If you know where a city is, you know why it exists. If you know why a city exists, you can imagine who wanted to live there. And if you understand what kind of people lived in that city, you will find a straight line to how it looks, how it was decorated, what was valued.  

Florence is in a spot that provides protection, via robust hills and rivers, including the Arno; tradesmen and scholars and religious men wanted to live there, and later bankers, artists, and their patrons. The look of Florence springs from solid, handsome buildings of perfect proportions and, always, utility. There is nothing silly in Florence, and that’s why it has lasted.