Tuscany Villas

Florence @ A renaissance city famous for its art and architecture

Thanks to its magnificent historical center and to its many works of art, Florence is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Today`s Florence is mostly the Florence of the Renaissance, but only a few meters under the ground there are the remains of the ancient peoples that inhabited the Florentine territory in the past. In the first few centuries after the year 1000, Florence was the scene of hard struggles between the Ghibellines, who supported the Emperor, and the Guelphs, who represented the powerful corporations of craftmen and merchants and supported the Pope. In this period important artists, such as Dante Alighieri, Cimabue and Giotto lived and worked in Florence. In 1378 the Revolt of the Ciompi - the disenfranchised wool carders - shook Florence. Then the Medici family transformed Florence in a "Signoria". That was the beginning of a period of prosperity in the history of the city, which culminated in the 15th with Lorenzo the Magnificent`s government. Thanks to the Medici family, Florence became the capital of the Renaissance. In this period important artists, such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, lived and worked in Florence. The Medici family staid in power until 1737, when its last representative, Gian Gastone, died heirless. Florence and the Grand-Dukedom of Tuscany passed to the Lorena family. The Lorena governed Tuscany until 1860, when the Grand-Dukedom was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy. From 1865 to 1871 Florence the capital of the new Kingdom.