As soon as the summits of the Apennines step aside in the north, we sight it: Fiorentia, Firenze, Florence – the blossoming and flowing city of Spring. This and many more modifiers we can attribute to the city lying in the sunny Arno river valley, enclosed by inconspicuous hills. Its towers, cupolas and palaces immerging from the prodigal country, glimmering as a golden mass, have made it famous all around the world.

Florence, found in the central Italy is the capital of the Tuscany region and briefly (1865-1871) the capital of the kingdom of Italy. On one hand such historical remains as the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, on the other hand, modern music clubs, discos, beer houses or nightclubs. Florence is the city where everyone can find what he or she is looking for. The works of Botticelli, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio, Alberti, Masaccio, Donatello, Vasari and Fra Angelico imbue the city with the magnificence of their contribution to art and life. The city itself is muse to some and home to many stylish citizens who titivated the cobbled streets and fashionable piazzas with their inimitable Italian flair.

The heart of the city, where every tourist seems to congregate, is the Piazza de Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria. The statues dominating the Piazza della Signoria commemorate major historical events of the city's life and the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio still performs its original role as Florence's town hall. The adjacent Uffizi is the oldest gallery in the world with a collection of the greatest works of the Renaissance commissioned largely by the Medici family.

The Western stretches of the city are formed by Florence's railway station at one end and the Ponte Vecchio at the other. The quaint Ponte Vecchio Bridge was built in 1345 and was one of the few areas to emerge unscathed from the wartime bombs. Little workshops that used to belong to butchers, tanners and blacksmiths, peer onto the river from their timber supports. Santa Maria Novella also rises from the city's western boundaries in true gothic splendour preserving some of the most important works of art in Florence.