The mayor of Florence has announced that the Tuscan Renaissance city and the neighboring region of Emilia Romagna have joined forces to host the Tour de France Grand Depart for the first time in Italy.

Despite Italy's long tradition of cycling success, with Ottavio Bottecchia, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Gastone Nencini, Felice Gimondi, Marco Pantani, and Vincenzo Nibali winning the Tour de France Despite this, the Tour has never started in Italy, only occasionally crossing the Alps to finish in Italy from France.

Tuscany hosted the 2013 UCI Road World Championships, and Emilia Romagna hosted the 2019 Giro d'Italia Grande Partenza.

"We want to work with Emilia Romagna to host the first stage of the Tour de France near the Apennines," said Florence Mayor Dario Nardella, as part of the "Rinaccia Firenze" regeneration program.

Both Emilia Romagna and Tuscany have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but not as badly as the northern region of Lombardy. The most serious impact is a major loss of international tourism, hence the need to promote the region and its capitals, Florence and Bologna.

"Our desire is to attract major international sporting events to the city; we have already begun working with Emilia Romagna for the 2032 Olympics."

"We have already begun working with the Emilia Romagna region for the 2032 Olympic Games.

"Emilia Romagna has launched its candidacy for the Tour de France Grand Départ in recent weeks. This will be a historic event, as the Tour de France has started in many countries other than France, but never from Italy. By combining the forces of two regions like Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, we have a very strong candidate for the start of the Tour de France in a few years."

The Grand Depart has been launched in London, Yorkshire, Brussels, and Utrecht in recent years, and will be held in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in 2021. The race's organizer, ASO, has openly targeted locations outside of France in order to obtain higher entry fees from candidates.

Stefano Bonaccini, the recently elected president of Emilia Romagna, was scheduled to visit Paris to present his plans for the region before COVID-19 closes.

"In our region of Italy, the grand boucle has never started. Now is the time to put it right," he said in a book about his election campaign. The rescheduled 2020 Tour de France is scheduled to start in Nice on August 29.