In the heart of Florence: the city’s historic districts

Is Florence a city of art or a work of art? Florence’s historic centre encapsulates such a wealth of masterpieces that it is difficult to separate the city from its works. It has been listed by UNESCO among its world heritage sites for this reason: “from the so-called ‘quadrilatero romano’ in the area of Piazza della Repubblica to the narrow, impracticable streets of the medieval city, to the sixteenth-century splendours of the royal Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti) and the transformations of Florence the capital, visitors can walk through the entire history of the city.

In addition, the concentration of such a rich, valuable heritage, which is not only historical and artistic but scientific and natural too, in such a clearly defined and bounded space as the historical centre, renders the city of Florence precious and unique, not just in the eyes of curious visitors but of scholars and residents  too. Churches of extraordinary beauty, museums and art collections, historical gardens, squares, streets and ancient buildings: Florence might reasonably be defined as a kind of “museum without walls”, not a mere container of works of art but a work of art in its own right (...)”.

One should not stop at the city’s historic centre in order to appreciate Florence’s artistic riches. The city “outside the walls” and provincial area beyond is also astounding for its abundance of valuable marks left over the centuries by the Medicis, wealthy merchant families and by sacred art.

It should be added that only in Florence’s museum hub (the series of twenty city museums, from the Uffizi Gallery to the smaller, less well-known ones) is Italy’s greatest artistic heritage, and one of the largest in the world, preserved.

Source: intoscana.it