Florence

Florence was founded by the Romans in 59 BC as a colony for veteran soldiers, laid out in the style of an army camp on the north bank of the Arno, near an older Etruscan settlement whose name is lost. Its Latin name, Florentia, meant "the flourishing town". After the empire fell it was fought over by Ostrogoths and Byzantines, and its population sank to perhaps a thousand people, but trade revived and by 1100 it was a self-governing commune.

The merchant guilds took power in the 13th century, entrenched by the Ordinances of Justice, and the gold florin financed industry across Europe. Around 1325 the city may have had 120,000 people; the Black Death of 1348 more than halved that. Wool was the great industry, and in 1378 the wool combers, the ciompi, rose in a brief revolt. In the 15th century the Medici steered the republic and patronised the art of the Renaissance; the Dominican friar Savonarola briefly turned the city towards austerity from San Marco in the 1490s, and Machiavelli, a servant of the republic, wrote The Prince after his imprisonment and exile. The Medici ruled as grand dukes from 1569 until 1737, when the dynasty died out and Tuscany passed to the house of Lorraine.

Florence replaced Turin as Italy's capital in 1865, and the old market and many medieval houses were cleared for a more formal street plan. In August 1944 retreating German forces blew up every bridge on the Arno except the Ponte Vecchio, and the city was liberated on 4 August by New Zealand, South African and British troops alongside Tuscan partisans. The Arno flood of November 1966 damaged many works of art; small plaques still mark how high the water rose. The historic centre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

The Florentine dialect is the base of standard Italian, because Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio wrote in their own vernacular rather than Latin; Machiavelli and Guicciardini followed. The city's churches are galleries in their own right — San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Trinita, Santo Spirito, the Santissima Annunziata, Ognissanti — and the museums go well beyond the Uffizi, from the Bargello's sculpture to the Museo Galileo's instruments.

Old rivalries survive in calcio storico, a rough game in costume, closer to rugby than football, played in Piazza Santa Croce in June between the four historic quarters: the Azzurri of Santa Croce, the Bianchi of Santo Spirito, the Verdi of San Giovanni and the Rossi of Santa Maria Novella. At Easter the Scoppio del Carro sets off a cart of fireworks outside the cathedral, and the Maggio Musicale fills the spring with opera. Modern loyalties belong to ACF Fiorentina, champions of Italy in 1956 and 1969, who play at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Campo di Marte.

Florence is also one of the world's fashion capitals, home to Gucci and Ferragamo, and the jewellers on the Ponte Vecchio keep alive the goldsmiths' trade. The relationship between Florentines and the millions of visitors is complicated: the city has sprayed church steps with water to stop picnics, and debates over how to protect the centre are constant.

About 360,000 people live in the city itself, according to the 2026 figure, close to a million in the metropolitan province and around 700,000 in the urban area. The population is old — more than a quarter are over 65 — and about one resident in five is an immigrant. The comune is divided into five boroughs; the historic centre holds only about 67,000 people, while Rifredi to the north, with more than 100,000, and Campo di Marte to the east are where many Florentines actually live.

Tourism dominates the economy of the centre, and from April to October visitors outnumber residents; tickets to the Uffizi and Accademia sell out and tour groups fill the great churches. Beyond tourism the city lives from services, fashion and leather, fairs and exhibitions, and the universities, with the European University Institute in neighbouring Fiesole. The centre is closed to through traffic, only buses, taxis and residents with permits may drive into it, and the tram network, opened in 2010 and extended to the airport in 2019, has changed how people cross the city. The current mayor is Sara Funaro; a predecessor, Matteo Renzi, went on to be prime minister.

More than nine in ten residents belong to the Catholic archdiocese, and in 2016 an estimated 30,000 identified as Muslim. The day keeps an Italian rhythm — coffee standing at the bar, lunch from about one, the evening walk and late dinners.

Florentine cooking is built on bread, beans, olive oil and meat. The bread is the typically saltless Tuscan loaf made with natural leaven, and stale bread goes into the soups ribollita and pappa al pomodoro and into panzanella, a summer salad of bread and fresh vegetables. The whole animal was traditionally eaten: trippa, tripe, and lampredotto, the cow's fourth stomach, were once regular restaurant dishes and are still sold from carts around the city, the lampredotto usually in a roll.

The bistecca alla fiorentina is the celebration meal: a T-bone of Chianina beef customarily weighing around 1.2 to 1.5 kg, cooked over hot charcoal and served very rare; the tagliata, sliced rare beef on a bed of rocket, is its more recent offshoot. Dishes are dressed with local olive oil, which has a worldwide reputation. Among sweets, schiacciata alla fiorentina, a soft white flatbread cake made with very simple ingredients, is one of the most popular.

The Mercato Centrale at San Lorenzo and the smaller Sant'Ambrogio market supply home cooks, and the best value lies away from the tourist restaurants around the cathedral and the San Lorenzo stalls. Wine comes from the hills all around: Chianti just south of the city, and Carmignano's reds from about 16 km north-west.