Piazzale Michelangelo and the David, the Cascine, Lou Reed and the ladies of the night, this and that side of the Arno, the warm belly of the Marucelliana library and the Orphic Songs of Campana, the Giubbe Rosse and Tondellii café, the Mac Donald a stone’s throw away from the church of Orsanmichele, Footlocker bang in the middle of the historic centre, the Lungarno way under contract to the US Embassy…. Living in Florence is a complicated art: the city challenges its residents to mix the quotidian and the exceptional, day after day.