal, if not greater to that of the architectural works. The influence of Florence in the evolution of architecture, art and culture in Italy and throughout Europe has been enormous, as Florence was the cradle and mine of exceptional talents in many fields and it is thanks to them that the city acquired and consolidated its absolute uniqueness.

[expand title=”The Capital of Italian art”]

Between the 15th and 16th century, under the aristocratic rule of the Medici family, the city reached its peak becoming the home of some of the most important artists and intellectuals of the time. Painters such as Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Sandro Botticelli and Raphael; architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti; sculptors such as Luca della Robbia; writers and musicians such as Poliziano and Landino and eclectic, versatile artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo Da Vinci created some of the most important masterpieces of human genius and intelligence in Florence. In addition to artists Florence was also home to intellectuals of the utmost renown like Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, which can rightly be considered among the makers and shapers of the very concepts of “Humanism” and “Renaissance.” In 1982, Florence was one of the earliest Italian cities to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, due to its importance in the field of town-planning, architecture and art in general.[/expand]

[expand title=”A glorious past, as the heart of Renaissance politics”]

Florence had been a powerful commune and republic but it reached its true glory under the leadership of the Medici family. The powerful Signoria, who ruled the city up until the 18th century, had amazing foresight and chose to sponsor and support the arts and culture as a means to magnify Florence’s own greatness. Lorenzo de’ Medici, also called the Magnificent (1449-1492) is the brightest example of the Medici patronage. An excellent politician, humanist intellectual and prodigal patron, under Lorenzo Florence became a vital player, the only force capable of tipping, maintaining or restoring balance in the delicate scenario of Italian 15th century politics.[/expand]

[expand title=”An astoundingly long list of Monuments”]

Florence is an amazing city where public and religious spaces are juxtaposed and sometimes even overlap. Piazza del Duomo is the spiritual centre of the city. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, often called simply the Duomo, dominated by the imposing dome (by Filippo Brunelleschi), and together with the Giotto bell tower and the Baptistery of San Giovanni fill the square with their majesty. Near the square the basilicas of Santa Maria Novella , San Lorenzo and Santa Croce together form an amazing landscape of the major church complexes on the right bank on the Arno. Piazza della Signoria, home of Florence’s main administrative centre, is dominated by the imposing silhouette of the so-called Palazzo Vecchio which for centuries was the seat of political and aristocratic power and which also is home to some of the most important works of Renaissance sculpture. In addition to that replicas of statues by Benvenuto Cellini, Donatello, Michelangelo, Giambologna and Bandinelli can be found on the Arengario of the palace, near the entrance or sheltered by the Loggia della Signoria (also called “Loggia dei Lanzi”) lodge (the originals are kept in various museums in Florence). To the South of the square, connected to the Palace through the Vasari Corridor (a covered elevated walkway that leads to Forte Belvedere), the Uffizi Museum Complex contains masterpieces by Giotto, Cimabue, Donatello, Leonardo, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio and several other artists, covering a time span ranging from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, as well as ancient Roman and Hellenistic copies of original Greek sculptures. Ponte Vecchio, with its rich, prestigious goldsmith and silversmith shops connects the right bank with the Oltrarno district where Palazzo Pitti, home of the Medici family from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, is located. The garden of the palace, known as “Giardino di Boboli” (Boboli garden) is one of the most beautiful and famous examples of Italian garden decorated with sculptures from various ages, from ancient Rome to the contemporary age. The most important spiritual centres of Oltrarno are definitely the Santo Spirito and Carmine basilicas with the famous frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino.[/expand]