bizarre things about Florence from a foreign perspective: If you ever need directions, finding a Florentine who can help you is like a game of Where’s Wally.

In other words, there really aren’t very many Florentines living in the centre at all. Arguably the epicentre of tourism in Italy, now that I have witnessed the busy piazzas and city streets of the centro storico, it is no surprise that the majority of Florentines have sought calmer living in the peripheries. I learnt from some Florentine students that many of them never venture into town from their university campus in Novoli, northwest Florence, during the week. One of them even boasted to having never seen the inside of the Duomo.