Cultural events: The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (tel: 800 112 211; website: www.maggiofiorentino.com), which takes place from May to early July each year, forms the crux of Florence’s cultural calendar. The festival has been going for over 60 years and is presided over by its homegrown orchestra and dance company. L’Orchestra del Maggio Musical Fiorentino has achieved international recognition under the watchful eye of conductor Zubin Mehta – famous for his performances with the Three Tenors. Most of the performances are held at the Teatro Comunale (see above), also the central booking point for the festival. Some events are held outdoors in cloisters, piazzas and Boboli Gardens. Tickets for standing room only are available for purchase one hour before the performance begins for €11, while pre-booked tickets start at around €15.50.

Literary Notes
Writers, poets and bored aristocrats have poured into this city, eager to discover its mythical reputation. Romantics like Byron and Shelley were enraptured by the abundance of beauty, sighing almost as much over the picturesque peasants as they did over the architecture. As citizens of Florence, Dante (1265-1321) and Machiavelli (1469-1527) were less dewy-eyed. Dante called it a ‘city of self-made men and fast-got gain’ and consigned most of his contemporaries to hell in his masterwork, the Divine Comedy (1306-1321). Machiavelli, who like Dante was exiled from the city, is best known for his study of devious politics in The Prince (1513), learnt first-hand in the service of the Medici. Boccaccio (1313-75), who wrote the Decameron (1353), added little to the city, except a reputation for bawdy humour. But it was the court painter, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), who really opened the door to life in Renaissance Florence, with his artistic biography, Lives of the Artists (1550).

Henry James’ laconic insight came much later, drawing back the romantic conceit and presenting an altogether darker vision of Italy, in such novels as The Portrait of A Lady (1881). A collection of essays written while travelling in Italy between 1872 and 1909 can be found in his book Italian Hours (1909). E M Forster’s tale of knotted passions in A Room With A View (1908) has also carried Florence onto the silver screen.