Deep-dive

Identity: five Quartieri, the Florentine tongue, Saint John

A municipality of 360,000 residents divided into five Quartieri, capital of the Tuscany Region and the Metropolitan City. Florentine is the speech from which Italian descends; patron Saint John the Baptist on 24 June with the Calcio Storico; historic centre a UNESCO site since 1982.

Sections: Geography · History · Population · Languages · Time zone · Public holidays

Administrative structure

The Comune di Firenze is organised in five Quartieri with elected councils and service offices: Q1 Centro Storico, Q2 Campo di Marte, Q3 Gavinana-Galluzzo, Q4 Isolotto-Legnaia, Q5 Rifredi. Florence is the capital of the Tuscany Region and of the Metropolitan City, which replaced the Province in 2015 and plans transport and the tram network with the municipalities of the plain and the belt.

Languages and communities

Florentine is the Tuscan variety from which literary Italian was born with Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio: today it is a recognisable accent (the aspirated "c", its own expressions and jokes) more than a separate dialect, and the Accademia della Crusca, based at Villa di Castello, is its historic institution. English is everywhere in the centre because of tourism and the foreign university programmes. The largest foreign communities are Romanian, Chinese (with the Prato manufacturing district next door), Peruvian, Albanian and Filipino.

Patron saint and institutions

The patron saint is John the Baptist, celebrated on 24 June with the Calcio Storico final in piazza Santa Croce and fireworks from Piazzale Michelangelo; it is a city holiday. Institutions: the Uffizi Galleries (with Palazzo Pitti and Boboli), the Galleria dell'Accademia, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Palazzo Vecchio (city hall), the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the National Central Library, the University, the European University Institute, the Kunsthistorisches Institut, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Polimoda. The historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1982; the Medici villas and gardens, including Boboli, since 2013.

Population

City figurePeriod: Jan 1, 2025Validsample unknown

Source: ISTAT – Popolazione residente: bilancio demografico (dataflow 22_315, DCIS_POPORESBIL1)

361,705people

Foreign residents, share of population

City figurePeriod: Jan 1, 2025Estimatesample unknown

Source: ISTAT – Stranieri residenti al 1° gennaio (dataflow 29_7, DCIS_POPSTRRES1)

15.6 %