I greatly recommend Ada Palmer's "Inventing the Renaissance" if you have a lot of time, mild history literacy, and an interest in the Renaissance even passing. She talks a lot about Nick the practical statesmen who just didn't want to see Florence get repeatedly invaded, conquered, and looted.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo246135916.html
You don't have to like showing shoes to fat ladies, but they have to think you love doing it.