Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Florence Highlights
Visit the world's most extraordinary collection of Renaissance paintings at the
Uffizi Gallery
(
Click
here
).
Admire sculptural tombs of Florentine luminaries and a Brunelleschi chapel at the
Basilica di Santa
Croce
(
Click here
).
Scale new heights inside the
duomo
(
Click here
): climb its dome and bell tower.
Contemplate the artistic genius of Fra' Angelico at
Museo di San Marco
(
Click here
).
Explore artisan workshops, where real Florentines live, work and meet for
aperitivi
(pre-dinner
drink), in
Oltrarno
(
Click here
).
Hike uphill to meet a copy of
David
and the most magnificent city panorama at the
Piazzale
Michelangelo
(
Click here
).
Escape the city heat for a day between olive groves and Roman ruins in hilltop
Fiesole
; lunch at
La
Reggia degli Etruschi
(
Click here
) and cycle back to Florence with the setting sun and local guide
Giovanni.
History
Florence's history stretches to the time of the Etruscans, who based themselves in Fiesole.
Julius Caesar founded the Roman colony of Florentia around 59 BC, making it a strategic
garrison on the narrowest crossing of the Arno in order to control the Via Flaminia linking
Rome to northern Italy and Gaul.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Florence fell to invading Goths, followed by
Lombards and Franks. The year AD 1000 marked a crucial turning point in the city's for-
tunes, when Margrave Ugo of Tuscany moved his capital from Lucca to Florence. In 1110
Florence became a free
comune
(city-state) and by 1138 it was ruled by 12 consuls, assisted
by the Consiglio di Cento (Council of One Hundred), whose members were drawn mainly
from the prosperous merchant class. Agitation among differing factions in the city led to
the appointment in 1207 of a foreign head of state called the
podestà ,
aloof in principle
from the plotting and wheeler-dealing of local cliques and alliances.
Medieval Florence was a wealthy, dynamic
comune,
one of Europe's leading financial,
banking and cultural centres, and a major player in the international wool, silk and leather
trades. The sizeable population of moneyed merchants and artisans began forming guilds
and patronising the growing number of artists who found lucrative commissions in this bur-
geoning city. But a political crisis was on the horizon.
