Rough Guides - Florence

This first edition published March 2014 by

Rough Guides Ltd

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Rough Guides 2014

Maps Rough Guides

No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in Pocket Rough Guide Florence, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

ISBN: 9781409330332

This digital edition published 2014.
eISBN: 9781409371281

ROUGH GUIDES CREDITSAuthor: Jonathan Buckley Text editor: Lucy Kane Layout: Pradeep Thapliyal Cartography: Katie Bennett Picture editor: Wilf Matos Photographer: Diana Jarvis Production: Linda Dare Proofreader: Diane Margolis Cover design: Wilf Matos, Dan May and Pradeep Thapliyal

DIGITAL PRODUCTION TEAMSenior Digital Producer: Linda Zacharia Head of Digital Media, Delhi: Manjari Hooda Sr. Editorial Manager: Lakshmi Rao Producer: Rahul Kumar Editors: Suruchi Kakkar, Patpreet Kaur Senior Software Engineer: Ravi Yadav Software Engineer: Rajesh Pandey Asst. Graphic Designer: Rahul Rai, Rohit Rojal Digital Assets Coordinator: Rakesh Kumar Operations Coordinator: Jalaj Bansal

The Author

Jonathan Buckley ( jonathan-buckley.co.uk ) has written and contributed to several Rough Guides, and is an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. He has published eight novels.

Acknowledgements

Jonathan Buckley would like to thank Lucy Kane and Wilf Matos for making the editorial processas smooth as possible.

Photo credits

All images Rough Guides except the following :

Alamy/David South

AWL Images/Peter Adams

Corbis/Guido Cozzi

Corbis/Ken Kaminesky

Corbis/Luigi Casentini

Corbis/Roger de la Harpe

Corbis/Sandro Vannini

Corbis/Sylvain Sonnet

Getty Images/Dea Picture Library

Getty Images/DeAgostini

Ora dAria

Royal Demeure Hotels, Helvetia & Bristol/Andrea Getuli and Giovanni Rinaldi

SuperStock/Cubo Images

SuperStock/DeAgostini

SuperStock/Hemis.fr

SuperStock/Jose Antonio Moreno/age fotostock

SuperStock/Photoservice Electa/Universal Images Group

SuperStock/Tips Images

SuperStock: Photoservice Electa/Universal Images Group

Front cover Getty Images/Danita Delimont

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Weve gone to a lot of effort to ensure that the first edition of the Pocket Rough Guide Florence is accurate and up-to-date. However, things change places get discovered, opening hours are notoriously fickle, restaurants and rooms raise prices or lower standards. If you feel weve got it wrong or left something out, wed like to know, and if you can remember the address, the price, the hours, the phone number, so much the better.

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Introduction to Florence

If one city could be said to encapsulate the essence of Italy it might well be Florence (Firenze in Italian), the first capital of the united country. The modern Italian language evolved from Tuscan dialect, and Dantes Divina Commedia was the first great work of Italian literature to be written in the vernacular; but what makes this city pivotal to the culture not just of Italy but of all Europe is, of course, the Renaissance. The very name by which we refer to this extraordinary era was coined by a Tuscan, Giorgio Vasari, who wrote in the sixteenth century of the rebirth of the arts with the humanism of Giotto and his successors. Every eminent artistic figure from Giotto onwards Masaccio, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo is represented here, in an unrivalled concentration of churches, galleries and museums.

During the fifteenth century, architects such as Brunelleschi and Alberti began to transform the cityscape of Florence, raising buildings that were to provide future generations with examples from which to take a lead. As soon as you step out of the train station the imprint of the Renaissance is visible, with the pinnacle of Brunelleschis stupendous dome visible over the rooftops, and the Renaissance emphasis on harmony is exemplified with unrivalled eloquence in Brunelleschis interiors of San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Cappella dei Pazzi, and in Albertis work at Santa Maria Novella and the Palazzo Rucellai. In painting, the development of the new sensibility can be plotted stage by stage in the vast picture collection of the recently expanded