Whois & Analysis for visitflorence.com

The Italian Renaissance was the earliest manifestation of the general European Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement that began in Italy during the 14th century and lasted until the 16th century, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

The term Renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the 19th century, in the work of historians such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt.

Although the origins of a movement that was confined largely to the literate culture of intellectual endeavor and patronage can be traced to the earlier part of the 14th century, many aspects of Italian culture and society remained largely Medieval; the Renaissance did not come into full swing until the end of the century.

The French word renaissance (Rinascimento in Italian) means "Rebirth", and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labeled the Dark Ages.

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence.

It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, expanding to over 1,520,000 in the metropolitan area.

A city-state is a sovereign state that consists of a city and its dependent territories.

Historically, this included cities such as Rome, Athens, Carthage, and the Italian city-states during the Renaissance—but today only a handful of sovereign city-states exist, with some disagreement as to which are city-states.

A great deal of consensus exists that the term properly applies to Singapore, Monaco, and Vatican City.