Florence, Italy
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 382,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1,520,000 in the metropolitan area. Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 89th most visited in 2012, with 1.8 million visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Florence is an important city in Italian fashion, being ranked in the top 51 fashion capitals of the world; furthermore, it is a major national economic centre, as well as a tourist and industrial hub. In 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence lies in a basin formed by the hills of Careggi, Fiesole, Settignano, Arcetri, Poggio Imperiale and Bellosguardo (Florence). The Arno river and three other minor rivers flow through it. More information is available on Wikipedia
Our tour today stops over the city of Florence, in the Tuscany Region of central Italy. It is the capital of Florence Province, and situated on the River Arno. Located at the foot of the Apennines, Florence was originally the site of an Etruscan settlement. The city is world famous for its Gothic and Renaissance buildings, art galleries, and museums. In addition, it is an important commercial, transport, and manufacturing centre. Florence is a market for wine, olive oil, vegetables, fruit, and flowers, and it lies on the railway and main road linking northern Italy and Rome. Manufactured goods include motorcycles, vehicle parts, agricultural machinery, chemicals, furniture, fertilizers, plastics, rubber goods, and precision instruments. Florentine craft industries are world famous, producing silverwork, jewellery (especially gold and cameos), leather goods, glass, pottery, woodcarvings, art reproductions, and embroidery. In these Landsat 5 and 8 satellite images, acquired with a time window (before/after) of twenty-eight years, we aim to show the large urban development that the city has experienced from 1987 until today. In the comparison, we can see the urban development around the suburbs of the city, specially in the north west zone. Another aim of these images is to promote the opportunity to download Landsat data through the ESA portals, where images captured every day are made available in near real time to the users and the scientific community. Landsat full resolution data products are freely available for immediate download at:  View Landsat 5 TM high resolution image (JPG 1 MB) View Landsat 8 OLI high resolution image (JPG 1.2 MB)
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