A secret passageway runs through the heart of Florence - hidden from the public eye. The so-called Vasari Corridor connects Palazzo Vecchio, the Medici's former center of power, with the Palazzo Pitti, their later residence on the other bank of the Arno. It crosses several streets, runs above the Uffizi, crosses the Ponte Vecchio, opens up in the church of Santa Felicita to a small gallery with a view into the nave - and ends after almost a kilometer in the Palazzo Pitti. Not far away, you'll find the Boboli Gardens with its artistically designed Grotta Grande, hidden in the lush green of Mediterranean citrus trees.

The Medici had the Vasari Corridor - named after their star architect Giorgio Vasari - built as a private highway between their centers of power on the north and south sides of the Arno. The piece was finished in 1565. After years of restoration, the corridor is now open to the public - something the powerful and influential Medici family would certainly not have liked. From the cloth trade to banking transactions and papal politics: the Medici were involved everywhere - and at the very top. Skilfully married into Europe's royal houses, they lived demonstratively isolated from the common people. Her patronage supported artists and still shapes the cityscape of Florence today.

Design between heaven and hell

Recently, there has been a quiet but unmistakable awakening in the air. The city, once cast in marble, is beginning to move - carried by a zeitgeist that doesn't shy away from tradition, but has the courage to change.

Modern design, young thinking and a touch of irony are moving into the stone heart of Tuscany. The Florentine architect Claudio Nardi is a pioneer of this new design approach. Years ago, he transformed an industrial ensemble on the banks of the Arno into one of the city's first design hotels -  "Riva Lofts". Now, he has taken on an old town house - once owned by a Florentine family. The result is an architectural labyrinth of unconventionally designed rooms of different sizes that merge charmingly into one another. Today, the ensemble houses a restaurant, café, bar, bookshop and flower store under one roof - and has become one of the city's most popular meeting places as "La Ménagère". A place that magically draws passers-by into its mysterious interior.

Even beyond the medieval city center, which attracts around eleven million visitors a year, something new is stirring: the once abandoned tobacco factory from the 1930s - an industrial building by Pier Luigi Nervi and an icon of Italian rationalism - has been awakened from its slumber. Spread over 100,000 square meters and 16 buildings, the Manifattura Tabacchi is an urban laboratory of the future: with apartments, an open-air cinema, design stores, bars, studios and spacious exhibition areas. Today, the area is considered one of the most exciting places in the city.

Traditional and cosmopolitan

Florence's kitchens are also turning over a new leaf. Traditional Tuscan dishes such as wild boar ragout, tripe in tomato sauce or the rich ribollita bean soup are still on almost every menu, but you'll also find the classics beginning to flirt with modernity. Some are reinterpreted, others even enter into a liaison with Asian flavors.

At Il Vezzo, for example. Chef Marco, originally a natural scientist, loves to play with local products - and knows how to give them new forms of expression with a delicate hand. Giovanni, a Florentine through and through and a passionate sommelier, accompanies these aromatic excursions with an exciting selection of classics, natural wines and personal discoveries. The result is a culinary work of art that is as much about craftsmanship as it is about attitude.

Even in traditional trattorias, a different wind is now blowing. At Da Garibardi - opposite the Mercato Centrale in the San Lorenzo district - Sabrina Risaliti and her team have adapted to new times. "We now also serve gluten-free dishes - the demand is high," says the warm-hearted hostess, who has been delighting guests with her homemade cuisine since 1989.

Other addresses follow this course, such as TÅG Bistro in the new HZERO museum, which is entirely dedicated to "senza glutine". Original: the kitchen uses steam as a culinary principle - a subtle but clever reference to the theme of the hotel: an imaginative world based around model trains. The rooms themselves, designed by architect Luigi Fragola, make reference to the aesthetics of travel. Trains, landscapes, transitions - all this is reflected in lines, light and atmosphere. The museum itself is a place for young and old and a place of longing for all those who are enthusiastic about detail: One of the most impressive model railway worlds in Europe unfolds over 280 square meters. Once a theater, the building is now a stage for trains, signals and scenes from a parallel universe on a scale of 1:87.

Sensual transformations

Florence would not be Florence if the transformation did not take place quietly and with great style. The Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella, for example - founded by Dominican monks in 1221 and the oldest pharmacy in Europe - has long since become a fragrant icon. In its magnificent historic rooms, the smell of perfumes, ointments and soaps mingles with the aura of past centuries. And although everything here is deeply rooted in history, the product line moves with the times: new recipes, new designs, always on the threshold between tradition and zeitgeist.

Less well known, but no less impressive, is the metamorphosis of the former Odeon movie theater in the Palazzo dello Strozzino, built in 1475. It stood empty for many years - now it's back as a cultural center. During the day a bookshop with over 25,000 international titles, by nightfall the hall is transformed into a movie theater of emotions: plush golden seats, international films in the original language, big screen - a tribute to the magic of cinema, carefully translated into the present.

Much of what is currently taking place behind the time-honored walls of this city still bears the title of insider tip. But one thing is certain: modernity has arrived in Florence.