The Prime Minister is expected to use a visit to the Italian city to outline Britain’s current position on Brexit negotiations with the EU.
But riot police in the Renaissance city are braced for mass protests by an anti-Brexit group calling themselves the New Europeans.
The New Europeans claim to be a Europe-wide organisation championing free movement and EU citizenship rights.
The protest march through the city has been sparked by anger over Theresa May’s “failure to give immediate, comprehensive, unilateral guarantees to EU27 citizens and their families in the UK following last year’s Brexit vote”.
Roger Casale, a former Labour MP who lost his seat in 2005, is the founder and CEO of New Europeans.
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He said: “We ask that the rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons in the EU are respected.
“That means that the EU and the UK should stop negotiating with people’s lives and legislate the guarantees these citizens need right now.
“No government has the right to play with people’s future and treat them as a commodity that can be traded.”
Because of tight security measures the venue for Mrs May’s speech has not been revealed.
But activists have been told the Scuola Maresciallo Carabinieri is the target for the demonstration.
New Europeans say they have informed the authorities that this is a wholly peaceful and silent protest and called for the event to be policed appropriately.
Police in Florence are no strangers to violent protest.
Last year, hundreds of hooded anti-government protesters clashed with baton-wielding riot police in the city before a referendum on a constitutional reform.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi long been a target for politically aware young Italians – but levels of anger towards Theresa May and Brexit are considerable in some quarters.
Despite this the Oxbridge-educated Mr Casale said: “There is nothing for the police to worry about.
“It is we the citizens of Europe that need to be worried. We represent the mainstream but we are caught up in a freak show called Brexit.
“Whatever happens with Brexit, we need all the rights we had previously to be guaranteed for all EU citizens in the UK and British in Europe.
“If these rights are not guaranteed families will be broken, the old, sick and the disabled and their carers will not be adequately protected.
“Not protecting these amounts to the violation of our most basic human rights such as family life, safety, fair treatment and security.”