The Medici family rose from the normal merchant class to the top of Florence. The first thing they did to advance was their wool business. This gave them a lot of money and they made “friends”. One of them was the future Pope John. He helped them move up the ranks. Then they created the banking system, which experienced a huge boom. This gave Florence a lot of money and saved merchants or travelers from being shipwrecked or robbed. After that, they had tons of money that they willingly sent for tons of art and architecture. This was very important because it added a lot of value to the city of Florence. It was all great except the dome built over Santa Maria del Fiore. This project completed by Brunelleschi was a project that took several years to complete, but thanks to the Medici family it was completed and raised a lot of money for the city of Florence to do things like additional fundraisers or events to help the city even more. The Medici family helped influence and change the Renaissance and made a great run for power in Florence.