Florence is known for the splendor of its art, for the nobility of its historic traditions, and for its cultural and artistic heritage that began with the Etruscan civilization and reached its peak in the Renaissance. In the 14th and 15th centuries, writers like Dante, Petrarch, and Machiavelli and artists like Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello made it one of the most important capitals of art. Starting in the 1400s Cosimo de' Medici favored the renewal of Florentine culture by protecting the artists and encouraging building and artistic initiatives in the city.

Florence is still today the custodian of one of the largest and most extraordinary artistic patrimonies in the world. In the Cradle of the Renaissance one can admire churches (the Cathedral, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella...), monuments (Michelangelo's David), museums of art and science (the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, the Archaeological Museum...), palaces (Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Medici Riccardi...), squares (Piazza Santa Croce, Piazza Santa Maria Novella, Piazza del Duomo, Piazza SS. Annunziata...), bridges (Vecchio, S. Trinita ...), villas and gardens (Boboli Gardens, the villas of the Medici family...). Every year millions of tourists arrive in Florence to contemplate masterpieces like the Birth of Venus and Spring by Botticelli, the Holy Family by Michelangelo, the frescoes of Giotto and Caravaggio's Medusa. The great cultural fervor of Florence is demonstrated also by the presence here of the Accademia della Crusca, the Accademia del Cimento, and the Accademia dei Georgofili.