Florence, the capital of the region of Tuscany, has a population of around half a million inhabitants.
The city spreads on the banks of the Arno River, almost in the middle of the Italian peninsula.

It is a city which bustles with industry and craft, commerce and culture, art and science.

Florence contains an exceptional artistic patrimony, glorious testimony to its secular civilization.  Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived here, along with Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, reformists of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, founders of the Renaissance; Ghiberti and the Della Robbia; Filippo Lippi and l'Angelico; Botticelli and Paolo Uccello; the universal geniuses  Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Their works, along with those of many generations of artists up to the masters of the present century, are gathered in the city's many museums. In Florence, thanks to Dante, the Italian language was born; with Petrarch and Boccaccio literary studies were affirmed; with Humanism the philosophy and values of classical civilization were revived; with Machiavelli modern political science was born; with Guicciardini, historical prose; and with Galileo, modern experimental science. Up to the time of Charlemagne, Florence was a university town.
Today it includes many specialized institutes and is an international cultural center. Academies, art schools, scientific institutes and cultural centers all contribute to the city's intense activity.
The climate is temperate but rather variable, with breezy winters and hot summers.

Travel
The Florence "Vespucci" International Airport, where both national and international airlines stop, is located 5 Km. from the city centre.
The Pisa “Galileo” International Airport is at 90 km and is connected to Florence downtown by train and bus.
The Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo da Vinci” International Airport is at 300 km and it takes about 3 hrs by car.

Florence is on the main national railway lines, and is easily accessible from most important cities in Italy and abroad.
For example, the trip from Rome or Milan to Florence is only 1.5 hours on the premium trains.

The main motorway, A1, connects Florence with Bologna and Milan in the North and Rome and Naples in the South.
The motorway A11 to the sea joins it to Prato, Pistoia, Montecatini, Lucca, Pisa and all the resorts on the Tyrrhenian Sea. There is also motorway which connects Florence to Siena.

Useful Links
Tourism:
www.visitflorence.com
www.aboutflorence.com
en.firenze-online.com
www.firenzeturismo.it/en

Florence Public Transportation:
www.ataf.net

Italian Railway Network:
www.fsitaliane.it/

Florence Airport:
www.aeroporto.firenze.it

Pisa Airport:
www.pisa-airport.com