Florence the Beautiful" for it is one of the world's most elegant and beautiful cities, where Renaissance design and subtle soft colors and the pureness of form was born.

Florence is the city of Dante, of Petrarch, of Boccaccio, of Galileo, of Macchiavelli, the cradle of the Renaissance. Here everything remains unspoiled and unaltered, each work in the place it was originally destined for, and still imbued with the spirit of the ancient founders. 

Its transformation from a comparatively small town to its prosperity and extraordinary political and artistic importance began in the 13th century during the lifetime of Dante, when he wrote the famous "Inferno" of the "Divine Comedy" defining hell for all of Christianity and giving birth to the Italian language.

It is then that organized work and organized corporations began as well as the origin of money, the Florin, and lets not forget the first bankers--honest and wise. These were the famous aristocratic families of Florence--the Pitti, Strozzi, Pazzi, Medici, Peruzzi. Where Savonarola offered up his life in flames--a martyr to political hatred and fanaticism.

Where Macchiavelli wrote "The Prince," an essay on political science and government in which he counseled that in politics, the end justified the means.

Where Vasari, the first real art historian wrote about the lives of painters, architects and sculptors. Where Cellini cast his bronze Perseus.

Where Michelangelo sculpted his "David."

Home of Galileo, he who, discovered that the moon revolves around the earth and the earth around the sun.

Where Leonardo DaVinci studied human flight, built war machines, the helicopter, and studied anatomy.

And let’s not forget where the real Italian cuisine was born at the court of the Medici family.

The city of the Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Giotto's Bell Tower, Ghiberti's Baptistry doors, the Uffizzi Museum, the Academy Gallery. Still today after over 2,800 years it is still the gold and leather capital of the world, as it was at the time of the Etruscan civilization.