March 27, 2026

Florence Is So Beautiful. But Why Does It Also Feel So Hard

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Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it's not necessarily the easiest place to live in full time as a resident either. In this episode, Georgette and Valentina get honest about what the numbers reveal and what they've lived firsthand: soaring rents, disappearing neighbors, artisan shops replaced, and a generation of young Florentines packing their bags.We look at some real data—housing costs, Airbnb saturation, tourist footfall, the wages-vs-rent gap — and then we get personal. What does it feel like to love a city that seems to be pricing out the people who made it worth loving in the first place?But this isn't a rant. We also talk about what's actually working: the communities holding the line, the policy experiments worth watching, and the people who found a way to stay without selling out.If you've ever felt the tension between Florence's beauty and its contradictions — this one's for you