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Florence is packed with sights. From the Middle Ages onward the Florentines have been very busy constructing palazzi, churches and convents. For more than 400 years it has been one of the leading cultural cities in Italy. In Florence - the city of Dante - the Italian language was born. With Petrach and Boccaccio the study of literature found its main centre here. Humanism brought new philosophical ideas and a full appreciation of classicism. Machiavelli inaugurated the new political science: Guicciardini introduced modern historical prose: Galileo and his school created and developed experimental science. As far back as Charlemagne, Florence has had a University, which today includes numerous faculties and a wide range of Institutes with a specialized Centre for foreigners. Academies and arts schools, scientific institutes such as the "Osservatono Astrofisico" at Arcetri, the Institute of Research in Electromagnetic Waves, the Centre for Nuclear Medicine, all contribute to the intense activity of the city in this particular field, so too the foreign universities and the various centres of History of Art and popular culture. Among the many science museums of special interest are the Museum of History of Science, the Museum of Geology and Paleontology, the Museum of Botany, the Museum of Mineralogy, that of Anthropology and Ethnology, and of course the glorious " Specola ". Vast collections of bibliographies are kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and in other famous libraries such as the Mediceo-Laurenziana, the Riccardiana and the Marucelliana. Many priceless documents are kept in the Archivio di Stato and the Archivio Comunale |
