Nightingale's journey

200 years after she was born in Florence, Mark Bostridge follows in Florence Nightingale’s footsteps, from Scutari to Harley Street

- Scutari

No Victorian has had a more decisive impact on our daily lives than Florence Nightingale. From founding the first secular training school for nurses, to pioneering the use of statistical data in health care, to establishing the principle that society has a collective responsibility for the health of all its members – just three of her more important innovations – Nightingale’s influence has been felt worldwide.

On 12th May, the world will celebrate the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Encapsulating her life and work, here are ten key sites that allow us to follow in the footsteps of this great reformer.

Escape from the crowds besieging the city of Florence, take the Porta Romana along the Via Senese, and, as you climb the steep hill, you will quickly come to the Villa La Colombia at a bend in the road. Now a Roman Catholic school run by the Sisters of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, it was the country house selected by William and Fanny Nightingale for the birthplace of their second daughter (the elder one, Parthenope, was born in Naples (originally called Parthenope) the previous year, on the first leg of the Nightingales’ honeymoon tour). A kindly nun will show you the ‘grand salon’, where Florence is said to have been born. Outside, a walk down a tree-lined path will bring you to a stunning, panoramic view overlooking Brunelleschi’s cathedral dome.