A favorite international tourist destination, filled to the brim with artistic masterpieces, Florence is a city in which the cultural ferment which began in the middle ages has never stopped. From art to fashion, sport to photography, the "city of the lily" excels in just about every field imaginable, and hosts numerous events to celebrate them. One of the most important is "Pitti Immagine", the Florentine fashion fair held to coincide with the international calendar of...

Hidden treasures tucked away in country churches and small civic museums, villas built as the recreational resorts and sumptuous rural palaces of the Medici dynasty: just some of the surprises which await the visitor who ventures beyond the walls of Florence and travels into the countryside which surrounds the Tuscan capital.

Heading west of Florence, after just a few kilometers, travelers find themselves in the heart of Chianti. The Regional Wine Museum, in the pretty little town of...

Florence is not only one of the most beautiful Italian cities, is is also the birthplace of the Italian language, paternity of which is widely attributed to Dante Alighieri, who lived in the Tuscan capital and wrote many of his most important works, including his Divine Comedy, here. This tour of Florence commences in the quarter of the city where the poet lived between the 13th and 14th century, visiting the many places linked to Dante and to a period of time when the city was theater of...

Florence, one of the world's most beautiful cities, never fails to impress the visitor with the quantity of artistic masterpieces to be found within its walls. This said, ideally a tour of the Tuscan capital should not be confined to endless hours spent inside its churches, palazzi, museums and galleries (let alone queuing to get in) and at least one sunny day should be spent outside, wandering through Florence's historic parks and gardens.

Right next to the entrance of Palazzo Pitti, gates...

The Santa Croce district is the expression of Florence's political and economic power; an area of the city populated by immense Palazzi, imposing tower houses and, of course, the great Gothic Basilica of Santa Croce. Construction of the Basilica of Santa Croce, built beyond the perimeter walls of the old medieval city, was initiated in the 13th century by Arnolfo di Cambio, although building work was not completed until 1385. The principal chapels, adorned with frescoes painted by Giotto, are...

Florence conserves, with its incredible number of historic buildings and monuments, the splendour of a city which deliberately cancelled the traces of its Roman past. In Piazza San Giovanni we find the symbol of the city: the Cathedral of S.Maria del Fiore, the third largest cathedral in the world after that of S. Pietro in Rome and London's St Paul's.

Florence Cathedral was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, on the site of the 5th century church of Santa Reparata. In 1431 Brunelleschi...