# A Florence is a city with multiple world-class scenes There are many cities with single world-class scenes - Montreal for Deep learning, Honolulu for Surfing, etc. We could call these Scene cities. But it’s the *convergence* and *intersection* of scenes that makes for a Florence. The feeling of a Florence is one where Leonardo Da Vinci rubs shoulders with Machiavelli. Where Howard Hughes rubs shoulder with Humphrey Bogart. Remember, [[A scene is world-class if people who want to do new ambitious things in a discipline try to join it from around the world]] This is a useful criteria because it suggests two things: 1. An algorithm for whether a place what a Florence in the past (for example, it made me realize that 1930’s LA was probably a Florence) 2. A necessary condition for creating a Florence - you need to start with at least one scene. <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/A+Florence+is+a+city+with+multiple+world-class+scenes) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/A+Florence+is+a+city+with+multiple+world-class+scenes)