Florence

Florence's best sights are encompassed within such a compact area that the city seems to reveal its treasures at every step. The majority of sights in Florence can be easily explored on foot. In the centre is a massive Duomo, providing a historical as well as geographical focus to the city. Santa Croce to the east and San Marco to the north, with Santa Maria Novella to the west and the Palazzo Pitti in Oltrarno, mark the outlying areas.

Tuscany is renowned throughout the world for its art, history and beautiful landscape. Here the past merges with the present to a remarkable degree, for its people pride themselves on their hertitage. Independent and combative, for centuries they have preserved their surroundings and traditions, in which must lie much of Tuscany's eternal fascination for the outsider.

The people of Tuscany are fiercely proud of their ancestry, which they trace back to the Etruscans. Florence and its surroundings were occupied by the Germans during World War II, and memories of the disgrace suffered under Fascism are still strong.
As a result, people in this area have a fierce love of democracy and a strong sense of obligation to vote and participate in politics, even at grass roots levels, through referendums on such issues as whether to ban traffic from the centre of Florence, for example. Florentines will, however, take the law into their own hands, as they did when they fought the police in 1990 to prevent the closure of San Lorenzo market.

The Tuscan love of home has resulted in a strong campanilismo: parochialism defined by the sound of the local church bell (in the campanile or belltower). Social anthropologists see in it a survival of medieval inter-city conflicts. It can be observed at many a Tuscan festival when, beneath the pageantry, there is a serious rivalry between a city's different quarters.

The survival of so many fine Gothic and Renaissance buildings is part of Tuscany's immense appeal. Whole street and squares, such as the Piazzi dei Priori in Volterra and the streets around the Mercato Nuovo in Florence, and even towns such as San Gimignano, have scarcely changed since the 16th century. Simple clues, such as the shape of arches, windows and doorways, reveal the style of the building and when it was built.

Romanesque (5th to Mid- 13th Centuries)
The Tuscan Romanesque style developed from late Roman architecture. Early Tuscan churches, such as Sant'Antimo have round arches, Roman-style columns and arcades. Profuse surface decoration was introduced in the 12th century, resulting in the jewel-like church facades of Pisa and Lucca.

Gothic (13th to Mid- 15th Centuries)
Pointed arches are the key feature of Gothic architecture. The style was introduced to Tuscany by French Cistercian monks who built the abbey of San Galgano in 1218. Siena then made this style her own, using it for the city's Duomo, palazzi and civic buildings such as Palazzo Pubblico.

Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries)
Brunelleschi, the father of Renaissance architecture, was inspired by the purity and simplicity of Classical Roman buildings. The style is reflected in his first true Renaissance work, the loggia of the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence (1419-24) with its elegant lines and simple arched bays. The style he created was adopted with enthusiasm by his fellow Florentines, who saw their city as the "new" Rome.

Baroque (Late- 16th and 17th Centuries)
The theatrical Baroque style, much favoured by the popes in Rome, largely passed Tuscany by. Although a few churches in Florence were given new facades in the 17th century, the Florentine version of the Baroque style is very Classical in spirit and not as bold or as exuberant as elsewhere in Italy.

Tuscany was the scene of one of the most influential and sustained artistic revolutions in history. Its masterpieces record the transition from the stylized charm of medieval art to the Classical beauty and richness of the High Renaissance.

Medieval Art
Medieval art served as an aid to prayer and contemplation. The Virgin, patron saint of many Tuscan cities, including Siena, was often depicted as the Queen of Heaven, surrounded by adoring angels and saints.

Renaissance Art
The artistic revolution known as the Renaissance, which spread throughout Europe from the 15th century onwards, had its roots in Tuscany. Inspired by ancient Roman art, sculptors and painters brought about a "rebirth" of Classical ideals. There were supported by wealthy and cultured patrons, themselves fascinated by the works of such Classical authors as Plato and Cicero. Nudes, landscapes, portraits and scenes from mythology and everyday life became legitimate subjects for art. Rejecting the stylized art of the medieval era, Renaissance artists studied anatomy in order to portray the human body more realistically, and strove to develop innovations to please their patrons. They learned how to apply the mathematics of linear art, to create the illusion of spatial depth. Painters set figures against recognisable landscapes or city backgrounds, and flattered their patrons by including them as onlookers or protagonists of the scene. The greatest Renaissance artists also added another dimension, that of psychological realism. It is evident in Donatello's sculpture La Maddalena, which vividly conveys the former prostitute's grief and penitence. Even when painting traditional subjects, they often tried to express the complexities of human character and emotion. The religious elements of the Virgin and Child theme gave way, for example, to an exploration of the mother-child relationship, as in the Madonna and Child (c.1455) by Fra Filippo Lippi.

Mannerist Art
Mannerist artists used "hot" colours, elongated forms and deliberately contorted poses, often within complicated, large-scale compositions. The twisted pose and vivid colours of Michelangelo's Holy Family established the key features of the style. Few artists could match the monumental scale of his work, but Bronzino, Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino brought new life to traditional biblical subjects by their skilful and dramatic compositions.

Frescoes decorate the walls of churches, public buildings and private palaces throughout Tuscany. Renaissance artists, in particular, favoured the medium of fresco painting for decorating new buildings. The word fresco, meaning "fresh", refers to the technique of painting on to a thin layer of damp, freshly laid plaster. Pigments are drawn into the plaster by surface tension and the colour becomes fixed as the plaster dries. The pigments react with the lime in the plaster to produce very strong, vivid colours. As the colour do not lie on the surface, restorers are able to remove the superficial soot and grime that have accumulated over the years to reveal the original, embedded colours.

Many Tuscan festivals celebrate battles and historical events that took place centuries ago; others have their origins in medieval tournaments. Yet they are not merely a pastiche of history, put on for the benefit of tourists. They are living festivals, mounted with an amazing degree of skill and commitment to authenticity and perfection. This can be seen in such details as the embroidery on the costumes worn by the participants and in the exhilarating displays of horsemanship, jousting or archery.

Calcio in Costume, or Football in Costume (a festival held over three days in June), is a combination of football and rugby. Each of the four medieval quarters of the city (Santo Spirito, Santa Croce, San Giovanni and Santa Maria Novella) fields a team of 27 men. The games are usually held in Piazza Santa Croce and always attract a lively crowd. There is fierce rivalry among the teams, and play can be quite violent. The final prize is a live cow. Before the game, the players and other characters in sumptuous 14th century dress parade through the city.

The final often takes place on the 24th June, the feast of John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city. These events are celebrated by a fireworks display, best seen from the north bank of the Arno, between Ponte Vecchio and Ponte alle Grazie, or from Fiesole.