Everything about Florence is a superlative. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and has been one of the richest cities in all of history. It’s the birthplace of the Renaissance, and is brimming with its treasures. It has the greatest amount of art in proportion to its size of any city in the world. It’s also one of the most visited cities in the world, with over 13 million tourists each year. Not only that, the food is superb!

Julius Caesar founded the present day city of Florence in 59 BC on the site of a settlement of Etruscans. Florence’s golden age began around 1000 AD when it became the center for textile trade. Amazingly, you can still see the stains of the fabric dye on the walls along the Arno river running through the city. Florence reached its’ height in the 15th century when the Medici family essentially ruled the city. Bankers to nearly all of Europe, they even controlled the pope’s purse-strings, and two Medicis eventually became popes. Through them, the currency of Florence, the florin, became the currency of Europe and even other parts of the world. The Medici used their great wealth to sponsor some of the world’s greatest artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and Botticelli. An enjoyable overview of this time in history (although with its own dash of fiction) is the miniseries Medici: Masters of Florence, staring Dustin Hoffman.

The Medici dynasty finally fell in 1737 when Florence became part of the Hapsburg Empire. After changing hands several times between France and Austria, it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The Germans occupied Florence for a year during World War II, and unfortunately, many buildings, especially in the Oltrano area, were destroyed, along with every bridge in the city except for the Ponte Vecchio.

Now over 370,000 people live in the city of Florence, although the numbers swell considerably by the huge amounts of tourists. Although tourism is the most significant source of income for the inhabitants, there is still a very strong craftsman presence, and you can find little shops where people make shoes, marbled paper, bind books by hand and carve marble.