Introduction to Florence

This city of Florence is well populated, its good air a healthy tonic; its citizens are well dressed, and its women lovely and fashionable, its buildings are very beautiful, and every sort of useful craft is carried on in them, more so than any other Italian city. For this many come from distant lands to see her, not out of necessity, but for the quality of its manufactures and arts, and for the beauty and ornament of the city. Dino Compagni in his Chronicle of 1312

The precocious capital of Tuscany began to slip into legend back in the 14th century, during the lifetime of Dante; it was noted as different even before the Renaissance, before Boccaccio, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, the Medici…

According to the tourist office, 706 years after Dino, nearly 10 million visitors come to Florence every year.