Amerigo Vespucci
Vespucci was the one person for whom North and South America was named after. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy in March of 1451, and grew up in a considerable mansion near the river. His dream as a young boy was to travel and get a better picture about what the Earth looked like.

Antonio Meucci
Antonio Meucci was born in San Frediano, near Florence, in April 1808. He studied design and mechanical engineering at Florence's Academy of Fine Arts and invented the telephone in 1849 and filed his first patent caveat (notice of intention to take out a patent) in 1871.

Beato Angelico
He first started painting in 1417 and shortly afterwards entered the Convent of San Domenico at Fiesole, eventually becoming its Prior. His first known works include some illuminated manuscripts and the Triptych of San Domenico (Museum of St. Mark), which still denotes Gothic trends as well as the clear influence of Lorenzo Monaco and Gentile da Fabriano.

Benvenuto Cellini
He was one of the enigmatic, larger-than-life figures of the Italian Renaissance: a celebrated sculptor, goldsmith, author and soldier, but also a hooligan and even avenging killer.

Bernardo Buontalenti
Architect, sculptor, painter, miniaturist and military engineer, Buontalenti was one of the protagonist of the revival of Tuscan architecture in the 16th century.

Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini)
Carlo Collodi was born Carlo Lorenzini in Florence as the son of Domenico Lorenzini, a cook, and Angela Orzali, a servant. Collodi was the first of ten children. Italian author and journalist, best-known as the creator of Pinocchio, the wooden boy puppet who came to life.

Caterina de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici was born to the Medici family of Florence in 1519. She was an Italian woman who eventually became Queen of France.

Cimabue
Florentine painter. His nickname means 'Ox-head'. He was a contemporary of Dante, who refers to him in The Divine Comedy (Purg. xi. 94-6) as an artist who was 'believed to hold the field in painting' only to be eclipsed by Giotto's fame.

Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini is one of the most popular, praised, and translated Italian writers in Europe and the U.S.A. A protagonist in the Italian literary scene since the 60's, Maraini has enriched it with novels, plays, poems and essays.

Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, better known as Dante, (c. June 1, 1265 – September 13/14, 1321) was an Italian Florentine poet. His greatest work, la Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), is considered the greatest literary statement produced in Europe during the Middle Ages, and the basis of the modern Italian language.

Della Robbia
Luca della Robbia (1400-1482) was a Florentine sculptor noted for his terracotta roundels. Della Robbia developed a pottery glaze that made his creations more durable in the outdoors and thus suitable for use on the exterior of buildings. His work is noted for its charm rather than the drama of the work of some of his contempories.

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Ghirlandaio (also spelled Ghirlandaio, original name Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi) was an early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school noted for his detailed narrative frescoes, which include many portraits of leading citizens in contemporary dress.

Donatello
Sculptor of Florence . (1383-1466). Donato, who was always called Donatello by his friends and relatives, was born in Florence in the year 1383, and produced many works.

Emilio Pucci
The descendent of a noble Florentine family, the Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento served as a decorated Italian Air Force career pilot for 14 years. Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento, a debonair Italian aristocrat, was well known for his rich colors, supple fabrics, and dramatic prints and his couture collection was worn by some of the most celebrated women of the times.

Filippo Brunelleschi
Brunelleschi trained as a goldsmith and sculptor in a workshop in Florence, beginning his apprenticeship in 1392. An important influence on him at this time was Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli who was a merchant and medical doctor.

Filippo Lippi
FRA FILIPPO DI TOMMASO LIPPI, the Carmelite, who was born in Florence in a side street called Ardiglione, under the Canto alla Cuculia, behind the convent of the Carmelite friars, was left at the age of two in great poverty by the death of his father Tommaso, and with no one to care for him, as his mother had died shortly after his birth.

Florence Nightingale
She was born in Florence on 12 May 1820 of upper-class English parents travelling through Italy, and named for her native city.

Francesco Guicciardini
Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540) embodies the technical intellectual or rather the intellectual who makes his specific powers available to the ruling body. He was a skilled politician and rendered his services to the Florentine Republic of the Medici and popes

Franco Zeffirelli
Born in Florence on February 12, 1923, Zeffirelli began his career as an actor before becoming assistant director to Luchino Visconti. In 1945 he began a successful career as a costume designer for operas and stage plays. In the 1950s he became a director, staging operas and plays in Milan, New York, London and other major centers.

Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 - 1337). Florentine painter and architect. Outstanding as a painter, sculptor, and architect, Giotto was recognized as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance.

Giovanni Boccaccio
The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313. Reports vary as to where he was born, but all agree that as a young child, he lived in Florence, Italy, and was later sent to Naples to study business.

Guccio Guccibr>Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) was the son of a Florentine leather craftsman. As a young man, he went to Paris and then London, where he gained an appreciation of cosmopolitan culture, sophistication, and aesthetics. He returned to Italy in 1920 and opened the first Gucci shop in Florence with a capital of only 30.000 lira.

Indro Montanelli
Indro Montanelli was born in Fucecchio near Florence on 22 April 1909 and died in Milan on 22 July 2001. He was the most outstanding Italian journalist of the last century and one of Italy's most lucid historical commentators and fiercest social critics.

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. Leonardo's mastery in art, science and engineering have earned him a place among the most prolific geniuses of history. He was one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance, a period when the arts and sciences flourished.

Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de Medici was born on January 1, 1449 in Florence, Italy. "Lorenzo The Magnificent," as he was called by the people of Florence, was a statesman, ruler, and patron of the arts.

Luigi Cherubini
Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence (September 14, 1760 – March 15, 1842). He was an Italian composer. Although his music is not well known today, it was greatly admired by many of his contemporaries. Beethoven considered him to be the greatest dramatic composer of his time.

Niccolò Machiavelli
(3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527)
Florentine political philosopher, musician, poet, and romantic comedic playwright. Machiavelli was also a key figure in realist political theory, crucial to European statecraft Renaissance and early Protestant Reformation, which shaped the behavior of nations to one another up through World War II.

Oriana Fallaci
Fallaci was born June 29, 1930 in Florence, Italy and lived through the Resistance in Italy. Known mainly for her uncompromising style and focused insight, Fallaci has interviewed many world leaders and celebrities; reaching depths that few journalists venture to explore.

Pico della Mirandola
1463–94, Italian philosopher and humanist. To many in the age of the Renaissance, Pico was the ideal man, whose physical beauty reflected his inner harmony.

Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence the 15 November 1940. He was raised in modest surroundings but with strong artistic traditions.