Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), was a painter, sculptor, and architect who is recognized one of the first geniuses of the Italian Renaissance. While he continued artistic tradition and painted mostly the traditional religious images, he gave his subjects an earthly, full-blooded life and force that had not been seen before. The 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari says of him "...He made a decisive break with the ...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years." 

Florentine Art
The city of Dante, Giotto, Galileo, Botticelli straddles the River Arno in northern Tuscany. Olive and cypress-clad hills rise up to the south and north, looking like background landscapes that Uccello or Gozzoli might have painted. Florence, both the birthplace and the showplace of the Italian Renaissance, is a priceless art and architecture sanctuary which contains a profusion of glories, from Brunelleschi's great cathedral dome to Botticelli's Primavera and the Birth of Venus at the Uffizi and Michelangelo's David in the Galleria dell'Accademia. 

Florence
Florence, the capital city of the Tuscan region and birthplace of the Renaissance, is located on the banks of the river Arno. It is a lovely mid-sized city known for its stunning architecture, intriguing history, beautiful scenery, and superb cuisine and wine. Since the Middle Ages, Florence has been a dominant historic and cultural area, but its people remain humble and genuine. Though it has contributed greatly to the artistic development of Europe, the city retains a small-town, pleasant atmosphere. Regarded as one...