Florence

It's the capital of Tuscany, a city not very large but of sublime beauty, among the very first in the world, we say this without fear of being contradicted.

After all, it's not just us who live here who say it, it's the millions and millions of tourists who visit it every year, the appreciations and recognitions that have been coming to us from every part of the planet for centuries, the sfearful amount of monuments that dot it everywhere, the churches, the palaces, the basilicas, the museums and the galleries that it includes, the almost unspeakable amount of art which contains, its innate elegance, the classical purity of medieval-Renaissance architecture, the undulations of the very sweet hills that surround it, and so on and so forth.

Florence, for a historian, for an art lover, but also for a simple lover of harmony in itself, it's a daydream.

Stendhal syndrome

It's at Florence That is born the concept of Stendhal syndrome, that feeling of dizziness, of fainting, which struck the great French writer when he came out of the Basilica of Santa Croce, and which every year, even today, attracts a few hundred visitors overwhelmed by so much beauty all at once. Loggias, squares, churches, even the streets of the city, are embellished with the works of the greatest Tuscan artists medieval and Renaissance.

The Uffizi, one of the most important museums in the world

There Uffizi Gallery It is one of the most extraordinary museum complexes in the world; to which must be added the Palatine Gallery with the paintings of the "golden ages"; the Bargello, with the sculptures of the Renaissance; the Museum of San Marco, with the works of Beato Angelico; the Accademia Gallery, which contains the most famous sculpture of all time: Michelangelo's David; the Medici Chapels; Palazzo Pitti, with works from the 16th century and the Baroque period; the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, and many others.

What to see in the center of Florence

The historic center of Florence (World Heritage Site since 1982) is a convergence of wonders in their purest form, from Piazza del Duomo, with the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery and Giotto's bell tower, to Signoria Square on which it stands out Old Palace, seat of the municipality, at Old Bridge, to Pitti Palace, it is a continuous diffusion of charm, elegance, and even high fashion (the refined Florentine boutiques are famous), leaving you speechless.

But Florence it's not just its monuments, its immeasurable art. It is also walking on the riversides - the streets that run along the river that crosses it, the Arno -, is to get lost among the bohemian alleys of Oltrarno (the San Frediano neighborhood was elected by Lonely Planet magazine as “the coolest in the world”), or for the ancient walls of San Niccolò.

Florence is songs, narrow streets, noises. Florence is Guelphs and Ghibellinei, are the historic neighborhoods of costumed football. Florence is an absolute pinnacle of magnificence that every man, at least once in his life, should experience.