At Mod Day Art, every city print begins with a blank canvas and a story we can't wait to tell. Today, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of our Florence city poster, inspired by one of the most breathtaking views in all of Italy: the panorama from Piazzale Michelangelo.
From that scenic overlook, you see Florence in all its glory: the red-tiled roofs, rolling Tuscan hills, and most notably, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, known simply as the Duomo. That's the moment we aimed to capture in this print, part of our collection of vintage city posters and travel prints.
Finding the View
We climbed to Piazzale Michelangelo in the late afternoon, when the light turns gold over the Arno and the whole city seems to glow. It's the postcard view of Florence for a reason: from up there, the Duomo's dome rises above a sea of terracotta rooftops, with the hills of Tuscany fading into the distance behind it. That golden-hour light is what set the palette for the entire print.
From Sketch to Print: Our Illustration Process
Every Mod Day Art city print starts the same way: reference photos from the actual location, a rough digital sketch to map out the composition, and then hours of hand-drawn detail work layered on top. For Florence, that meant carefully rendering the marble facade of the Duomo, the layered rooftops leading up to it, and the soft haze of the hills beyond, all while keeping the clean, modern illustration style that ties every print in the collection together.
We went through several rounds before landing on the warm terracotta and dusty blue palette you see in the final print. It needed to feel like that specific golden hour in Florence, not just "Italy" in general.
The Details That Make It Special
Printed on thick, 270 gsm premium cardstock, our Florence wall art is designed to mix and match with other prints in our iconic city wall art collection. It's a perfect gift for travelers, architecture lovers, or anyone who's fallen under Florence's spell.
Styling Your Florence Print at Home
This print works well as a standalone piece in an entryway or home office, but it really shines as part of a gallery wall alongside other cities you've visited or dream of visiting. Pair it with our Paris or Rome prints for a "grand tour" gallery wall, or group it with prints from your own travel bucket list for a room that tells your story.
City Wall Art vs. Stopover Prints: What's the Difference?
This Florence print belongs to our City Wall Art collection: full-color, painterly illustrations that capture a whole skyline in daylight, styled like a classic travel poster with a bold title treatment.
We also have a second, very different travel series: the Stopover Prints, part of our Stamp My Passport line. Instead of a full skyline in color, each Stopover print zooms in on a single landmark in a limited color palette with a hand-drawn line-art style, often set at a quieter moment (a night sky, a crescent moon) with just a small handwritten-style caption instead of a big title. Every scene is drawn from our own reference photos, and quietly hides a small bird somewhere in it, one for each member of our family, tucked onto a rooftop or drifting across the sky. There are six so far: the Bean in Chicago, Washington Square Park in New York, Pike Place Market in Seattle, Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo, Abbesses Station in Paris, and the Colosseum in Rome.
We haven't drawn a Florence Stopover yet, but if that quieter, more intimate style speaks to you, browse the Stopover collection for more of that same personal, story-driven style.
More Cities to Explore
Florence is just one stop. Explore the rest of our city wall art collection for more hand-drawn travel prints, from Rome to Paris to Tokyo.
🖼️ Shop the Florence City Poster and bring a piece of Italy home.
