This is a great book to read before going to Florence, where the influence of the Medicis and the artists they supported is still very much in evidence. It's a history of the powerful Florentine family by the entertaining and informative Christopher Hibbert. He evokes the Medici and their reign over Florence in the 1500's, and the political intrigue and violence of those times.  (ITL135, $16.00)

Florence
Renaissance