Florence

The city that gave the world the Renaissance

Tuscany is so much of what we love about Italy. Tender steak. Wine that quenches yet leaves you thirsty for more. Effortless beauty and intellectual endeavour. Florence is its illustrious capital. A city of history and of rebirth, Florence welcomes you in.

Machiavelli apparently once said “It’s better to be feared than loved”. It’s a good job his native city ignored him. When you walk the cobbles of the Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”), you’ll see how much Florence wants to be loved. And you’ll feel how effortlessly it succeeds.

The bridge over the Arno connects you to Firenze’s glory days. Shopfronts, jewellers and apartments line the bridge itself. You’ve never seen anything like it, no matter how well-travelled you are. Try as you might to stay on the straight and narrow, your feet lead you down cobbled alleyways promising hidden riches.

Brunelleschi. Giotto. Da Vinci. Michelangelo. Botticelli. Renaissance men whose names you know. In their hands, tools like the mallet and paintbrush become wands of inspiration, conjuring beauty. Florence is where they called home.

Theirs is some of the finest art ever made. You’ll notice it all over town, from the Uffizi Gallery to Palazzo Pitti, and, of course “Il Duomo” – the Cathedral of the Flower of Saint Mary. The sun rising over the city at dawn, with nothing but chiming church bells and singing birds, is its own work of art that you’ll cherish forever.