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Florence Italy
Florence (Italian: Firenze) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy.
From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Florence lies on the Arno River and has a population of around 400,000 people, plus a suburban population in excess of 200,000 persons. The greater area has some 956,000 people. A center of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and was long ruled by the Medici family. Florence is also famous for its magnificent art and architecture. It is said that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350 lived or worked in Florence.[citation needed] The city has also been called the Athens of the Middle Ages.
The historic Center of Florence was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1982.
The hub of the Renaissance; one of the world’s most architecturally beautiful cities; with countless museums and galleries crammed with masterpieces; and with marvellous shopping and tremendous cuisine and restaurants; it’s perhaps unsurprising that Florence is also very busy with tourists. Yet choose your times well, and step a little way outside the well-trodden tourist paths, and you’ll get more from a visit to the city than … well almost anywhere on the planet.
A couple of big things in the visitors’ favour: though the city now spreads out along the Arno river and into the hills, most of the sights you’ll want to see lie within a half hour walk of the Duomo (cathedral) in the city centre. And with motorcars limited in the centre, rambling around looking at the sights is a lot more enjoyable than it used to be.
Florence was born in 59BC as a settlement for retired Roman soldiers and, over the next millennium, a small population struggled under successive Byzantine, Goth, Lombard and Frankish rule. The population began to grow from the tenth century, and the city was ruled by an autonomous commune from 1115, though internal feuds between the Ghibellines and Guelphs scarred Florence during the 13th century. But a strong merchant base, founded on wool and supported by a strong currency, (the florin) saw the city gradually overtake rival Pisa.
Now ruled by a merchant elite rather than the commune, powerful families such as the Albizi and then the Medici came to dominate Florence. With this oligarchy interrupted by spates of republican rule – influenced by the likes of radical Dominican prior Savonarola and that byword for political expediency Machiavelli – the history of Florence never ran smooth, but the city state grew ever stronger and richer.
Here is where Florence assumes its crucial role in European and world history. Experts in both trade and banking (the Medici were to finance many of the adventures that opened up trade routes around the world), the city grew staggeringly rich. The families liked to flaunt their wealth, and money was poured into patronage of the arts, as Florence became a home to artists, sculptors, architects and musicians. As scholars rediscovered the ancient literature and culture of Greece and Rome, Europe emerged from the Dark Ages; meanwhile the likes of Michelangelo, Donatello and Brunelleschi (and a hundred more whose works adorn Florence today) were pushing the representational arts to ever-greater heights. An explosion of intellectual energy in the city saw radical thinkers (such as Machiavelli), and the dissemination of their ideas via the new medium of printing. And the Florentines’ ever-growing expertise in developing banking, accountancy, and the creation of credit saw the whole system become ever richer. Florence was, arguably, the cradle of modern Europe and thence the United States – the way we paint our pictures, the way we do business, and the way we conduct our politics.
The Medici became hereditary dukes, and Florence part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, but the end of their line in 1737 saw the city consumed by Austria. In 1859 it was swallowed by the kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and just two years later Tuscany became part of the new country of Italy. For six years (until Rome joined the union) Florence was actually capital of Italy. 20th century Florence thrived on the back of tourism, financial services, heavy industry and its old staple – trade. Occupied by the Germans between 1943 and 1944, the city suffered the further misfortune of flooding in 1966, when the Arno burst its banks.
Today, even if much of Florence’s greatness lies in its history, the city is thriving. It has wonderful shopping, peaceful parks, excellent eating, an exhilarating atmosphere and breathtaking views.
When you aren’t taking in the works of artists and sculptors in churches, and galleries and museums such as the Uffizi and Accademia, you can wander amidst the luxury of world famous boutiques, watch craftsmen at work on traditional Florentine leatherwork, and peruse numerous bustling street markets. You can eat in the finest restaurants or in simple trattorie with delicious home cooking. Or buy the ingredients for a marvellous picnic at the Mercato Centrale or Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio, grab a bottle of Chianti, and take the lot to the Boboli Gardens or to the ramparts of the Belvedere Fort with its stunning views.
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