Hello Florence, good to see you!

"To see the sun sink down, drowned on his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of colour that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature." -** Mark Twain**

What a lovely way to sum up the city of Florence, Italy. Thanks Mr. Twain, much appreciated.

I love Florence, the tone and mood of the place. Of course it's beautiful and that helps also. It's vibrant yet cultured, in my opinion. The capital of the region, Tuscany, it's full of Renaissance art and architecture, highly prized and priceless masterpieces; Michelangelo's David sculpture located at the Galleria dell'Accedemia, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus in the The Uffizi Gallery and and also da Vinci’s Annunciation of course...Just a few of many amazing works. Let's not forget One of Florence's most iconic sights, the Duomo. This cathedral, with a terracotta-tiled dome was engineered by Brunelleschi. Everywhere one turns in Florence there's something beautiful, old and amazing. Speaking of beautiful, how about that blonde...

I've been to Florence a few times now and have enjoyed something different about this lovely city each time. We always meet up with a friend who lives there, a lovely lady by the name of Laura. She's a Professor of Art History. She does some part time private-guiding for a friend of hers, which is how we met, and after several visits we are now friends. We get to skip lines and get into places the average tourist would never know about, let alone see. Once such was this artisans' workshop below.

Florentine mosaics are pictures that are done with stone. Each intricate part of the whole is precisely hand cut with what looks like a bow-saw and carefully fitted into the artwork. It is amazing and we had a fascinating hour watching the man work. Believe it or not the picture on the left is made entirely out of different coloured stone, perfectly cut and fitted. Sort of like a jigsaw. Truly amazing and incredibly expensive to buy. They make all sorts of things with their work being bought by only the world's richest people. They cost incredible amounts of money.

.

After a little sightseeing it's time for a quick bite and an espresso...Always time for an espresso to be honest. We found a little place that allegedly made the best pizza in Florence. We went back three times so I would have to say that the pizza was pretty good! Best in Florence? Hmm, I haven't tried them all...Still working on that and I'll let you know when I know.

The pizza shop had one of the biggest displays of pizza I'd ever seen, and I'm a pizza guy so that saying something! I love Italian pizza. The flavours are so strong through the use of great quality toppings and products. I like how they don't overload the pizza either. Here in Australia it seems many pizza-makers go for the American style pizza with loads of cheese and toppings...I prefer the Italian style by a long way.

Here's an image of a piece we bought. To be honest it wasn't that nice but we had never seen it before, anywhere so had to try it. It's a french fry pizza! We shared this one piece and ticked that off the bucket list...Although it wasn't actually on the list until we saw it in the shop. The other ones we got were awesome though!

So, pizza eaten and coffee sipped, we headed back out into the city streets to make our way to The Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens. We visit both places every time we go to Florence, the gardens because the blonde one loves gardens and gardening, and we both love the history around Florence. The Palazzo Pitti was the main residence for the Medici Family. It's full of interesting things to see. Usually there's street artists parked out the front painting and selling their work. We bought a couple of pieces which we shipped back home. I'll take some photos of them someday to show you. We spoke with the artist at length and learned a little about her life, her story. She had the most alluring Italian accent when speaking english. It was funny, she said she loved my accent (Aussie) and I said I loved hers!

If you have been to Florence you've been to the Ponte Vecchio. I mean how could a person visit Florence and not walk across the Arno on this iconic bridge? This is it in the back ground...There's that blonde again too.

It's suspected that during Roman times a bridge was initially built there and over the years it became what we see now after being destroyed in a flood a couple of times. It has many shops on the top, jewelers, art dealers and souvenir shops these days, but butchers initially apparently. These days it's crowded with tourists to the evening time but we had a chance to walk over in the late evening after an amazing meal near The Palazzo Pitti one night. It was a bit eerie, but also lovely. I cast myself back 550 hundred years to imagine what it may have been like crossing that bridge one October evening...Maybe as I strolled on by Michelangelo would have been there going the other way, on his way home, or to a wine bar.

Oh there's that blonde again. I think she likes me or something. :) We always walk a lot when we go to Florence, most places really as it's the best way to get local and to truly understand the essence of a place. There's just something special about heading into a small local market, grabbing some supplies for an impromptu picnic somewhere, a bench people-watching in Piazza della Signoria for instance or maybe Piazza Santa Croce which is where this image was taken. It's simplicity in it's most pure form I think...Cold cuts, cheese, olives, crusty bread and a coffee to finish off or maybe granita if it's warm enough. Just a spectacular way to relax in my opinion.

Like all good things visits to Florence must come to an end, but we always like to think of it as the time to start planning our next visit rather than lamenting the end of the trip.

We have started ranging out to other parts of Tuscany lately. Sienna, Volterra and San Gimignano among others and have found some amazing little spots to sight-see, eat and learn. I'll tell you about the cheese maker we met, didn't speak a word of english but was so proud of his produce and dairy...We bought a pile of it...But that's a story for another time...And then there's the monastery we visited...No tourists allowed...Laura got us in though. Amazing...

And so, finally, an image of San Gimignano in the Province of Siena. It's a lovely little place and was the last place we went before leaving the region. It wasn't sad at all though, instead it was exciting to think about this place and all the other little spots we have yet to discover the next time we spend a couple of weeks in Tuscany.

Travelling has been my friend...Travel, and the blonde one that kept following me everywhere! Hmm, actually I'm glad she did because I'd be pretty-much lost without her; My wife and fellow world-traveller. I have no idea why she tolerates me but she does which I think is a good thing. We enjoy the same things and when it comes to travel pretty much have the time of our lives.

I hope you have enjoyed this small piece on Florence. Thanks for making it all the way down here, if in fact you did.

Grazie mille.