Florence elected its first female mayor, Sara Funaro, soundly defeating her right-wing rivals.
As a local councilor for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), her party retained control of the city with more than 60% of the vote.
Eric Schmidt, the former director of the Uffizi Gallery, received 39% of the vote with the support of Italy’s far-right coalition government.
The vote capped an election cycle in which center-left parties won in five regional capitals.
“I’ve been excited about these months and it’s been exciting to be the mayor of Florence,” Ms. Funaro told reporters as the votes were being counted.
She dedicated her victory to her grandfather Piero Bargellini, a Florentine luminary best known for his leadership during the deadly 1966 floods. He was dubbed the “Mayor of the Flood” after he resumed his work.
“We did well. We are not sad at all,” the German-born Schmidt said of the result.
Ms Funaro’s historic victory was one of a series of gains for Italy’s centre-left coalition led by Democrats.
Votes on Sunday and Monday showed it retained control of the cities of Bergamo in Lombardy and Bari in Puglia.
The coalition also won the Sardinian capital Cagliari and Umbria’s Perugia from Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni’s far-right ruling bloc.
It comes after right-wing forces made significant gains in the European Parliament elections earlier this month.
In Italy, Ms Meloni gave her party 29% of the vote in the 2022 election, while the Democrats beat expectations with 24%.
This round of mayoral elections was held in 14 Italian cities with more than 15,000 residents. No candidate received more than 50% of the votes in the first round, which was held simultaneously with the European Parliament elections.
