Florence by Tram – a Tour along the City’s Green Artery

Founded by the Romans under the name Florentia in 59 BC, Florence became a flourishing metropolis during the early Medici period. As the centre of late medieval European trade and finance, it was one of the richest cities of the 15th and 16th centuries and cradle of the Renaissance. Artists and scholars like Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo lived and worked here.  By Helen Cleary

Today, around one million people live in and around the capital of Tuscany. The historic city centre (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982) attracts millions of tourists every year with its wealth of museums, palaces and monuments.

Perhaps less well known is the fact that Italy‘s first electric tram was installed in Florence in 1879 and that its return in 2010 has extended the boundaries of the city centre with connections to the unconventional side of Florence. From age-old to modern, some 200 attractions divided into five categories; top attractions, museums and churches, parks and sports, shows and culture, and stores and markets, are already accessible by tram lines 1 and 2.

Take Fortezza da Basso for example - a masterpiece of Florentine military architecture built between 1534 and 1535, which now serves as an exhibition and congress centre. A short distance from the fortress is the Russian Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ, which was built at the end of the 19th century at the request of Tsar Nicholas I‘s daughter.

The Giardino dell‘Orticoltura, a beautiful 19th century garden, is a wonderful place to relax.

There is much to marvel at in the Stibbert Museum. Among the paintings of collector Frederick Stibbert (1838-1906) are works by Botticelli, Giordano, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Neri di Bicci and Pietro Lorenzetti. The weapons and armoury department is also extraordinary, as are the collections of art and everyday objects from European civilization, the Ottoman-Turkish Empire and the Far East, particularly Japan.

New architectural buildings such as the Opera House, which was inaugurated in 2011, and the Palace of Justice, which officially opened in 2012, are also well worth a visit.

For more information, visit www.tramedartefirenze.it