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Florence, Firenze in Italian, is the capital of Tuscany, laid out on both banks of the Arno where the river leaves the hills for the plain. Its guilds made it: wool and silk merchants, bankers and goldsmiths whose wealth paid for the domes, chapels and palazzi that still define the centro storico, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
The cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the city's fixed point. Brunelleschi raised its dome between 1420 and 1436 without timber centring, and it remains the largest brick dome ever built. Beside it stand Giotto's campanile, clad in white, green and pink marble, and the octagonal Baptistery of San Giovanni, whose gilded east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti Michelangelo is said to have named the Gates of Paradise. A short walk south, Piazza della Signoria holds Florence's civic story: the battlemented Palazzo Vecchio, begun in 1299, the Loggia dei Lanzi with Cellini's bronze Perseus, and the Uffizi, where the collection runs from Botticelli's Birth of Venus to Caravaggio's Medusa.
Across the river, the Oltrarno keeps a working rhythm. Leather workers, gilders, furniture restorers and goldsmiths still work near Santo Spirito, one of Brunelleschi's late churches, and in San Frediano, the more lived-in quarter out towards the old city gate. Via Maggio holds the antique dealers, and the Medici's Palazzo Pitti, with the Boboli Gardens behind it, closes the district to the south.
The twentieth century added its own chapter. Santa Maria Novella station, completed in 1935 by Giovanni Michelucci and the Gruppo Toscano, is counted among Italy's finest modernist buildings, and Pier Luigi Nervi's concrete stadium dates from the same decade. The Accademia di Belle Arti traces its origins to the Accademia del Disegno founded in 1563, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale on the riverbank holds one of the largest collections of books in Italy. Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo Novecento now bring contemporary art into historic rooms.
The table follows the season. Sant'Ambrogio market and the Mercato Centrale at San Lorenzo supply the city's kitchens, and trattorias serve ribollita, bistecca alla fiorentina and lampredotto, with Chianti Classico from the hills to the south.
Florence is reached by rail at Santa Maria Novella, on the high-speed line between Rome and Milan, or by air through Peretola, a short drive from the centre, with Pisa airport about an hour away.
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.