Florence Airport (Amerigo Vespucci) is served by around forty domestic and international flights each day connecting with all major Italian airports and 13 European destinations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Geneva, London Gatwick, Madrid, Monaco, Paris, Timisoara, Tirana and Vienna.The airport is located 4km north-west of Florence, in the direction of Prato. The local companies SITA and ATAF run a bus service between the airport and Santa Maria Novella Station.



Pisa's international Airport (Galileo Galilei) is the most important in Tuscany: it links the city with major Italian and European destinations which is served by budget airlines Ryanair, Easyjet and Thomsonfly from a range of UK regional airports.The airport of Pisa is connected to Pisa Central Station by many routes, among which there are eight direct trains from the airport of Florence. There is also a shuttle coach service run by Terravision from Pisa Airport to Florence (Santa Maria Novella Station). The journey takes 70 minutes.

Train :

Florence is well-connected to Italy's rail network. Florence is situated on the Milan-Rome line, with frequent and rapid connections both ways. Frequent services run from Florence's principal station,

Stazione Santa Maria Novella

, to the other major Italian cities. From Venice there are two direct connections, otherwise you have to change in Bologna. Florence is connected to Pisa by many direct trains; those coming from Genoa or from the Tyrrhenian coast must usually change in Pisa. The station is convenient for the centre of Florence and within walking distance of many hotels. A few services (mostly night-time ones) stop at Campo di Marte, a secondary station to the east of Florence city centre. You can get information at your nearest train station or travel agent, or by contacting Trenitalia. You can buy railway tickets at the station and from most travel agents. There are automatic machines at the station that accept credit cards and cash.

Bus :

Bus and coach services connect Florence to the rest of Tuscany and Italy. Buses stop in various locations close to Stazione Santa Maria Novella. SITA, who run many regional services, have their own bus station (the Autostazione Sita) on Via Santa Caterina da Siena, a few yards from the railway station. Lazzi is responsible for long-haul bus services to other parts of Italy, mostly on routes south where train services are either nonexistent or painfully slow. Destinations include Potenza and Matera (Basilicata) and some in Apulia and Calabria.

Car :

From Rome (274 Km) or Naples (472 Km) highway A1 will conveniently get you to your destination; exit at Firenze Sud. From Milan (305 Km) the same highway A1 will bring you to Florence going by Bologna (110 Km). From Venice (261 km) and from the Northeast take A13 Padova-Bologna and continue on A1 up to Florence. Those coming from the Tyrrhenian coast, from Genoa, Pisa or Lucca, must take A11 Pisa-Firenze.

City Transport

Transport in Florence is run by an efficient organisation called ATAF. They have a bus station alongside Santa Maria Novella railway station (to the left as you leave your train). This is a good first stop for the tourist, as you can pick up a free bus map at their information kiosk which shows all the bus routes in central Florence, along with a street index and ticket information.

If you are sightseeing in the centre of Florence you are unlikely to use the buses much - most of the tourist sights are within walking distance of each other. However, there will undoubtedly be times when a short bus trip will be a welcome way to rest tired legs, so it's a good idea to buy a few single tickets on your arrival in Florence. Tickets should be bought before you board a bus, and validated in the machines on board. They can be purchased from bars and news-stands, and from the ATAF kiosk by the railway station.

Taxi :

Taxis wait outside Stazione di Santa Maria Novella, or you can get your hotel to phone one.

History and Culture

When the Romans began taking over the Etruscan regions of Italy, the important town in this area was a fortified town on a hill - present-day Fiesole. The Romans established (or perhaps developed) a settlement on the banks of the Arno, and christened it Florentia. In the early 12th century the city became a free comune (township) and by 1138 it was ruled by 12 consuls, assisted by the Council of One Hundred, a bunch of rich merchants. In 1207, due to intractable problems with faction fighting, the council was replaced by a foreign (and thus allegedly unbiased) governor, the podest?. There are a few archaeological remains, but not many records of Roman Florence, which was a reasonably successful but not particularly important town. As the Empire crumbled, Florence's population declined to only one thousand by the sixth century.

During the Middle Ages, ruled by great characters like Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, the town grew in size while its position on trade routes led to prosperity. Rich merchant families built themselves defensive towers and began the feuding that was to last for centuries. As the ambitious town grew, Florence was adopting a militant attitude to its Tuscan neighbours, with repeated wars against the likes of Fiesole, Pistoia and Siena. The argumentative character of the town was evidenced in its wars on local nobles and on rival towns, as well as rebellions and participation in wider conflicts, such as the vicious division of the city between the Guelph (pro-Emperor) and Ghibelline (pro-Pope) factions. The great plague of 1348 had halved the city's population. In the latter part of the 14th century the Medicis began consolidating power, eventually becoming bankers to the papacy. Cosimo Medici - patron of artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi - became ruler of Florence. Perhaps the most famous Medici was Lorenzo, grandson of Cosimo, who took power in 1469. His court fostered a great development of art, music and poetry, and Lorenzo sponsored philosophers and artists such as Botticelli, da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The Medici proceeded to reign, with variable success, until the family died out in the 1700s. The city fell under the control of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who led a puritanical republic until he fell from public favour and was hanged and burned as a heretic in 1498. The Medicis returned to Florence in the 16th century, having united themselves by marriage with Emperor Charles V, and ruled for the next 200 years.

The next major change came with the revolutions leading to Italian unification. In the 1860s Florence became the capital of Italy, and King Vittorio Emmanuele II took up residence in the city, which saw major developments of wide streets and building on a large scale to accommodate the new administration. Florence remained the capital until Rome took over in 1875.

Modern History :

After 1890, large swathes of the medieval city were demolished by government officials and developers; buildings that had stood in the area of what is now Piazza della Repubblica since the early Middle Ages were pulled down to make way for undistinguished office blocks, and old quarters around Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella were razed. WWI left it spent, shocked and vulnerable to Fascist rhetoric. The city was one of Mussolini's most faithful strongholds. Florence was badly damaged during WWII by the retreating Germans, who blew up all its bridges except the Ponte Vecchio. The bridges were rebuilt after the war, but it wasn't the end of Florence's troubles; a great flood in 1966 caused widespread damage to the city and its art, the waters rising to swirl around the Duomo. Yet again Florence and its treasures had to be restored.

Recent History :

As the twentieth century turned into the twenty-first, Florence was one of the world's major holiday destinations, full of hotels, restaurants and shops catering for the steady influx of overseas tourists. Florence has rarely hit the headlines in recent times. It leads the quiet dignified life of a regional capital under a constant influx of tourists. In 1995 a car bomb killed five people and damaged works in the Uffizi gallery - this attack was attributed to the Sicilian Mafia. Otherwise Florence has been relatively untouched by sensation. Its streets could almost beguile you into thinking you've walked into a former age, untouched by the clamour of the wider world.

Churches and Museums

Duomo - Santa Maria del Fiore and Baptistery :

This is the holy centre of Florence and once the site of the town's Roman temple and it is the world's fourth-largest cathedral. Work on the Gothic cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore began in 1296 and was completed by Brunelleschi in 1436 with the famous Dome, which was painted inside with frescoes by Vasari and Zuccari. The square Bell tower designed by Giotto in 1334 stands on the right-hand side of the Cathedral and is covered in white, green and red marble. The Baptistery of San Giovanni, one of the oldest monuments in Florence (1128), is located opposite the Cathedral and is built in Florentine Romanesque style.

Santa Maria Novella

From its front view, the church of Santa Maria Novella is one of the city's most gorgeous buildings. Built in the 13th century according to the wishes of the Dominican monks, the Church's fa?ade is built in the Gothic-Romanesque style, with white and green marble. Important works of art inside are the frescoes by Masaccio portraying the Holy Trinity, the Crucifix by Brunelleschi and the one by Giotto.

Basilica di Santa Croce

Santa Croce is a wonderful Gothic basilica containing superb frescoes by Giotto and others, built in the second half of the 12th century. Santa Croce contains several masterpieces: the Crucifix by Cimabue and the Cappella dei Pazzi, a chapel built by Brunelleschi. The Basilica is famous throughout the world because some famous people are buried inside it, such as Alfieri, whose tomb was sculpted by Canova.

Orsanmichele

This church was built with the intention of becoming the people's grain market, but was immediately used as a place of worship. 14 niches can be seen in the church's outer walls containing the same number of statues of saints who are patrons of the arts and work ?Corporations?.

Basilica di San Lorenzo

The interior of this church was completed by Brunelleschi and later, by Michelangelo. The Basilica di San Lorenzo's fa?ade is still not finished. There are some works of art inside: the two pulpits built by Donatello when he was already 74 years old, The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and the Tombe Medicee, works by Michelangelo, the Cappella dei Principi chapel with its magnificent decorations in marble and semi-precious stones.

Museums and galleries to be seen :

Bargello

The National Museum, housed in a building that was the city prison dating back to 1200. It contains some of the best sculptures from the Tuscan Renaissance era. Some of the works of art in the Bargella are: the David by Donatello, Mercury by Gianbologna, and the bust of Brutus by Michelangelo.

Galleria degli Uffizi

The greatest art gallery in Italy is one of the largest museums in the world, a fitting memorial to the town's importance as the cradle of the Renaissance, this art museum contains one of the greatest collections of paintings in existence. It was built in the mid-sixteenth century, following a project by the architect Giorgio Vasari and still houses some of the most famous works of art by Italian and foreign painters from the 13th to 19th centuries, such as Tiziano, Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Tintoretto, Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Raffaello, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, D'rer and Goya.

Museo di Storia della Scienza

This museum is dedicated to Tuscany's men of science, particularly Galileo Galilei, whose telescope, lens and finger are on display. In his memory, Florence founded an Academy of Experimentation and you can see early thermometers and barometers invented by the group, plus gadgets and innovations from around Europe.

Casa Buonarroti

This palace was renovated in 1612 by Michelangelo Buonarroti ?il giovane?, who decorated all the interior area of the building on his own, as a tribute to his ancestor. It is possible to see some early masterpieces by Michelangelo such as the Madonna della Scala(Madonna of the Steps) and the Battaglia dei Centauri. You'll also find a few drawings, portraits of him by other artists.

Archeological Museum

The collection of artifacts on show in the Museum belonged to the Medici family, especially to Cosimo il Vecchio, and comprises objects from the Etruscan period: terracotta ornaments and sculptures in marble and bronze, including the Chimera di Arezzo and l'Arringatore. The Egyptian section, that was created thanks to the collection from another important family, the Lorena, is not to be missed.

Galleria dell'Accademia

This Gallery was founded in 1784 by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who decreed that all the schools of painting should be joined together in a single Academy. One of the most popular museums in Florence, the Gallery houses many sculptures by Michelangelo, including the famous David.