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Doral, Florida — This month, my wife and I were invited by our college alma mater to a long weekend of lectures and museum tours in Florence. This Tuscan city, the cradle of the Renaissance more than 500 years ago, offered us a powerful reminder of the cultural foundations of the American republic.
Florence thrived for centuries as an independent republic—a true city-state—whose government alternated between popular rule and commercial oligarchy. An economic powerhouse driven by textiles and the wool trade (managed by the Arte della Lana guild), it also became a major financial center anchored by the Medici banking family. Its gold florin served as a globally accepted currency standard. Notably, Florence had no central bank or fiat paper money.
A native son, Amerigo Vespucci, explored the lands Columbus had reached and was the first to recognize them as a “New World” rather than part of Asia. The Waldseemüller map, printed shortly afterward in the Rhineland, named the continent “America.” Vespucci’s tomb lies in the church of San Salvatore di Ognissanti near the Arno River.
Another Florentine, Niccolò Machiavelli, wrote The Prince, a work that still illuminates politics at every level—from Miami-Dade County to the international stage. The city also produced Michelangelo, Botticelli and Dante Alighieri.
Touring Florence
Our first afternoon took us to the Bargello National Museum, originally built in 1255 as the oldest public building in the city. It served successively as the seat of the Capitano del Popolo (Captain of the People), the Podestà (chief magistrate), and later the Bargello (city police headquarters and jail). Today it houses one of the world’s finest collections of Italian Renaissance sculpture, including:
• Donatello’s David (c. 1440)
• Verrocchio’s David (1474)
• The bust of Niccolò da Uzzano
• Michelangelo’s Bacchus
• Brunelleschi’s and Ghiberti’s competing panels of the Sacrifice of Isaac
• Verrocchio’s Dama con Mazzolino (1475–80)
The following day we explored Piazza della Signoria, site of Savonarola’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” in 1497, where Florentines were urged to burn symbols of worldly excess. The piazza is dominated by the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace), the city hall from 1299 to 1540. Inside are:
• The Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred), where up to 1,000 citizens directly governed during the republic of 1494–1512
• The Grand Staircase, central to the Ciompi Revolt (1378–82) of wool carders
• The Cancelleria, offices once occupied by Leonardo Bruni and Machiavelli
• The chambers of the Signoria (city council) and the Gonfaloniere (standard-bearer, or mayor)
• The Arnolfo Tower, which held cells for prominent prisoners
Like the Roman Republic it emulated, the Florentine Republic prized the separation of powers, term limits and the right of citizens to bear arms—all to safeguard individual liberty.
Contemporary Florence
Yet the decline of Western civilization is visible even here. In February 2020, as COVID-19 took hold in Italy, Florence’s socialist mayor placed a masked Chinese man outside City Hall beside a sign reading, “I am not a virus. I am a human. Free yourself of prejudice,” and encouraged citizens to hug him. This was classic progressive theater: the virus proved far less deadly than initially claimed by public-health authorities, masks offered limited protection, and concerns about its origins in a Wuhan lab were entirely reasonable. The episode revealed more about civilizational cowardice and self-loathing than compassion.
Happily, deeper traditions endure. On Resurrection Sunday, Florentines observed their 500-year-old custom of the Scoppio del Carro—the Explosion of the Cart—setting off fireworks from a ceremonial wagon in front of the Duomo to celebrate Easter.
The headquarters of the Tuscan regional government, based in Florence, flies the flags of Palestine, the European Union, Italy, the Tuscan region and Ukraine. No flags of NATO or Israel.
Florence remains a living museum and a vibrant party town. Streets teem with tourists; bars and restaurants overflow. Churches often function more as paid museums than active places of worship. The food is superb—especially the bistecca alla fiorentina, rivaling any steak in Texas or Argentina—and the Tuscan wines, particularly Chianti and Montepulciano, are delicious.
Milan, the Business Capital
From Florence we traveled north to Milan, the commercial heart of the Italian peninsula since the fourth century. There, Saint Augustine heard the preaching of Bishop Ambrose before his conversion; Ambrose baptized him in the year 387, much to the relief of Augustine’s mother, Monica. Three years later, Ambrose famously compelled Emperor Theodosius—then based in Milan—to perform public penance for the massacre of 7,000 civilians in Thessalonica, Greece, declaring that “the Emperor is in the Church, not above it.” It is no wonder that modern states prefer to keep the church out of the public square.
Milan’s cathedral is a marble-clad masterpiece with a forest of spires begun in 1386, and it anchors the city center at Piazza del Duomo. We visited during Art Week, whose “New Directions” theme included tributes to jazz legends John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Europe often offers more accessible jazz venues than America these days. The Museo del Novecento featured fine 19th-century Italian Impressionist works.
We walked the original Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the grand 19th-century shopping arcade with its soaring glass ceilings that inspired similar structures worldwide (including the one near our former home in Houston). It opens onto the Quadrilatero della Moda, home to fashion houses such as Prada, Pucci and Versace.
In the evening we attended a symphony concert by the Filarmonica della Scala at the world-renowned Teatro alla Scala. Early on, the opera house shared space with an adjoining casino that helped fund its productions—an arrangement that once scandalized Mary Byssche Shelley, author of “Frankenstein.”
On the city’s northwest edge stands San Siro Stadium, home to soccer clubs A.C. Milan (founded in 1899) and Inter Milan (founded 1908 by members of A.C. Milan who wanted to let in more international players). The clubs’ iconic red-and-black and blue-and-black jerseys, respectively, remain symbols of Italian soccer excellence; both currently stand on top of the Serie A Italian soccer league. Inter Miami, incidentally, takes its name from Inter Milan.
Milan feels like a genuinely modern city, with a skyline of high-rises, an extensive streetcar network, and Italy’s largest passenger train station. Fashion remains its flagship industry, but finance and other businesses thrive as well. The city generates roughly 20 percent of Italy’s GDP—a striking figure given the country’s two decades of near-zero economic growth.
Italy today is a zombie nation within a continent of zombie nations. Starting a business is rare, taxes are crushing, regulations suffocating and litigation endless. Creative destruction—the engine of genuine growth—is blocked by statist and collectivist policies. Entrepreneurs languish; the future is no longer made here.
Thanks, Ed, for being our man in Italy, even if briefly. I was in Madrid and Lisbon earlier this year. They were absolutely crawling with Chinese tourists. The same in Florence or Milan?