Florence

a famous walled city of Central Italy; on both sides of the Arno, 187 miles N. W. of Rome. It stands in a richly wooded, well-cultivated, and beautiful valley, encircled by the A pennines. The Arno intersects it from the communication between the opposite sides of the river being maintained by means of seven bridges. Florence contains a great number of magnificent edifices and squares, generally adorned with statues, columns, or fountains; there are no fewer than 170 churches, 89 convents, 2 royal, and many other palaces, 12 hospitals, and 8 theaters, great and small. | The duomo,’ or cathedral, a vast edffice, coated with marble, about 500 feet in length, and 384 feet in height to the top of the cro , stands in a spacious square. The church of Santa Croce, called the Pantheon of Florence, is interesting from its containing the remains and tombs of four of the greatest men of modern Italy, or indeed of modern times — Michael Angelo, Galileo, Machi a vell i, and Alfieri. — the Pee are the Palazzo Veechio, or Old Palace, inhabited by the Medici when citizens of Florence, which was begun in,l298, and finished in 1550.