General Info.

Florence, in the region of Tuscany, is the main city after which the province is named. It rises on the banks of the Arno between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian seas almost in the middle of the Italian peninsula. The city has a population of about half a million inhabitants. The climate is temperate but rather variable, with humid and breezy winters characterized by periods of intense cold, and hot and muggy summers. Florence's economy is based on tourism, industry (textiles and clothes, metalwork, optics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, glass and ceramics) and on Florentine handicrafts (embroidery, jewelry, products made from straw).