Central Connecticut State University journalism students spent spring semester studying the impact of mass tourism on Florence, which hosts millions of tourists each year. Twenty students and faculty joined the crowds for 10 days in May to report on the impact tourism is having on one of the world’s most visited cities. Come back and visit as we update the page with articles, videos and photography.
We didn’t have to look far to find the perfect spot for our anchors to record intros. We stayed in a hotel, Le Due Fontane, a former palazzo in one of Florence’s most historic piazzas, Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, where they worked in 90-degree heat. The sacrifice was worth it. With the Duomo of the Florence Cathedral rising in view, the piazza, were it not named for the basilica there, could be thought of as Brunelleschi’s square. Filippo Brunelleschi, the master Renaissance architect, who, in 1420, beat out competition from around Europe to take on the engineering feat of designing what at the time was the world’s largest dome, built much of this nearby piazza as well. He designed Ospedale degli Innocenti, one of the world’s first hospitals for orphaned infants. Brunelleschi advanced the concept of linear perspective for the flat, symmetrical design of the hospital. Others building around the piazza in the 15th and 16th century adopted Brunelleschi’s design. Although some facades on the piazza have been updated, many buildings and the awe-inspiring view of the Duomo, have been standing for more than 500 years. The Editors