Florence, Italy

I’ve had a love affair with Firenze, Italy, for more than a decade. It started with my first trip to the city back when I was 17 and hasn’t stopped since.

I’m captivated by the people, the language, the food, and the scooters zipping around or propped up at a cafe; I’m left breathless by the way the sun dances off the rooftops at dusk and makes the entire city look like it’s on fire. I love that it’s a fairly large city with striking architecture and art quite literally around every corner, but instead of these gorgeous pieces being behind glass, they’re there right in front of you begging you to admire them. Simply put, Florence makes me, as my neighbor says, “Molto contento” (very happy).

With so much love for a city it’s ironic that I forgot to charge my camera batteries (yes, both of them for both cameras), before we ventured out for our jaunt around town. Not having a camera turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I could soak in the sights a little bit more. (These were taken either with my iPhone or before my cameras died.)

After spending my teenage years dreaming of returning to Florence with someone I loved by my side, it was nice to actually walk, hand-in-hand, with my husband around the city and not worry about stopping to take a picture every five minutes. It also gives me an excuse to travel back there this summer to take more photos—it’s only four hours away!

Full disclosure: I wasn’t supposed to take the picture above, but I couldn’t help myself. I love this man. I mean seriously love him. Seeing Michelangelo’s David for the first time years ago is what made me
completely fell in love with Florence and spurred my interest Italian Renaissance art. You can see individual veins in his hands and single strands of hair in each curl on his head. It’s
just beautiful; you truly don’t see work like this anymore and to know
that someone chiseled away and carved him out of a single block of marble—by hand—is just
extraordinary. Seriously, even my husband has a slight man-crush on him
now.

Along with visiting a winery, we also had delicious dinner outside the city (we highly recommend eating at Cinque di Vino if you’re visiting Florence and have a car), and a taste of back home for one of our lunches. This trip, while it didn’t go exactly as planned, was wonderful, and I’m already planning and anticipating the next trip to Florence and to see more of Tuscany.