FLORENCE

The origin of the city of Florence is very ancient. First foundation goes back to the 8th century BC, when a flourishing and enlightened Etruscan civilization is formed on the bank of the Arno. Then the roman colony of Florentia was founded during the 1st century BC over the earlier Etruscan settlement, and preserved till the Middle Age the ancient urban plane, made up of squared-off and uniform lines and a rectangular plane. Florence becomes a free commune in 1115, and due to its growing importance the city walls will be extended three times to include the Oltrarno area.

After the first churches and the Baptistery (faced in polycrome marble according the dictates of the Romanesque style), a large number of tower-houses were built, symbols of the power of the florentine families such as the Medici family, under the long supremacy of which the city continued flourishing in many fields.
In architecture, we see jewels of incomparable beauty (13th-16th century): Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo, the Bargello, the Campanile of Giotto were built following the Gothic style as well as numerous palaces. The churches of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella. Monuments are inspired by classical art, geometric laws and perspective. Brunelleschi's genius created the magnificent Cupola (dome) of the Duomo, Santo Spirito, San Lorenzo, the Pazzi Chapel. Florence was the capital af Renaissance, rich in artworks. The 16th-17th century was the period of the Mannerism, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and later, of the baroque style.

Many great artists lived in Florence whose genius can be found in literature, architecture, sculpture and painting: Cimabue (1240-1302), Dante (1265-1321), Giotto (1266-1337), Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Donatello (1386-1466), Masaccio (1401-1428), Botticelli (1445-1510), Vasari, Leonardo (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564) and many others ...