Saying Goodbye to Florence

Here I will post an album of the remaining photos from Florence. There are a few other churches and things that I did not post exclusively on, but I did take pictures of them. Our trip was centered around our time in Florence and we took each day with leisure and appreciation and there was no rush to see sites or queue for tickets.


yet another picture of the Ponte Vecchio at night.


Fruit Stand.

This trip to Florence was incredible. I was able to spend time with my mother and take the proper amount of time to really enjoy my favorite city in Italy. Florence feels like a sort of adoptive home each time I travel here. It's comfortable, enveloping and easy going. I find that the people are so generous and warm, that life is celebrated and loved ones are cherished here. Florence is a place where I feel absolutely safe and I understand it as if it was somewhere I have lived. And though that is not true in the conventional sense, I do feel like I truly have lived here and at the very least I have learned how to live. A city of faith, of art, of rich culture and tradition, of pride and family could only bring joy, peace and knowledge to one's life.



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Carousel in the Piazza della Repubblica.


On an early morning run. There is no one near the Duomo at 7:00 AM. It's lovely.

As always I will share some photos on here with captions, but I encourage you to click on the photobucket link and see the others. It's just so beautiful. There are also photos of Santa Croce, San Marco, Santissima Annunziata and of course, the river Arno.


A running start in Santa Maria Novella. My mom wanted to join the race...


Lily of Florence on the facade of Orsanmichele.


Ristorante in the Piazza della Signoria.


There will be a few videos, but they will not upload so I will have to link them. One of which has the slides in the Piazza Signoria. If you go to the end you can hear the applause at the end of the show. A British musician was playing piano during the presentation. I like the final slide that says "Grazie" because everyone cheered in thanks!

Here is a link to the anniversary slideshow video:
SignoriaSides


Police on the Ponte Vecchio doing absolutely nothing.


The "secret" Medici corridor. Here, the photo shows it's connection from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Uffizi Gallery, which were offices at the time. "Uffizi" means offices.


This is actually in Pisa, but these men were members of a football team. There were about 20 of them walking around where I was. I stupidly left my watch in the grass near the tower and I had to turn around and run back to get it as I realized this 40 minutes after the fact. A few of them ran part of the way back with me (much to my delight). It was humorous and they spoke some English so we chatted after I retrieved my watch (thankfully it was still there).

This is a long one and I did it very quickly. Enjoy the photos!

Here is the link to the remaining photos.

Kisses,
Brooke